Printfest in Schools

Learning about printmaking

We aim to inspire young people with printmaking, encouraging the use of printmaking techniques and an appreciation of printmaking by others.

A printmaking brief for 2025 has been provided to Primary and Secondary Schools to spark ideas for projects and artwork which will be displayed at The Coro during Printfest 2025. Around 600 prints produced by the children are hung on The Coro walls, up both staircases, and down the corridor in the Main Hall. It takes two days to hang all the work and is a joy to see. Please see the guidelines for participating schools on this page.

Scroll down this page to see the Printfest 2025 showreel of the schools printmaking

PrimaryYOUNG PMY 2025; Memed, in conversation with Jemma Gunning, with Karen Stringer and Esther Benson

Young Printmakers of the Year 2024

Primary School Winner:
~ Jaden Year 4 ~ St George’s Primary School

Secondary School Winner:
~ Luca Murdoch 15 ~ Lakes School

Young Printmakers of the Year 2023

Peter, Broughton-in-Furness CE Primary School

Shannon, Ulverston Victoria High Secondary School

Young Printmakers of the Year 2025

Primary School Winner:
~ Memed, age 9 ~ St George’s Primary School, Barrow

Secondary School Winner:
~ Asya, age 15 ~ Ulverston Victoria High School

The school work submitted this year was all of a very high standard.

@essdee_uk ’s Katy and Stephen chose 4 schools for Special Commendation awards:

Pennington Primary for their rainbow inspiring their students to have a positive impact on their immediate environment by taking a moment and taking a breath before taking their next step.

George Romney Primary School for their creative prints looking at the contrast between the old Iron Ore Mines and the nature which is reclaiming the space.

The Lakes School for their high-quality submissions in which each student showed a very personal approach to responding to the brief.

Broughton Primary School for the detailed and colourful poly block prints.

@jemma_gunning_artist chose 4 individuals for Special Commendation:

Georgie from Queen Katherine School in Kendal for their atmospheric lamp posts.

Scarlett from Queen Katherine School in Kendal for her highly detailed block print of The Salford Lads Club.

Leon from St James School in Barrow for his colourful mono print of Furness Abbey.

Alfie from Broughton Primary School for his colourful and strong collagraph print.

Well done to all of our schools’ winners and a big thank you to all the schools who got involved to put on this fantastic show of what young people can achieve with printmaking.

All the school work will be on display in @thecoroulverston until 28th May 2025.

Printfest in Schools Impact Paper

Interview with Esther Benson and Lorraine Thompson
Written by Sarah Igo
www.copycontent.co.uk

The interest in the Printfest in Schools programme deserves to be talked about because of the impact it is having. The two key people running this programme, Esther and Lorraine, are receiving responses that need to be shared. This impact paper is in support of their valuable and worthwhile work. Printfest is very pleased to be supporting, developing and working with our local schools, from initial printmaking brief to exhibition of final work.

Comments from schools and school children in response to the Printfest 2024 weekend:

“I very much enjoyed my visit to Printfest yesterday & wanted to write to complement you on the wonderful display of children’s work exhibited. I was so glad to see that you had identified all the schools involved but more importantly that the children’s names & ages had been included. As an ex-teacher I know how much work both the teachers & children had put in to reach such wonderful results. I was interested to read the explanations about how the work had been structured & the stimulii used. As a previous early years, teacher, I was delighted to see that prints had been included from nursery upwards & that special needs schools had also been included. The children & their parents would be so proud to see their work displayed so beautifully. So many people underestimate what children are capable of if they are given the right structure, experiences & allowed to explore & experiment. Who knows this experience might have sown the seed for a future print maker or two. I wish you, your colleagues and all those taking part all the best for the future in these difficult economic times.” Cath Sanderson, visitor

“It was cool because we got to do a different type of printing that we normally wouldn’t be able to.” Pupil, Broughton Primary School

“t was really exciting to try printing with Esther as I haven’t done it before’.” Pupil, Broughton Primary School

“I liked using the printing press as this was the first time I had used a press and the wheel thing.” Jodie, Sandside Lodge

“I really enjoyed the printing with Esther. I liked it because it was a new thing that we haven’t done before. My favourite bit was when we did the final overlay print. It was so clever!” Rudi Y6, Grange Primary School

“Print making was so much fun. I couldn’t believe how good the results were, yet how easy Esther made it to follow the steps. There was nothing I disliked about the experience but the part I liked the best was mixing colours for the graded background.” Poppy Y6, Grange Primary School

“The children absolutely loved the workshops. They were so excited by the activities and we had some real ‘awe’ and ‘wonder’ moments when creating our print blocks and Japanese writing. Even children who would not normally get so enthused by art, couldn’t wait for the second session so that they could complete their prints.”

