A NATIONALLY important collection of over 100 vibrant new prints has gone on show at Scarborough Art Gallery.

Printmakers Council (PmC) features work by leading printmakers including prize-winners from its biannual competition.

All the work has been donated to Scarborough Art Gallery by the prestigious PmCl and marks the start of an ongoing relationship between the two organisations which will see regular donations of work to create an important national archive of fine art printmaking in Scarborough.

PmC, a national association for the promotion and encouragement of printmaking in all its forms, was founded in 1965. One of its founding objectives was the creation of a comprehensive national print archive of contemporary printmaking.

Michael Kennedy, vice chair of the PmC, said: “A single deposition of prints was made to Scarborough in 1992 but after that the project lapsed until 2016. It seems that both PmC and Scarborough Art Gallery had simply forgotten about the archive.

"Its existence came to light in 2015, the 50th anniversary of PmC, when work was being carried out on our extensive document archive in preparation for deposition at the V&A.

“PmC’s committee resolved to contact Scarborough with a view to reviving the archive and were delighted to receive a positive response. It was agreed that depositions would be made every other year with the intention of establishing an important archive of fine art printmaking.”

Michael said: “Visitors to the exhibition will see a wide range of contemporary prints in almost all print processes representing a cross-section of PmC members’ interests and activities.”

Simon Hedges, Head of Curation, Collections and Exhibitions at Scarborough Museums Trust, said: “We’re delighted to be the recipients of such a generous series of gifts from the PmC. I’m looking to find ways of realising the true potential of this huge resource, including plans to refurbish and dedicate one of the galleries to our print collection, the majority of which is made up of the PmC depositions.”

Printmakers Council is at Scarborough Art Gallery until Sunday, September 8. The gallery is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm. Entry is free.