Torre Abbey is delighted to announce that it has been successful in obtaining a £3,800 grant from the Big Lottery ‘Awards for All’ funding scheme.

‘Awards for All’ is a lottery grants programme that funds small, community-based projects across the UK. The Abbey will use the funding to support community printmaking workshops for local adults and young people.

The ‘Awards for All’ grant was awarded to Smooth Space, a local artist-led initiative, currently working on twelve month artist's residency in partnership with the Abbey.

Smooth Space will run a number of fun workshops focused on teaching printmaking techniques. Professional printmakers will be commissioned to run these sessions and share their skills with local people.

Artists David Harbott and Kate Paxman who co-lead Smooth Space said: “We are very excited by this opportunity to offer workshops in Torre Abbey’s fantastic educational facility, known as the ‘LearningLab’. This will be a wonderful way to complement the artist's residency project and we are pleased to invite local people to come and explore the collections in Torre Abbey in more depth."

Torbay‘s Mayor and Leader, Gordon Oliver, said: “This is great news for Torre Abbey as it builds on the brilliant educational work being undertaken at this wonderful attraction. Since its restoration, the Abbey has received a number of great awards and reviews and is now positioned as one of the Bay’s top places to visit.”

Torre Abbey is hosting a year-long residency by Smooth Space artist Kate Paxman until June 2015. Kate is exploring the buildings and gardens, the nationally important collections and archive and the work that goes on behind the scenes.

Follow Kate's residency at www.torreabbeyresidency.blogspot.co.uk/ where she is sharing her responses to the rich array of material housed within the 800-year-old Abbey walls. To accompany the residency, Smooth Space is running an associated public programme of monthly 'Artist's Conversations', inviting critically acclaimed artists, writers and curators to evening events at Torre Abbey for discussions about their work.

These participatory talks are free and you can find details about forthcoming Conversations on the events pages at torre-abbey@org.uk or by emailing info@smoothspace.org. The residency and associated public programme is made possible by public funding from Arts Council England.

For further information and images please contact Kate Paxman on 07958 723309