“Esther really thought carefully about all the activities and adapted these to just the right pitch. She visited our school prior to the workshops to take some beautiful photographs of plants around the grounds and these were used within the initial session to inspire some wonderful observational drawings. She had clearly thought carefully about time restraints, resources and possible challenges the children might encounter, pre-empting these excellently to ensure that all the children were successful in their work.” Paula Whinfield, Grange Primary School

“I found it all very interesting and although we don’t have the resources in school, I feel we could use some of the techniques in slightly different ways.” Laura Graham, Broughton Primary School

“Students enjoyed meeting and working with Esther and being involved in something bigger then just Sandside School e.g. Printfest (my only disappointment is we couldn’t visit Printfest as a class as it is on at a weekend).” Kerry Billows, Sandside Lodge School

“It was a real joy to work with Esther and Lorraine on the schools work, and to talk with some of the young people and families over the weekend. A real highlight.” said Sally Adkins, Printmakers’ Printmaker and schools’ Judge. Sally wrote up special mentions on individual students’ work and the winners, with special commendations for schools’ work.

Examples of Aga Kubish’s work

Primary and Secondary
printmaking brief 2026

Responding to the work and philosophy of Aga Kubish

Project Overview

In this printmaking project, you will create a visual response to one of the themes below, inspired by the work of printmaker Aga Kubish. ‘Aga Kubish is a fine artist and printmaker based in the United Kingdom, specializing in linocuts and mezzotints inspired by nature and traditional craftsmanship. Her work embraces the philosophy of slow living and the wabi-sabi spirit, celebrating imperfection, patience, and authenticity. Each piece is created by hand in her one-person studio, where art unfolds at its own natural rhythm.’

The possible starting points are:
Growth
Botanical
Wabi-Sabi Spirit OR
Natural Rhythm
Express your findings through the medium of printmaking.

Objectives

Explore the ideas and work of Aga Kubish.
Develop observational and recording skills through photography or drawing.
Experiment with various printmaking techniques.
Create a series of prints that reflect your interpretation of one of the themes.

Outcomes

A series of prints that depict your interpretation of one of the themes.
A reflective journal documenting your research, observations, process, and final outcomes.
You will need to select some of this work for display at Printfest 2026.

Other artists to look at:

Aga is endlessly fascinated by the old engraving style of Albrecht Durer but also Hokusai Katsushika and Alphonse Mucha.

What is a handmade print?: A print is made by transferring an image from one surface to another.
Techniques include: Monoprinting, lino/block printing, etching, intaglio printing, screen printing, collagraph printing etc.
Teaching printmaking: We offer workshops to 3 or 4 schools every year, an art teacher and artist will come into school for two sessions to help you to make work for display at Printfest 2026, please get in touch if you would like to take advantage of this opportunity. We also have instructional videos for teachers about teaching print making on our website: https://printfest.uk/printmaking/printfest-in-schools/.

Workshops

Printfest offers four hour workshops, split into two sessions with the aim of introducing children and teachers to printmaking techniques that can easily be taught in the classroom. The print work produced by the children in these workshops was on display with the school work over the Printfest weekend. There were also two places on each of the workshops at Printfest, for teachers, offering the opportunity for new skills and ideas to be taken away and shared in the classroom. All workshops take place in schools.

For further information about getting involved please email: est.smith@hotmail.co.uk or Lorraine.Thompson@cumbria.gov.uk

Annual showreels

Primary and Secondary school printmaking showreel from 2025

Primary and Secondary school printmaking showreel from 2024

Primary and Secondary school printmaking showreel from 2023

Primary and Secondary school printmaking showreel from 2022

Instructional videos

Please feel free to use these during lessons, pausing the instructions as you go along
~ Click the image to view the videos in YouTube.

Collagraph Printing
~ Anyone can use this instructional video for learning how to create some simple printmaking techniques that can be done in any space.

Printing with found materials and objects
~ Anyone can use this instructional video for learning how to create some simple printmaking techniques that can be done in any space.

Relief Printing with Polyblock
~ Anyone can use this instructional video for learning how to create some simple printmaking techniques that can be done in any space.

Monoprinting with stencils part I
~ Anyone can use this instructional video for learning how to create some simple printmaking techniques that can be done in any space.

Monoprinting part II
~ Anyone can use this instructional video for learning how to create some simple printmaking techniques that can be done in any space.

Huge thanks to these amazing sponsors Essdee and James Cropper for materials for the schools project:

Love this blog on the Essdee website! click the image to read Printfest in Schools - Essdee Art & Craft

Essdee wrote: "Essdee are proud to be involved with Printfest for the third year and have been especially excited to have supported the Printfest in Schools project this year. We have been excited to partner with Printfest to help encourage young people to learn about printmaking and enjoyed attending the exhibition and have been really impressed with the work that the children have produced."