Risograph in Residence at Drawing Room : Nov-Dec 2025

In November and December 2025, we piloted a Risograph in Residence situated in the Community Studio at Drawing Room, bringing experimental printmaking, drawing, and collaborative publishing into our workshops and community sessions.

The residency gave participants hands-on access to a Risograph printer, inviting them to experiment, take creative risks, surrender a little to chance, and make work together.

Across a wide range of sessions, from our Drawing Club and Family Studio to After School Club and specialist community groups Neurodiversity Family Hub and our Rediscovery Group for those with Dementia  — the Risograph became a lively focal point for shared making and experimentation, and a brilliant moving part in our Community Residency programme.

Participants used the printer to create everything from mini publications and collaborative prints to posters and zines. For many, it was their first experience of Risograph printing, and the process helped turn personal ideas into bold, tangible outcomes. The presence of the Risograph also helped attract new audiences and encouraged confidence, ownership, and pride in the work being made.

Overall, Risograph in Residence showed how accessible print technology can support our wider ethos of championing “drawing and its potential to help us understand ourselves, each other and our world” and highlighted the potential for DIY print and publishing in complementing our wider participatory work.

With thanks to our artists Adam Shield, Sadie St Hilare, Leonie Rousham, Ishwari Bhalareo, Asha Fontenelle and Amanda Wayne for developing sessions using our Risograph. A special thank you for Dan at Sharp for making this pilot possible.

“Having the Risograph hugely benefitted our Drawing Club attendance, making it the most well attended in the series so far. It gave us a stand-out activity that attracted a lot of younger people.”
— Rebecca, Front of House & Events Co-Ordinator

“From the outside, the Risograph is an unassuming piece of kit, it may look like a standard photocopier, but it’s essentially like a magic screen printing machine! People of all ages were captivated by its possibilities, and it provided an excellent tactile and instantaneous tool for creative, collaborative work through colour layering and experimentation with marks and textures. Children in the After School Club and adults in our community workshops were equally amazed by the speed and quality of what they could produce. Having a RISO in-house at Drawing Room also sparked creativity in our team, allowing us to make all our own event marketing materials during the two months it was with us. It has been a wonderful return to DIY and valued addition to our community studio and programme”
— Amanda, Learning & Community Programme Manager

“The workshops we ran were with groups we had worked with before but who had never had an opportunity to use RISO printing. It’s a long-standing aim of the programme to support people in developing their own voices and stories through community and self-publishing, and this was a wonderful process for exploring this. It was evident that everyone was just beginning to delve into the possibilities of RISO, so it would be amazing in the future to provide the facilities to continue learning and using this process.” — Yamuna, Librarian