Workshops and Talks

I facilitate zine workshops digitally and face to face, as part of Edinburgh Zine Library and on my own. As well as facilitating zine making workshops, I also lead training in how to deliver zine workshops. You can read more about some of the different workshops I’ve facilitated below.

If you’re interested in me facilitating a workshop for your group or organisation please get in touch via lilithjoycecooper@gmail.com. I expect Scottish Artist Union rates as a minimum, and most one-off workshops are between £150 and £450 depending on length and what you want to get out of it (ie. is this a one-off activity? do you want a finished zine with contributions from participants? is this a jumping off point for a bigger zine project?). Workshops involving multiple sessions or editorial/design work tend towards £400-£600. I expect larger institutions to pay at the higher end of these price brackets. If the workshop is in-person, I will add travel and sustenance costs as appropriate. I have a limited capacity to facilitate workshops on a pro bono basis, and reserve this for grassroots, unfunded groups.

I balance my freelance facilitation alongside a full-time PhD, my own artistic practice, and my need for rest. As a result I often have more workshop requests than I can say yes to.

I’m particularly interested in workshops that:

  • are connected to madness, mental health, and neurodivergence

  • are connected to disability, health and illness

  • are connected to archives, cultural heritage, museums and libraries

  • are connected to research, methods, ethics and reflexivity

  • are connected to activism, social justice and disability justice

  • are connected to active travel and cycling

  • are with groups who are marginalised or underrepresented/misrepresented in mainstream media

I particularly want to work with organisations that:

  • are trans positive

  • are based in Fife (where I live!) or Scotland

  • are Queer, Disabled, BIPOC and/or Neurodivergent - led

  • don’t just programme or platform white people

  • are committed to exploring accessibility in a creative and engaged way from the outset

We are in an on-going pandemic. I do not have any hard and fast rules about in-person/online events but if you are contacting me about a workshop or a talk, I will expect to have a conversation about:

  • why you have chosen the format you have (and who you want to include/who you exclude as a result)

  • what Covid-19 precautions you are taking if it is in-person.

I am available to speak (on my own, or as part of a panel) about zines, research, madness, mental health and neurodivergence, queerness, and zine librarianship at the Edinburgh Zine Library.

If you’re looking for someone to speak generally on zine librarianship, I’d recommend exploring the Zine Librarians Speaker’s Bureau first.

Workshops I have facilitated include:

  • Zine Making, Young People’s Collective, V&A Dundee, April 2023

  • ‘Crisis’, Scottish Graduate School of Social Science Hub Festival, March 2023

  • Zine Workshop, “Art By Post” programme , Southbank Centre, Zoom, September & November 2022

  • Zine Workshop as part of Take It Back, Unlimited Festival, Southbank Centre, September 2022

  • How to Run a Zine Workshop, Edinburgh Libraries, Teams, June 2022

  • Zine Fever: Exploring the History of Zines, Edinburgh Zine Festival, May 2022

  • It’s Not the End of the World: Zines and Activism, Edinburgh Zine Festival, Zoom, May 2022

  • Leave Comic Sans Alone: Accessibility and Zine Making, Barnard Zine Library, Zoom, March 2022

  • Food Soverignity Zine Workshop, Young Friends of the Earth Ireland, Teams, 2020

  • Climate Migration Zine Workshop, STAND, Teams, 2020

  • Zine Making, Dyspraxic Me, Zoom, October 2020

  • Encountering Cities a Human Geography Zine Workshop, University of Edinburgh, 2018

  • Zine Making with Young People, Edinburgh Central Library, 2017 & 2018

Talks I have given include:

  • Zines from the Sickbed, QueerCircle, Zoom, January 2023

  • Edinburgh Zine Library: Collecting, Curating and Community, National Library of Scotland, November 2022