Professor Norman Ackroyd CBE RA ARCA is the overall Head of Printing and was instrumental in re-establishing the Engraving Room as a thriving centre for teaching and practice after being invited in 1995 to consider its potential for the future by the late Michael Kenny RA, then the School’s Principal.

The ‘special nature’ of what we offer is the teaching of traditional ‘intaglio’ processes – including hard and soft ground, sugar lift, aquatint and colour etching. Teaching is provided by practising artists to whose work etching is central. Every student at City & Guilds is offered an introduction to the ‘intaglio’ process as a core part of the curriculum for the Foundation and Fine Art courses. We want all of our students to achieve the understanding and confidence to make the process their own through a ‘hands on’ experience. By teaching the full range of methods, we provide an historical context of the ‘intaglio’ process and offer the same experience in terms of techniques, problems and solutions as Rembrandt, Goya and Picasso.

As ‘green’ printmaking is being introduced to more and more Print Rooms due to Health and Safety concerns to the detriment of traditional etching, we risk seeing the link to the great masters of etching, being broken and their secrets and processes forgotten. We believe that by teaching traditional etching in a Health and Safety conscious manner, and by emphasising good practice, the exposure to potentially harmful chemicals can be kept to a minimum. Our aim is to provide continuity and to keep the bridge to the Old Masters open. As more and more colleges and art schools abandon traditional etching, our position is becoming more and more unique.

While our core strength is the intaglio process, we also house a Victorian ‘Albion’ press for printing lino and woodcuts. Monotype printing is catered for on our off-set lithographic press. We also have a small silkscreen printing area with a vacuum printing bed. This resource will be expanded with the introduction of a photo-stencil exposure unit, and is particularly popular with Foundation design students.

Teaching in the Print Room is provided by two part-time tutors and a Printmaking Research Fellow. Jason Hicklin is the lead tutor. He was invited to the School by Norman Ackroyd CBE RA and Michael Kenny RA . Jason was taught by Norman Ackroyd in the etching workshop at the Central School of Art which no longer in existence. This was the model for re-establishing the Room as a central service area for the School. Jason Hicklin graduated from the Central School as a post-graduate in 1992 and was elected a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in 1993. Christopher Roantree is the second tutor. He graduated with an MA in printmaking from the Royal College of Art in 2003. He was the printmaking Research Fellow for two years before becoming a tutor.

The Print Making Research Fellow was a part-time post initiated by Norman Ackroyd CBE RA and Michael Kenny RA in 1998. It exists to provide a transition from post graduate study to the establishing of an artist's own practice. The Fellow is paid two days per week for working alongside a tutor gaining experience of teaching and perfecting their practical skills, learning more about the various methods and printing processes. On other week days the Fellow is free to use the Print Room to develop their own work, providing a useful insight for the School’s students.
The current Fellow is Katherine Jones, an MA graduate from Camberwell School of Art. She exhibits widely and is one the forthcoming artists of the season for Twenty8Twelve, Westbourne Grove, London W11. Previous Fellows have gone on to work as artists' assistants and print tutors (Niamh Clancy) and others to work as an art tutor in print at St Paul’s Boys School (Bella Easton) and one has opened his own print facility in Bethnal Green (Ian Steadman). All of these are important examples of how useful this post is.

In recent years, an increasing number of students have taken up etching. This has also become evident in the Foundation, Degree and MA final shows. Former students often return to the Room as they recognise the benefits of a resource they can access on a part-time basis. This also establishes a continuity which is of great value to students.

With our history and potential we have a facility - supported by a strong practice and ethos - which has become an increasingly important selling point for the whole of the School while at the same time playing a valuable role in preserving a great legacy which could be in danger of being lost. Our aim of becoming one of, if not the, centre of excellence for the ‘intaglio’ process in Central London is now within reach.