The Curwen Print Study Centre in Great Thurlow.
Sworders, in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, is working with Curwen Print Study Centre which has recently relocated to Great Thurlow in Suffolk and hopes to raise more than £20,000 to keep its archive free to access to the public.
The Curwen Press was established in 1863 by the Reverend John Curwen (1816–80) in Plaistow, east London and worked with artists including Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Paul Nash as well as illustrators, designers, painters and sculptors.
The Curwen Studio opened in November 1958 led by master printmaker Stanley Jones.
The Curwen Studio's Stanley Jones and Curwen Print Study Centre director Lorraine Chitson in the studio.
Over the past 50 years the studio has worked with artists including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, John Piper, Elizabeth Frink, Mary Fedden and more recently Paula Rego.
The new premises for Curwen Print Study Centre consists of two studios providing room for teaching artists as well as space to display the centre’s extensive archive.
Centre director Lorraine Chitson and Stanley Jones in the studio.
The archive, which includes prints, letters and vast supporting documentation relating to the lithographic print process, requires ongoing cataloguing and conservation. Once complete it will be available to the public for the first time.
However the Curwen still needs over £20,000 to enable the free access to the archive.
A John Bellany print from the Curwen archive that will be offered as a reward for donations.
It is currently running a crowdfunding campaign for donations. As a thank you donors will have the opportunity to choose from a range of rewards, including limited edition fine art prints from artists including John Bellany, Nicholas Charles Williams, David Borrington and Yoshishge Furukawa.
Details of the crowdfunding can be found here.
