Metal's MD, Colette Bailey has curated The Seaside Land at the Festival of Britain 60th anniversary celebration exhibition at the Southbank Centre in the heart of London.  Fourteen beach huts designed by artists with all kinds of cultural activity happening inside them, including: vintage beach wear lent by Southend's Beecroft Art Gallery; Postcards, lent by Southend Museum; an exhibition by Synchro Studios and much more will be on show on Queen's Walk until 4th September 2011.

The Seaside Land also includes the World's Longest Line of Bunting, Mark Dion's 'Mobile Gull Appreciation Unit', 'Liverpool Jackpot' by Franck Scurti and a 70m urban beach on the bank of the Thames.

The Suitcase Ensemble’s much anticipated ‘Edgy: The Railway Cabaret’ happened at Edge Hill Station last Saturday.

The Suitcase Ensemble performed some of their own songs along with traditional railway songs in the show. As usual they were hilarious, quirky and wonderful! They were joined by some pigeons, ‘Soundtracks’ (Music and drama group ran by The Suitcase Ensemble) performing sound bites inspired by The Edge Hill Archive. Dance Company ‘China Pearl’ performed a dance inspired by the station specially choreographed for the event, Rebecca Joy Sharp performed her poems and music from ‘The Ballad of Juniper Davy and Sonny Lumiere’ and Hip Hop duo ‘Insanity Hurts’ had their debut performance of their poignant songs – watch out for those guys! Click here to listen to some of their stuff. The day was compered by the ‘The Railfan Three’

Photos by Mycroft Milverton

Whilst on their residential in Liverpool, pupils and teachers from Lowther Endowed Primary School, Cumbria visited Metal at Edge Hill Station. They enjoyed delicious Carribbean food from nearby Raggas Carribbean takeaway and told a little bit about the station. We then all walked to St Anne's Primary school to meet the pupils there and for a fun drama workshop with Natasha and Eliza, who also run Platform - A youth theatre based at Edge Hill Station. Each group then presented a collage they had previously made to the other group expressing their interests and a little bit about their area. 

Both schools are keen to develop a continuing relationship and there was even talk of a possible future visit of St Anne's pupils to Cumbria.

On Wednesday evening with support from St Helens Council, Metal opened “Made in St Helens” an exhibition of stunning portraits, landscapes and architecture at The Godfrey Pilkington Gallery in St Helens. London based photographer, Phil Starling was invited to St Helens by Metal’s Liverpool Director, to take portraits of 12 of Ian’s friends who drink in his local pub, The Turks Head. The men’s ages range from 25 to 85 and Ian has encouraged the men to write about growing up in the town and to give particular emphasis on the role that Mothers played in their lives. A collection of personal photographs and objects belonging to the Mums’ is being shown as part of the exhibition. Marie Rimmer CBE, Leader of St Helens Council opened the exhibition claiming it was the best she had seen in the town and further describing the work “ as a very important collection of memories”, Marie also offered her help to Metal to secure support for a publication to made of the photographs and the memories, the book will create a unique overview of life in this Industrial Northern town over the past 80 years.

Thames to Tama: exhibition 3 - 24 March 2011.
Venue: Unit 6, Star Lane Industrial Estate, Great Wakering, SS3 0PJ.

For the Thames to Tama project, artist Lee Baker created five huge murals depicting the true life journey of William Adams, following him from his humble beginnings in the Thames Gateway, to work in the navy with Sir Francis Drake, becoming an honoured Samurai in Japan and the first Briton ever to set foot in that country. The artwork was made with 4664 self-portraits by students from 25 Southend schools.

The titleThames to Tama refers to the two rivers – the Thames here in Southend and the River Tama which feeds Japan’s capital city, Tokyo.

Will Adam grew up and learned his trade as a navigator on the Thames – starting at the age of 12. The Southend landscape would have been very familiar to him.  He trained with Sir Francis Drake, played a role in the Battle of the Spanish Armada and eventually put together his own fleet of five Dutch ships and set off on a journey of discovery and epic adventure that eventually saw him washed up in the River Tama in Japan. Beset by bad luck and problems, four of his five ships were lost at sea.  He entered Japan on the fifth with only 24 surviving men. Using his knowledge of weaponry (and his reputed charm) he became an honoured Samurai, the right hand man for the Shogun of the day and remained in Japan for the rest of his life. He is an important historical figure for Japan to this day.

The project was funded by Southend Education Trust and Arts Council England, East. The exhibition was part of a Festival of Learning that was celebrating a number of innovative learning initiatives managed by SET over the previous two years. For more information on the Festival of Learning please visit www.southendfestivaloflearning.com

A short film about Thames to Tama by Sean Groth:

Metal – DEC Labs 21 -26 February 2011
Metal and DEC (Digital Exploration Centre) are working with 8 artists for an intensive week looking at software culture.
The lab is facilitated by Graham Harwood and Simon Poulter at Metal’s Chalkwell Hall base in Southend.

Participating artists:
Stephen Fortune
Emilie Giles
Caroline Heron
John O’Shea
Olga Panades
Rob Smith
Markus Soukup
Hans Verhaegen

The artists are working with software experts, designers and computer scientists looking at ways of using software in devising new work. Visiting speakers include Dr Tim Kindberg, Dr Ken Guild, Dr Matthew Fuller and Peter Higgins.

Click here to follow our goldbloggers, Goldsmith University’s Interactive Media students, as they document how the week unfolds on www.viralprojects.com.