Lucky Press

Article by Olivia Belovich
Photo by Jean Levac /Postmedia

Restoring a letterpress
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When Lloyd Bowcott, of Cook Kettle Press in Shirley, B.C., found what McCallum was looking for, the two months of back and forth began to restore the 75-year-old machine.

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Bowcott says McCallum was an obvious choice for the press — it was important to him that it stayed in Canada as it was manufactured here.

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Back in the 1950s, Craftsman presses were manufactured for both professionals and hobbyists. This particular one, the Monarch, is unique for its tabletop size. It was seldom used until now.

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McCallum did her homework; she knew how to put the thing together. This wasn’t enough to prepare her for the arrival of the package at her Ottawa home in April. When she finally received the hefty box, she felt scared.

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“I had done research for years. I had taken online classes, scrolled Reddit, and read everything. But these machines aren’t made anymore — you can’t just order a new part from Amazon. So owning it was terrifying.”

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Shortly after receiving her press, she found out about the Ottawa 200 grant from an email list she’d signed up for. This was when the gears started turning, she says.

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The other recipients of this grant vary in medium, but all are closely linked to Ottawa in some way. According to the city’s “Ottawa 200 Grant Recipients and Project Summaries” web page, there are public screenings of an animated short film inspired by local neighbourhoods, public art installations that turn history into knitted forms, and art-making sessions with Algonquin forest teachings.

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These projects were chosen from a pool of 134 applicants by the city’s cultural funding team. McCallum’s Ottawa Imprints application emphasized artistic excellence, public impact and community engagement, says Dan Chenier, the general manager of recreation, cultural and facility services for the City of Ottawa, in a statement.

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The city also said that the grant, totalling $300,000, “will bring free, accessible cultural programming to public spaces across the city in 2026.”