Glasgow Print Studio

Founded in 1972, Glasgow Print Studio moved from its original home in a disused factory unit on Ingram Street to its present, stylish surrounds in Trongate 103 in the Merchant City in 1988. It’s the longest-standing tenant of one of the key centres for creative organisations anywhere in the city, and within the same building you’ll also find the Transmission Gallery and Street Level Photoworks among others. Spread across three floors, GPS comprises workshops, education space and other facilities, as well as a retail gallery on the ground floor, leading up to a main gallery on the first floor.

An artist-run charitable organisation supported by Creative Scotland and Glasgow City Council, the studio’s purpose is to encourage and promote the practice of contemporary and innovative printmaking – from etchings and lithographs to relief prints and screenprints – using custom-built equipment. As well as helping artists to produce their prints, GPS also assists in the promotion and sale of their work – be it via their own galleries and web shop, or at international art fairs – as well as simply offering artists a hub location to network and engage with Glasgow’s community.

The studio’s now-defunct Print Studio Press has in the past published work by the likes of Liz Lochhead, Edwin Morgan and James Kelman, as well as Alasdair Gray’s first book ‘The Comedy of the White Dog’ in 1979 (Gray also created the lithographs for his classic novel ‘Lanark’here). Other artists to have produced works for GPS over the years include Elizabeth Blackadder, John Byrne, Peter Howson, Christine Borland and Moyna Flannigan. Bright, airy and spacious, and surrounded by other excellent cultural attractions in the immediate area, GPS’s galleries are a great place to while away an afternoon – and entry to all exhibitions, talks and events is free.