Kilburn Print Workshop – Heiba Lamara 

Could a print workshop sit at, and be intrinsic to, the heart of a community?

About Kilburn Print Workshop

The Kilburn Print Workshop is a new commission with artist Heiba Lamara dedicated to community publishing and print and design education. The project is inspired by the radical community print workshops and presses that flourished in North/West London during the 1970s and 80s, such as The Poster Workshop, Paddington Print Workshop, Copy Art and Crest Press. With the aim to reimagine and map out the landscape of community print and publishing in Kilburn today, the focus of the print workshop will move outwards from Metroland Studios, through to Kilburn Market, and onto the High Road.

Kilburn Print Workshop asks, could a print shop sit at, and be intrinsic to, the heart of a community? How can the transient nature of printed matter and its history of widespread dissemination hold the cultural histories and identities of the communities that have produced it? What can print archives tell us about histories of community organising and resistance in our neighbourhood?

The workshops will delve into print, design, and publishing education through a series of site-responsive experiments and mobile community printing facilities. Through the sharing and exchanging of resources for publishing – equipment, skills, and knowledge – the process will gather community stories and see oral histories committed to paper and ink producing tangible print outcomes that circulate within and beyond the community. 

Community Commissions

At Metroland Cultures, we work collectively with others using creative practices towards change. Our commissions are one of the ways that we carry out this work. We collaborate with artists to explore how art shapes and reflects social change, and how it can be a part of transformation within communities.

About Heiba Lamara

Since 2013 Heiba Lamara has worked as an artist-researcher exploring independent print and archival practices and publishing as a creative practice for social change. She is Assistant Editor of OOMK (One of my Kind) a zine and publishing collective focused on the spiritual, political and artistic practices of women artists. 

Her focus is on self-directed project-based research around print, oral histories, archives and coloniality translating these into zines, artist books and participatory workshops and exhibitions that offer readers/participants an entry point to developing a closer relationship with underexplored topics related to the cultural history of marginalised communities. Driven to provide accessible print spaces under austerity measures, she co- founded the community Risograph print studio Rabbits Road Press in 2017. 

https://www.rabbitsroadpress.com

Other Community Commissions

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With Us All – Sufra and Sean Roy Parker

A glasshouse commissioned for a community garden in the heart of the St. Raphael estate

‘Making The Room Sing’ – Amanda Camenisch and Therese Westin with the Asian Women’s Resource Centre

An exhibition to honour and celebrate the safe space that Asian Women’s Resource Centre has created by providing support and safety for women experiencing domestic and gender-based violence in Brent and beyond.

Growing Up B(r)ent –  Ed Webb-Ingall with Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust.

Growing Up B(r)ent is a radio play by artist and filmmaker Ed Webb-Ingall, produced in collaboration with Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust. The play explores what it means to create communities of kin, particularly for individuals to whom such communities might initially seem out of reach.