Systems (4) — Teaching + Programs
Print studios as spaces (and networks) for education + happenings.
This is the fourth of a series of posts exploring systems in community print spaces. The rest (as they are posted) can be found here: (Systems from) Presses Kept Running.
This section is going to be a quick listing of some of the kinds of classes + programs I’ve seen in different spaces, and a few notes on how teaching/scheduling/materials are handled.
CLASSES + WORKSHOPS
I’ve already described the two introduction classes people run (creative vs. functional) in Systems (1) — Access to Equipment; generally these are 2–4 hour sessions and have the cost of limited printing built into them. Rough agenda of these classes. Here’s what those tend to include:
Share out of riso-printed things, talk about colors and papers and why people use risos.
A little presentation on how a riso works (sometimes with some history, the teacher’s own work, etc. etc.).
Demo printing (changing drum, loading paper, etc.), sometimes with two colors overprinted.
People make things (if it’s a “creative” intro), directed around some sort of basic project (magic zine, group collage, poetry comic, etc.).
When folks finish (generally staggered) they print one-on-one with the instructor.
The session finishes off with a print trade of the stuff everyone made.
Since image processing is one of the hefty parts of riso printing, some workshops focus on digital printing + separations. Often these start with a tool like Spectrolite, but then may also get into messing with channels in Photoshop. A lot of this gets into ink selection, dithering and halftones. Usually the project is one 3+ color print.
There are also workshops that are more project-specific, where the students are making something that follows directly the special thing that their instructor makes in their own practice. Some examples of this include: Zine Hug’s riso animation class, Paper Press Punch’s mask making class for kids, and a printing ceramics class that Secret Room is working on. In these, the riso is often secondary to the making of the thing-to-be-printed.
In longer form, in-depth process lectures are intensives from different experts on their methods or workflow—the one nearest to my mind is the *CMYKinda class that Travis Shaffer runs—a multi-session deep-dive on different aspects of the photo printing process he uses for theretherenow and other publications; I’ve heard of Matt Davis and others running similar things. These are usually ways for practicing printers to hone their craft, and involve no direct printing or projects.
A much smaller version of this are the mini technique classes, which focus on one small aspect of printing. These are things like the Procreate printing process ones that Justin Quinlan runs out of Paper Press Punch or the repair workshops I run.
They are pretty rare, but a few places (notably the IPRC) offer full semester programs. These are structured more or less like a college course (but outside of the academic institution), and involve taking a cohort of students through the long process of developing a publication or small press portfolio. This might involve guest instructors, field trips, etc., and then a book launch at the end. Often the riso doesn’t show up until the end of the process, or is only one of multiple printing methods.
And then a small side-note on how teachers are compensated, how tuition works, and how materials are paid for.
For printshops paying instructors—there are lots of different patterns but common ones include:
A fixed hourly rate that is applied to the “contact hours” (AKA time in class) and a certain amount of pre-determined prep-time for the class. Usually this is the same across the board, but sometimes it is negotiated by the instructor. Often this is simplified to a flat-rate payment for the class based on the estimated hours. This model is the simplest and is commonly used on classes that are run regularly, sometimes with different teachers.
A percentage of the income from the class (generally 50% at minimum)—this works when a base sign-up rate is sort of guaranteed, but falls apart if classes are very under-attended (teachers will be underpaid). Sometimes the cost of materials is removed before the percentage kicks in (AKA just a percentage of the profits is used).
A rental model—where the instructor pays for time and materials in the space but keeps all profits from tuition.
And lastly any sort of mixture of the above. One that I’ve heard of a few places and liked is a percentage after meeting a basic income. So the teacher is paid a fixed fee (maybe from the hourly) and then receives a percentage of the profits after that. This ensures they are paid (even for small classes) and pays more for more popular classes.
For tuition, there is always the balance between making classes financially accessible and being able to afford to run them.
Often there will be a fixed tuition, calculated to be able to pay all expenses if the class only fills up halfway. This is implemented through one of the standard ticketing systems.
Sometimes this is made more affordable with a sliding scale model or reserving tickets for low-income or otherwise under-resourced/dis-enfranchised artists.
It’s rarer, because there’s more uncertainty, but sometimes the cost of tuition is proportional—it changes based on the number of people taking the class. In this case the class has a fixed cost and it’s distributed amongst the students. Though it’s not described as such, this is essentially that pattern used when booking private classes for people/groups (usually with a max number of students allowed).
