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On the second floor of a small shopping complex in
the heart of Chinatown, above a restaurant and past a
forest of bargain-priced clothing racks, there’s a small
studio space with big ambitions. Its walls are covered
in artwork, posters, tools, and paints, and in the
middle of the entrance sits a bulky, antiquated piece
of machinery: a letterpress.

This letterpress is both physically and figuratively
at the centre of WePress, a community studio/social
enterprise that was created by Vancouver artists who
wanted to learn how to use the letterpress, and teach
others as well.

Cara Seceafien, a co-founder of WePress, teaches
workshops on how to work the rollers, place the metal
letters, and apply the ink to make posters and other
artwork as they did before electric printers made
letterpresses all but obsolete.

She is one of a handful of individuals who
have come together to make WePress a reality, and
who work to make their space available to those
who would otherwise not get a chance to use such
equipment.

Tre cost of art

“The reason why we say this as valuable is because the
vast majority of print-making happening in Vancouver
right now is expensive,” said Seccafien. WePress offers
workshops at a sliding scale, with a $40 suggested
fee. “Even though we charge fees for some of our
services, many of them are free and our fees are
below market value by far.”

WePress hopes that by offering low fees, they
can allow people belonging to marginalized groups
to have their chance at using a letterpress, or the 3-D
printer that they have and teach workshops on as well.

“We're making it accessible for women, for
queer people, for people of colour, whereas other
workshops, like tech industry stuff, is usually mostly
accessed by white guys,” she said.

Along with the letterpress and the 3-D printer,
WePress is also home to an industrial sewing machine,
and workshops teaching other forms of art, such as
bookbinding.

Chanel Ly, a workshop facilitator at WePress, had
been busy teaching a half dozen or so participants
the art of bookbinding, and said afterwards that the
workshop was edifying for her in more ways than one.

“My work can be quite stressful and | myself turn
to bookbinding to de-stress,” Ly said. “People were
saying, ‘How do you de-stress during this process?’ It’s
really about doing it more and knowing the process,
and then once you learn it, it’s quite meditative.”

For Ly, the opportunity to share her knowledge
with others is a big factor in why she facilitates the
workshops.

“People seemed really happy and proud of what
they made, so that was rewarding,” Ly said.

On top of the gratitude, artists who run
workshops out of WePress get to take home half
of the admission fee, with the other half going to
WePress’s rent.

Seccafien said that the payment model works
out well, as it offers a chance for artists to make some
money, and for WePress to keep their space running.

“Artists who might not make money from their art
form otherwise can make some money. We've actually
had quite a few artists who might not have an income
otherwise, or might have a very low income otherwise,
come in and teach workshops and make a little bit of
money, and then we are sustaining ourselves as well.”

Tne history of the letterpress

WePress and their letterpress have both had quite the
journey in getting to where they are now, according
to Linda Uyehara Hoffman, a founding member of
WePress.

The letterpress was originally owned by
Woodward's, a department chain store that operated
in Alberta and British Columbia before being bought by
the Hudson’s Bay Company. They used the letterpress
to make posters and advertisements. From there, the
press was inherited by the Community Arts Council
of Vancouver, and then, after many people showed
interest in learning and using the art form, the press
was brought to the studio space that it is in today.

However, the story of the press and the story of
the people working it are not one and the same.

Originally, Uyehara Hoffman was part of a group
that was interested in preserving what they could from
a different letterpress.

“It started with a large group of 30 people who
were kind of brought together because of their interest
in Ho Sun Hing Press in Chinatown,” she said. “[They]
had letterpresses and offprint presses, and they did
menus, wedding invitations, all kinds of things for
Chinatown.”

Uyehara Hoffman said that when Ho Sun Hing
closed down, the group decided to all pitch in and buy
a large set of type.

“The larger group decided what they could afford
to do was buy a full set of Chinese type from Ho Sun
Hing and it was kind of a legacy thing for Chinatown, to
have this type.”

The type was transported across the street to
a basement in a building in Chinatown, as WePress’s
current studio does not have enough space to house