In a city where studio rents can swallow an artist's entire income, a new printmaking cooperative on Main Street is offering something radical: world-class letterpress, screen printing, and risograph facilities on a sliding scale, starting at just $40 per month for artists who can't afford full rates.
Common Press Collective, opened in November by printmaker and educator Suki Nagata, occupies a bright, high-ceilinged space above a vintage shop in Mount Pleasant — one of Vancouver's last remaining creative neighbourhoods that hasn't been entirely overtaken by condos. The studio houses two Vandercook letterpress machines, a full screen-printing setup, a risograph, and a paper guillotine, all available to members.
"Printmaking requires specialized equipment that most artists can't afford to own," Nagata explains, inking a Vandercook for a run of hand-printed poetry broadsides. "Without shared studios, the art form dies. It's that simple."
The sliding scale works on an honour system: members self-select into one of three tiers based on their financial situation. Full-rate members pay $120 per month, mid-tier pay $75, and the subsidized tier pays $40. The studio currently has 45 members, with a roughly even split across tiers. Nagata reports that the model is financially sustainable because higher-paying members effectively subsidize access for those who need it.
Common Press also runs a community print night every Wednesday, open to non-members for a $15 drop-in fee. The events are part workshop, part social gathering — participants print while chatting, drinking tea, and admiring each other's work. The nights have become so popular that Nagata recently added a second session.
The studio has hosted visiting artists from Mexico City, Berlin, and Taipei for print exchanges, and collaborates with Vancouver's annual Wayzgoose letterpress festival. A recent project saw 20 members each print a page of a collaborative artist book about Vancouver's disappearing industrial spaces, now held in the collection of the Vancouver Public Library.
"Print is the most democratic of art forms," Nagata says, pulling a still-wet broadside from the press with evident satisfaction. "It was invented to spread ideas. A studio like this continues that mission — making sure the tools stay in everyone's hands, not just those who can afford them."