print matters artist’s residencies
Deadline: 25th July 2025
Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print welcomes applications for two artist’s residencies, to take place across five days between August and September 2025 as part of our research project: Print Matters.
Print Matters is structured around two overarching research questions:
What does it mean to embrace thought and writing as tactile, palpable and material?
How can hands-on, practice-led experiments with the materiality of the text and the affordances of print and language lead to new research findings, as well as novel ways to express those findings?
The Print Matters project combines research into the Renaissance period’s fascination with the constitutive stuff of the world with an investigation of embodied knowledge and making texts; and a fascination with rot across the centuries. The successful applicants will explore these questions in concert with Professor Helen Smith, Dr Georgina Wilson, and the team at Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print.
Artists are invited to contribute to these two research questions by developing their practice at Thin Ice Press. Based in York, Thin Ice Press offers a working studio and public space that preserves the craft of printing from letterpress onwards. We are open to creative proposals of all kinds; however, applicants must show how their work is connected to the medium of print.
The Resident Artist will receive:
Accommodation and travel costs for their days at Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print
A £1000 stipend
The Resident Artist will c0-curate an exhibition of their work from the project, and will be invited to deliver a talk, event, or workshop about their work at Thin Ice Press towards the end of the residency. The Resident Artist is expected to spend 5 days at the press in August and September 2025. These days do not need to be consecutive, and we will be happy to discuss timings and arrangements with the successful applicants.
Thin Ice Press is fully accessible, and we can make arrangements to provide fully accessible accommodation, if required.
To apply please send
A covering letter detailing how you see your work contributing to the themes of the project; how you feel the theme of this residency would enhance your work; and a short outline of your proposed activities for the residency
A CV
Up to ten images of your work
to thinicepress@york.ac.uk by midnight on 25th July 2025.
Selection criteria
Alignment between the applicant’s proposed project and the two research questions underpinning Print Matters
Attention to the facilities and opportunities of spending time in York and especially Thin Ice Press
Clarity and focus of the proposed project
Feasibility within the time available
Please contact thinicepress@york.ac.uk with any questions.
