Social Investment Scotland £1m loan to help Edinburgh Printmakers to ‘reopen, rebuild and reimagine’ 

Social Investment Scotland has agreed a loan of almost £1m to arts charity Edinburgh Printmakers.

Founded in 1967 as the first open access studio in the UK, the charity now offers one of the largest printmaking facilities for artists in Europe. It also provides low-cost spaces for creative use across Scotland, and partners with UnLtd to run a funding and support programme for creative social entrepreneurs. 

The charity will use the £959,000 loan to expand the variety and scale of services it offers to communities across Scotland, including growing its education programmes and providing new residencies for artists. 

Shân Edwards, CEO of Edinburgh Printmakers, said: “After a hugely uncertain year we are delighted to have secured this investment from SIS to help us reopen, rebuild and reimagine our programmes. As we look to the future, we’re focused on how we can support artists, who have seen their income and opportunities limited by the pandemic, along with the communities and audiences that have also been badly impacted.” 

Organisations such as Edinburgh Printmakers have a crucial role to play in rebuilding a more inclusive economy, where positive impacts for people and planet come first

Chris Jamieson, head of investments at SIS, said Edinburgh Printmakers had “achieved a huge amount in its history” and that its move in 2019 to the new Castle Mills premises, a former factory, was “an opportunity to significantly increase its cultural impact”. 

He added: “At SIS, we believe that organisations such as Edinburgh Printmakers have a crucial role to play in rebuilding a more inclusive economy, where positive impacts for people and planet come first. That’s why we’ll continue to take a leading role in not just helping these organisations weather the storms of the pandemic, but to help them look towards sustainable growth as the rebuilding process takes hold.”

Established in 2001, SIS has since invested almost £100m of loan finance in community enterprises and social businesses. In 2019/20, the responsible finance provider invested £10.9m, according to its latest impact report. This includes £4.36m invested in social enterprises and communities, with the remainder invested in community development finance institutions and in mission-driven businesses through its profit-with-purpose investor subsidiary, SIS Ventures.

Thanks for reading our stories. As an entrepreneur or investor yourself, you'll know that producing quality work doesn't come free. We rely on our subscribers to sustain our journalism – so if you think it's worth having an independent, specialist media platform that covers social enterprise stories, please consider subscribing. You'll also be buying social: Pioneers Post is a social enterprise itself, reinvesting all our profits into helping you do good business, better.