The Insight into Culture 2010 was set up for 150 sixth formers from Southend High School for Girls.  The day consisted of 5 activities; Art & Collage workshop, Digital Photography trail, Kingdom of Chalkwell Treasure Hunt, Kitchen Garden discovery and Samba Music workshop. The students even got to experience what it is like to take part in Metal's 3 Minute Wonder presentations on their chosen country.  For the Art and Collage workshop was led by Debbie D'Auria, and involved gathering natural materials such as twigs and leaves to make a large picture of each groups chosen country. The Digital Photography hosted by NatureSpaceCreative wanted the girls to take pictures that represented their mood and feelings whilst in the park.  The Kingdom of Chalkwell Treasure Hunt involved small groups exploring the park to unscramble letters to find the secret Princess’s name in order to win a small prize back at the Hall.  The Kitchen Garden workshop led by EarthAngel, was based on two groups preparing a separate dish made from ingredients gathered from the garden and walking to local shops to find locally produced products. The Samba Music Workshop, which was led by SHSG, allowed the girls to experience playing new and different musical instruments and even become part of a large orchestra playing to people in the park. Overall, it was a fantastic day had by all and Metal would like to especially thank all the artists that helped and supported on the day and of course Southend High School for Girls for participating.

We had a fantastic Pecha Kucha Night Vol. 5 last night at East 15's Clifftown Studios in Southend on Sea.  We heard presentations from TV producer and visual artist, Grant Philpott (Harry Hill's TV Burp), poets Sundown Arts, Jules Easlea (Royal Opera House, Thurrock), David Anderson (Saatchi & Saatchi), writer and journalist, Tom King, artists Pat & Trevor and comedian Markus Birdman - all topped off with drinks and delicious food from My Kitchen.

June's Future Station meeting was a success, with attendees sharing their exciting proposals for the weeks 8th-20th November when Future Stationers will be showcasing their work of many different disciplines at Edge Hill Station.

We were delighted to have The Suitcase Ensemble treating us to a taster workshop for their upcoming project 'Sound Tracks' which is to begin in September. www.suitcase-ensemble.com

Unfortunately there is to be no Future Station meeting in July due to holidays. The next meeting will be in August date TBC, this is also the deadline for November proposals.

Metal's Guinness World Record ™ breaking length of bunting was put up on exhibition on Southend's Pier this weekend.  

Metal was helped to break the World Record on 27th October last year, by the Southend community - schools, community groups, WI groups, scouts and hundreds of interested individuals.  The bunting is 2,159.30m long (the length of the Pier itself) - breaking the previous record by over 600m - it has 9000 hand-made flags stitched to a continuous length of ribbon.

The bunting will stay up on exhibition until 21 July 2010. 

Tickets are now on sale for our next Salon evening with Robert MacFarlane on 1 September. To book a place please click here.

Metal hosted another amazing Salon evening at Chalkwell Hall last night in partnership with writer and artist, Rachel Lichtenstein with guest speakers, visual and performance artist, Oreet Ashery, playwright, Samantha Ellis and novelist, Naomi Alderman - all award winning writers and artists.

The evening started with a screening of three film Oreet Ashery's Dancing with Men, Why Do You Think I Left? and O Jerusalem and Oreet went on to talk about her three recently published art books The Novel of Nonel and Vovel (Charta), Dancing with Men (LADA) and Staying; Dream, Bin, Soft, Stud and Other Stories (Artangel)

Samantha Ellis delighted the 80 strong audience, packed into the drawing rooms of Chalkwell Hall, with a reading (with host artist and writer, Rachel Lichtenstein) from her really entertaining play Cling to me Like Ivy.  And then a real treat - she read an extract from her as yet unpublished, untitled new work.

The evening finished with the extraordinary Naomi Alderman who read from her two published works, The Lessons and Disobedience.

This Wednesday we announced the winners of this year's Liverpool Art Prize.  The People's Choice winner is James Quin and the Liverpool Art Prize 2010 went to David Jacques, who will go on to exhibit at the Walker Art Gallery early next year.

Well done to all the artists! And a big thank you to the sponsors.

Despite the gorgeous weather at the weekend we had a crowd of culturepoolers come to the Edge Hill to hear talks from the nominated artists about their work, and to enjoy some fresh fruit smoothies and strawberries and cream.  It was a lovely day and we all enjoyed the fascinating insights into the background of the work on show that each artist gave to us.

Don't forget voting for the People's Choice Award ends today.  The winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony starting at 6pm tomorrow.  If you can't make it in person follow our twitter updates to get the results as it happens!