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Call for a Small Press in Residence at UCL Special Collections

In 2025, we are celebrating 60 years of small press collecting. We are looking for a small press to take up a temporary residency at UCL to help us celebrate and contribute to our events programme.

Contents

About the residency

The residency is a collaboration between UCL Special Collections and the Slade School of Fine Art. We are offering a flexible, temporary residency for a small, independent press to develop a publishing project(s), engage with our collections, and feed into our small press anniversary celebrations in 2025.

The successful press will spend up to six weeks or part-time equivalent at UCL, anytime between 01 May and 31 December 2025 (although alternative dates and residency duration might be accommodated, subject to space, staff, and funding availability; the exact schedule will be agreed with UCL Special Collections on appointment).  

The press will have part-time access to a studio space and the printing workshop at The Slade (including equipment for all forms of intaglio printing, screen printing equipment, an Albion Press, lithography facilities, digital printing suite, a risograph, and bookbinding tools; visit The Slade website for more information about available facilities).

The press will have freedom to develop a programme of activity, with support from colleagues at UCL Special Collections, but will be expected to:

  • work across the two UCL campuses and engage with staff and student communities at UCL Bloomsbury and UCL East;
  • curate a short programme of activity, feeding into our 60th anniversary celebrations;
  • by the end of the residency, produce a publication (or a group of publications). Publications produced during the residency will be acquired by UCL Special Collections and become part of UCL’s Small Press Collections.

The Small Press in Residence will receive:

  • a grant of £5,000;
  • a part-time studio space at The Slade, on UCL Bloomsbury campus (please note the space might not be available for the duration of the residency, due to other demands on the space; we will discuss space requirements and availability with the appointed press);
  • part-time access to The Slade printing and binding workshop facilities (please note the facilities might not be available for the duration of the residency, due to other demands on the space; we will discuss facilities requirements and availability with the appointed press);
  • mediated access to UCL Special Collections;
  • access to and staff with specialist knowledge of the collections;
  • support in organising and embedding at UCL any proposed programmes of activity.

The Small Press in residence will be required to provide, as a minimum:

  • a publication, or a set of publications;
  • at least two live public outputs – one at each of the UCL’s two campuses – during or after the residency period, such as talk, event, workshop;
  • a blog post for the UCL Special Collections blog on any aspect of the residency;
  • acknowledgment of the grant in any resulting publications.
  • UCL Special Collections will work collaboratively with the Small Press in Residence to develop any programming. We encourage activities with capacity to engage UCL’s diverse staff and student communities in innovative and unexpected ways, showcasing in the process the potential of collections, and our Small Press Collections in particular, for cutting-edge programming.

About UCL’s Small Press collections

The UCL Small Press Collections were established in 1965 and now consist of over 4,000 independent literary Little Magazines, artists magazines and counter-cultural newspapers, and over 20,000 poetry pamphlets, artists’ books, and other experimental publications. The collections are global in scope with material having been collected from Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia. Strengths of the collections include concrete and visual poetry, Fluxus, and mimeographed magazines.

Eligibility and selection criteria

The residency programme is open to applicants of any nationality, background, or career stage. Individuals and groups/collectives/communities of interest will all be considered. No affiliation with UCL, past or present, is required.

Small presses interested in applying will need to ensure that they are eligible to work in the UK before applying. UCL will undertake Right to Work checks for successful candidates. Please use the UK government website to check if you are eligible to apply and what documentation might be required. UCL is unable to support visa applications for this scheme.

The Selection Committee will consider applications according to the following criteria:

  • suitability of the press and its engagement to date with small press printing and publishing traditions;
  • an interest in engaging with and responding to our collections;
  • the potential of the proposed residency programme to increase visibility and public understanding of small press as a practice and of our Small Press collections;
  • the potential of the project to engage the UCL staff and student community, across the two campuses;
  • the feasibility of the proposal.

Application process

Applications should be submitted by Monday 31 March 2025, 12:00 noon and include:

  • a completed application form;
  • a short CV (up to two pages); for group applications, please include a CV for each member of the group involved in the application (uploaded via the application form);
  • a short portfolio of up to five pages showcasing the Press’ work to date (uploaded via the application form);
  • a statement of up to 800 words, outlining your proposed publishing project(s), including details of ways in which you plan to engage with our collections and feed into our Small Press Collections anniversary celebrations in 2025 (uploaded via the application form).

Any evidence submitted after the closing date will not be reviewed by the panels.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact UCL Special Collections before submitting a formal application, to discuss any access, technical, or curatorial requirements that their residency might require. Email: library.spec.coll.rarebooks@ucl.ac.uk.

Applications will be shortlisted by a panel composed of UCL’s Special Collections experts. Notifications of the award will be made by 16 April 2025. Feedback will be provided to all shortlisted candidates. We regret that we cannot provided detailed feedback to all other applicants.