And then the ideal is of course free tuition, in which case funding for a class either comes from elsewhere in the printshop (fundraising, budgeting from other income etc.) or is supported by a grant or the like.
As far as materials go, usually they are a much smaller expense so often get folded into something else.
The simplest model is just to fold them into tuition and fold them into income—in this case they are not calculated or charged to anyone—the studio trusts that whatever they made from the class is enough to cover the cost of materials.
Usually there are simple limitations on how many materials students use—these act more as guidelines than anything else (in part because it’s hard to really track individual usage from individuals in the chaos of a class). These will be things like “we’re each making 30 copies of a 2-color print” (those specs can then be used to estimate materials costs so that they can be included in the cost of tuition).
Sometimes this is more strict, or materials are explicitly not included in tuition. I’ve only really seen this in longer format classes where the scale of the projects everyone is printing is expected to be very different. And even then, usually some portion of in-class printing is still folded into costs.
PROGRAMS + PROJECTS
Next (leaning outside of strictly educational material) here are some of the many sorts of programs that spaces are running:
The classic residency model exists in a couple spots, although usually it is mostly about dedicated printing time and some consultation/support from the printers in the space (the notable exception being the Directangle residency, which includes up to two weeks of housing in a riso studio in New Hampshire). Sometimes an ongoing publication series is attached to a residency, with each issue featuring (or created by) the current resident.
One of my favorites here is SF Center for the Book’s “Small Plates” project, where they invite different artists each year to produce 50–100 copies of an open-format book, with the only limitation that each must have a trim size of 4″×4″ and have a cover price of $44.
As far as events go, lots of community print places host their own micro-fairs, or help organize a larger city or regional fair or Wayzgoose (which are usually paired with demos or tours from some of the presses in the area).
And then the bread-and-butter events in printshops are readings + releases, featuring different artists, new publications, and usually selling copies of the work represented.
Many studios also run additional public-facing services out of them, like libraries, or bookstores/pop-up shops/markets, or event + venue space.
The iconic one here for me is Outlet PDX whose single space serves as all of these, and as the design studio of Kate + Leland. I am frequently referencing it when talking to others about how printshops can be multi-purpose spaces and make the most out of their working, storage, and display surfaces.
The printshop aspect also doesn’t have to be the principle thing—both Wendy’s Subway (in Brooklyn) and Heavy Manners (in LA) are first and foremost libraries—the printing and sales aspects are secondary, and the risos in each support workshops, ephemera, and as a general community resource.
And lastly, publications themselves frequently constitute programming—particularly ones that are collaborative or created from collective labor:
The subscription periodical is found lots of places, though it takes on many forms.
Taxonomy Press’s Floral Observer follows a classic newspaper/journal format, based on submissions and commissioned material.
The quarterly Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts series collects and reprints works from many artists and distributes them amongst members and subscribers (following a similar practice in printmaking groups of a “print exchange,” where a few times a year members need to print a small project in a run large enough that each other member can receive a copy—these are collated and shipped out monthly). The “Urgent Publishing” project by Queer Archive Work followed a similar structure
Risotto’s Riso Club Membership sends out a monthly set of postcards—each month features artists from a different city and a different color palette.
A closely related model is the one-of-everything plan, where people pay a large flat rate at the beginning of the year and in return receive one copy of everything the studio prints that year.
Genderfail did a version of this recently, where their entire catalogue was available for purchase as a bundle—to fulfill the sliding scale range they do for all their publications they had a limited number of bundles available for different discounts.
Then to round out the set with another annual project, the anthology calendar is a standard way of featuring multiple artists in a collective—each month tends to feature a different artist and use a different color palette.
Many places make one of these, recent favorites include Moniker Press’s calendar of drawing jam pages (each *day* has a different artist who drew a tiny thumbnail), and the Floss Editions calendar, where each month’s artist also designed the layout of the “calendar” portion of the spread.
I’ll probably add some more to the above list in future edits, as I wrote this with less reference to my notes than some of the others, but for now it will suffice. Next up is the final entry, “Collaboration between Spaces,” on just a few of the patterns of mutual support and resource sharing I’ve seen between all our various small press entities.
Wow this is incredible! Thanks for all the links
Also you made OUR DAY with your kind words! Leland is sitting across from me and we are both beaming.