Mission & History
Lower East Side Printshop, founded in 1968, is a premier New York City printmaking studio supporting contemporary artists of all career and artistic backgrounds. LESP promotes excellence in printmaking by offering opportunities to create, investigate, and collect fine art prints. Our support to artists includes cutting edge facilities, time, expertise, as well as financial and technical assistance. We offer residencies, exhibitions, education in printmaking and career advancement skills, and peer-to-peer support.
In 1968, Eleanor Magid, an artist and educator, opened LESP in response to a major crisis: the New York City Teachers’ Strike of 1968, a three-month period in which the city’s public schools were mostly closed from early-September until mid-November. As Magid has explained, the Printshop’s early days were impromptu and largely community-supported:
I was a parent among parents trying our best to make up for the closing and teacher-picketing of the local school. The issues were not simple. . . . Printmaking. Why printmaking? Because there was a press at my house. Not much of a press. A small but heavy iron table thing with ‘made in England’ stamped into its side. We bound books, numbered pages, wrote stories, illustrated them with both drawings and prints – reshuffling the school curriculum. We made relief prints mainly, at first, linoleum cuts. People brought linoleum from abandoned rolls or loosened bits from kitchen floors. We found rolls of paper here and there. A local ink company gave us cans of drying ink. We had a few old rollers. We learned to use sharp knives pointed away from our own hands and fingers and away from other people. We ranged in age from 5 to maybe 70 or more. We worked together and taught one another. Oh we were dangerous! We were PRESS!
After this period of responding to acute need, LESP remained open as a community-centered, accessible art space. It soon became part of the alternative spaces movement of the 1970s, and it continues to be a major resource for artists, with its flexible 24-hour studio access policy, printing services, classes, and technical assistance.
In spring 2005, LESP moved from its original space in the East Village to a larger facility in Midtown Manhattan, a fivefold increase of its footprint. The Printshop also expanded its programming [and workshop facilities] to offer more opportunities to artists. We are currently the largest openly accessible printmaking facility in Manhattan, and a major contemporary art center, serving a diverse local, national, and international audience.
In 2006, the Printshop was awarded the Primary Organization status by the NY State Council on the Arts. This status is reserved for organizations that are, by the quality of their services and their stature, particularly vital to the cultural life of the state.
In 2014, LESP took over management of Editions/Artists’ Books (E/AB) Fair. Held concurrently with the IFPDA Fine Print Fair, E/AB provided an opportunity for an international community of publishers to present new and contemporary prints, multiples, and artists’ books to the general public through free admissions. First held in 1998 through a partnership between Susan Inglett (I.C. Editions), Brooke Alexander Editions, and Printed Matter, E/AB ran annually until 2022. In its final iteration, the fair featured 50 international publishers and dealers.
In 2022, LESP became a member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association.
Through this history, several women have guided the Printshop’s mission and led its community-based programming:
Eleanore Magid, Founder
Susan Spencer Crowe
Robyn Love
Dusica Kirjakovic
Marie Tennyson, Current Executive Director