Metal Culture

Forthcoming Events

Click on the image above to purchase your tickets for Listen to This music events, Salon evenings at Chalkwell Hall, Cafe Valise our pop-up venue at Peterborough Festival or to find out about sponsoring this year's Village Green arts festival.

To download our Southend summer events brochure as a pdf, click here.

Community Garden Session with Gemma Jerome

Environmental Entrepreneur Gemma Jerome came along to Metal Liverpool to get involved with the community garden after several different people told her about the project. Gemma kindly offered her time to help the group develop a plan for the garden. We are hoping to use it as a new space to program workshops, events, education and to highlight the importance of the natural world.

If you are interested in getting involved with the garden or have anything to donate to us please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 0151 707 2277

Light Sculptures Chalkwell Park

Metal commissioned artist, Ron Hasleden to create a light work within the wildlife garden in Southend’s well used public park, Chalkwell Park – which is where Metal’s Southend home is situated.

He chose to work with a group of school pupils from Darlinghurst Primary School asking them to complete a set of simple pencil line drawings, responding to the theme of their favourite flower or plant. Around 150 drawings were produced.

From these drawings, Ron selected six different blooms which have been faithfully translated into neon light sculptures, each approximately 1m x 1m large. The lights are mounted onto 5m high wooden posts and permanently installed within the park for all to enjoy.

SALON in June

The second Salon event of the 2012 series, on Tuesday 5 June, sees some of the best contemporary chroniclers of the city in discussion about their recent projects.

Our host, Rachel Lichtenstein will be launching her latest book, Diamond Street: the Hidden World of Hatton Garden (Hamish Hamilton), which includes tales of diamond dealers, medieval monks and a trip to the sewers to explore the lost River Fleet.

Joining her will be the highly regarded New York based writer and film critic for the Telegraph, Sukhdev Sandhu, who will be discussing his extraordinary Artangel project, Night Haunts – a nocturnal journey through the London night, along with Craig Taylor, talking about his recently released bestselling oral history of the city, Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now, As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It and Long for It, during which he interviewed over 200 ordinary people who live and work in London now.

For more information about our Salon series, click here.

Tickets can be booked online or by calling 01702 470 700.

Cafe Valise at Peterborough Festival

Metal presents Cafe Valise: A pop-up, cafe and arts venue for the Peterborough Festival at Chauffeurs Cottage, St Peter's Road, Peterborough PE1 1YX

Saturday 30 June – Friday 6 July 2012
Open daily 11am - 4pm (with evening events too - programme outlined here)

All events are free of charge, but booking is essential for evening programme. Please book here.

As part of a longer term project that Metal are embarking on in partnership with Vivacity and Arts Council England that will see Chauffeurs Cottage in Peterborough used as a space for the development of artistic ideas for Peterborough - our first project is to create a pop-up cafe and arts venue for the duration of Peterborough Festival - Sat 30 June until Sunday 8th July.

Expect to find a gallery space, arts and crafts marketplace, artist's in residence, arts activities and rooms designed to provoke debate - as well as great coffee and a choice of delicious cakes and sandwiches. In the evenings we have a mix of acoustic music, spoken word and interesting talks by artists of all sorts.

Take time out of your busy festival schedule and pop into Cafe Valise. Take the weight off, mull over festival events that you’ve just seen or use our information service to decide what to go and see next.
We hope to see you there.

Liverpool Art Prize 2012 Opens at Metal Liverpool

Driving wind and rain couldn't keep the crowds away for the opening of Liverpool Art Prize 2012 last Thursday evening. Well over 400 people of all ages packed the station buildings for what was a truly special night. The artists, Alan Dunn, 'Tomo', Robyn Woolston and John Barraclough/Mike Carney, who together produce Drawing Paper, have really made four distinct spaces in the buildings their own. People travelled from as far a field as Devon and Glasgow to attend and with live music and opportunities to draw as well as enjoy good wine and the chance to mix with the crowds it was a struggle to get people to leave!

Thanks to the artists, all of our volunteers and sponsors for helping make the evening such a success!

The Art Prize this year, heralds the opening of Liverpool Art Month, which consists of 11 artists studios and groups across the city showcasing contemporary work in a new and exciting venture. Click here for full listings.

Get down and see the show before the 9th June and pick up some of the free giveaways that the artists have produced, including Drawing Paper #5 and 'The Sound of Ideas Forming' Alan Dunn's new sound compilation CD. Experience Robyn's new installation for our Accumulator Tower 'last' and take the opportunity to become a recruit of Tomo Securities. Open Tues - Fri 2-6pm and Sat 12-4pm. Free admission.

Photos courtesy of Mccoy Wynne and Leila Romaya

Metal in Japan

Metal's Managing Director, Colette Bailey and Associate Curator, Simon Poulter were in Japan last week to visit 4 different cities and a number of arts organisations who host a programme of international artists-in-residence, alongside creating strong relationships with communities and places in their towns and cities.

We were initially hosted by the Beppu Project on the South East of the South Island of Japan. Beppu is a coastal town on the pacific seaboard with similarities to Southend-on-Sea, that has been an historic location for people to take holidays in Japan. The Beppu Project develops a broad range of projects in disused spaces across the city. We gave a presentation of Metal's projects to a room full of people in a shop unit in the middle of town. Next we went toTottori (North East on the South Island) in a beautiful mountain region, as guests of the Bird Theatre company - they work out of a huge abandoned high school in the heart of a rural community creating extraordinary theatre productions. A whistle stop visit to Kyoto followed and then on to Toyko where Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto from the NLI Research Institute introduced us to a wide range of arts organisations and artists across the city. In the evening he invited us to a reception where we met the Japan Foundation, the British Council in Japan and the brand new Toyko Arts Council among others. We made a short presentation about Metal's work in the UK and our plans for an exciting programme of exchange projects over the next year.

Listen to This photos

Metal's March Listen to This saw Zoë Howe and Luke Haines discuss the relationship between popular music and gender. The tickets for the forthcoming editions of Listen to This are going fast, book yours here.

Photos by Simon Fowler.

Summer School

Summer School

Metal are organising a creative summer school over the holidays – book one of the week-long tailor-made arts experiences for young children that includes collage, screen-printing, marbling, photography, drawing, working with found objects and more. With two professional artist tutors, this is a great opportunity for some exposure to different materials and techniques for budding artists.

Ages 5-11 years

Week 1 - Monday 6 - Friday 10 August, 10am – 4pm

Week 2 - Monday 13 - Friday 17 August, 10am – 4pm

We also offer an optional early start from 9am and late finish at 5pm for £6 per hour.

Snacks / drinks provided (Please provide packed lunch)

£100 / week

Limited places, please book early by filling in and returning the Application Form (download here) with a non-returnable deposit of £40, payable by a cheque or Paypal (please include the child's name in the payment notes).

Platform Youth Theatre present The Random Ridiculous Rock

Platform Youth Theatre based at Metal Liverpool performed their Spring show 'The Random Ridiculous Rock' yesterday evening. The show was devised and performed by the talented group led by Eliza Brittles and Natasha Selden.

For more information about Platform contact Eliza

07857327995 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it