Culture Fund Case Study 2025-2026: Soulisquoy Printmakers

The funding supported the costs of creating a short residency at Soulisquoy Printmakers for master printmaker Mike Waight to visit Orkney and provide his expertise and knowledge of photo-etching techniques and to modifying our current etching facility to accommodate photo-etching and to deliver a series of workshops and masterclasses for both beginners and those with some etching experience.

The short residency allowed Mike to deliver a number of workshops as follows:

A)   A two-day masterclass for printmakers with some experience, with participants benefiting from the opportunity to develop their existing skills.

B)   A two-day class for wider community to introduce printmaking skills and the facilities available at our studio for on-going practice of newly acquired skills.

C)   A one-day masterclass for our Young Associates programme, to again introduce new skills for the next generation of printmakers.

D)  A series of one-to one sessions were provided for participants to follow up on the workshops

In addition to the workshops, Mike worked with us to establish the photo-etch set up within the studio.

Mike’s residency has not only provided a rare opportunity for those new to printmaking, but has built up the pool of experience within our members and their capacity to then impart those skills to others through our regular workshop and evening class and outreach programmes. We have been able to now offer the facilities for photo-etch which was the one area that we had, to date, not been able to provide since we move to our current location.

While the main aim of the project was to provide a greater pool of expertise within the organisation, there was additional interest within the wider local community and this will have longer term benefits to local artists and printmakers, through the provision of new skills and facilities.