Grand Canadian Western Screenshop

The Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop was established by artist Bill Lobchuk in 1968 at 48 Princess Street in Winnipeg's Exchange District. Operating until 1987, this printmaking facility became the Prairies' first artist-run center and developed into a significant hub of creative activity. The Screen Shop specialized in silkscreen printing, chosen for its accessibility and anti-elitist nature, which aligned with the founders' critical stance toward modernism, Eurocentrism, and American imperialism.

The Screen Shop fostered important connections across Canada's art communities, attracting artists from throughout the country and beyond. Notable artists associated with the Shop included Don Proch, Winston Leathers, E.J. Howorth, Tony Tascona, Joe Fafard, Jackson Beardy, Daphne Odjig, and Alex Janvier. Their work embodied diverse artistic movements of the era, from psychedelia and Pop Art influences to regional discourses, Indigenous expression, and feminist practices. The Screen Shop's legacy was celebrated in the exhibition "Superscreen: The Making of an Artist-Run Counterculture and the Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop," which highlighted its significant contribution to establishing silkscreen printmaking as an important contemporary medium in the Canadian Prairies.