outreach courses

We have run workshops for schools, colleges, and community groups for many years. However at present we are pulling back on how much we can do outside of our core activities. We are victims of our own success in many ways. We have over 300 members who use the facilities. Alongside this we now have over 100 students on our yearlong courses run across 4 morning and 3 evening sessions run around 40 weekend and evening courses in the year. We have found that we are just too busy to offer outreach workshops as well at present. We like to do things well so have made the decision to focus on trying to expand the workshop facilities so that in future we will be able to welcome in more groups, run more workshops and training sessions and show printmaking to as many people as possible in a state of the art facility. Do at present, no outreach, whilst we try to achieve greatness.

Screenprinting - think 'Banksy' This is a creative screen-printing course. From mixing your water-based inks and printing using simple paper stencils you will go on to layer and create a multi layered design.

£35 per student (min 12, max 16 participants)

Screenprinting (photographic) workshop - think "Andy Warhol",

We will show you how to coat and expose a photographic image onto screen and then to register and print your final key colour bringing the image together.

£35 per student (min 12, max 16 participants)

Relief printing workshop (What a Relief) “ Think "German expressionists"

We will show you how to design your block and cut precisely. You will be shown how to ink your lino consistently and print your block with barens, allowing you to print at home and develop your practice. You will come away with a handful of prints and your own cut lino block to carry on editioning at home.

£30 per student (min 12, max 16 participants)

Creative Collagraph workshop - Transform simple mount-card into printing plates that can hold texture, tone, line and expressive marks. We will show you how to cut fine details and intricate designs from the card, as well as how to add different tones with carborundum, sandpaper, and various tapes. Sealing the plate with varnishes can also be a creative tool and add an expressive finish to the plates.

£30 per student (min 12, max 16 participants)

Copper Sulphate Etching workshop - Copper sulphate is quick and effective on aluminium and unlike nitric acid there is no need for an extraction cabinet. It is suitable for etching safely at school/college. You will be instructed on how to mix your own copper sulphate recipe and experiment with different ways of mark-making using hard ground and soft ground and various resists.

£30 per student (min 12, max 16 participants)

Monoprinting workshop - Spend an enthralling and messy day taking your drawings, sketchbooks, photographs and found material in a new direction. You will be taught to work with different materials to add to your mark-making through trace and free-hand drawn monoprinting, adding colour, overprinting and juxtaposing lines and marks then develop a wide range of painterly marks working directly onto a perspex plate and printing through our etching presses. These one-off prints are full of vitality and expression.

£30 per student (min 12, max 16 participants)

Drypoint workshop - Bring new life and a fresh vocabulary to your drawing and sketching, you will be shown how to scratch into plates in a raw and dynamic manner creating a range of marks, which can be inked, wiped and printed in different ways to create vibrant and stunning prints. Go on to experiment with electric Dremels and sandpaper. This course marries up the best of both worlds of drawing and printmaking and is ideal for beginners.

£30 per student (min 12, max 16 participants)

We hope that you find something that interests you and your students, and look forward to working with you.

We have over 30 years of experience in running a hugely successful and popular education programme of courses & workshops, both in-house and as outreach at schools, colleges, galleries and community venues.

Here are just some of the organisations and schools we have had the pleasure to work with:

The Guardian
The Premier League
Manchester International Festival
Venture Arts
We Invented The Weekend
MUBI Film Festival
Lime Arts
Middlewood Locks Fest
The National Trust
Manchester Metropolitan University
Warrington Museum and Art Gallery
Victoria Baths
Lady lever Art Gallery
The University of Sheffield
The University of Manchester
Encounters schools project

Local schools including primary and secondary and colleges/sixth forms

Huddersfield College
Cardinal Newman College
Patricroft School
Loreto College
Bolton College
Ellesmere Park High School
Salford City Academy
Helsby High
Manchester Art Teachers' Collective

What size of group do you usually take if we bring a group to Hot Bed Press?

This all depends on what we are teaching and timing of the workshop. It is always best to run workshops with small groups for processes such as screenprint as we want students to have a hands-on experience, so maximum 8 students with one student per bed, or 16 with 2 sharing. For drypoint and collagraphs we can teach up to 16 students. But best to discuss details first with education@hotbedpress.org

Do you come out to Schools and Colleges

Yes we do! send us an email to let us know what you would like us to deliver to education@hotbedpress.org

Can you create a bespoke workshop?

We can create bespoke workshops, we have recently created workshops for groups of friends, work colleagues and promotional events, just ask education@hotbedpress.org

We welcome new members all year round. Anyone can join. You need a little bit of experience; but that can be from doing one of our weekend or evening courses, after which you can carry on and practice what you've learnt on the course. We've got a few types of membership to suit your purse or your time. Just g to our Membership section for more details.