We are organising three workshops for different ages as part of the Still exhibition at Chalkwell Hall, over the Sundays in August.

Additionally, a Pop-up Cafe will be open on 7th and 28th of August, serving hot and cold drinks and some yummy home-made cakes!

Workshop 1 - Make a T-shirt on the theme of water using stencils and printing.

11-16 age group, 5 places. Please supply your own T-shirt. Cost £5

Workshop 2 - Imagine a big river and paint it.

5-10 age group, 15 places. Cost £3

Workshop 3 - Adult contemporary mixed media and collage-based workshop exploring themes of the sea.

Adults, 10 places. Cost £5

Dates of the workshops:

Sunday 7th August 10am - 12pm & 2pm - 4pm

Sunday 14th August 10am - 12pm & 2pm - 4pm

Sunday 21st August 10am - 12pm & 2pm - 4pm

Sunday 28th August 10am - 12pm & 2pm - 4pm

To book tickets click here.

Metal's 10 day arts and culture festival at Solomon Monk's Pump House has now come to an end.  An amazing array of talent from around the Globe and across the UK presented, performed and entertained for our pop-up festival venue in Chalkwell Park. For more information about what happened, who came and some comments and feedback from audiences and artists please follow the relevant links:-

For Shorelines: Literature Festival of the Sea / Salon Evenings / Pecha Kucha Night Vol. 9 / An Evening of Jazz with Snowboy / Out on Their Own classical music event / Hugh Hughes in 360 / London Snorkelling Team & Adam Sky (Adamski) / Metal Presents at Solomon Monk's Pump House / End of Term.

Here is an extract from Hoipolloi presents Hugh Hughes in.. 360:

+ You can watch our short interviews with some of the musicians from OUT ON THEIR OWN event:

Over what turned out to be a dramatic and stormy sea weekend weatherwise in Southend on Sea, Metal's first Literature Festival of the Sea, Shorelines, in Solomon Monks Pump House in July 2011, was no less awe inspiring than the real waves pounding the shore outside.

Opening with a heart-wrenching reading from Veronique Olmi's 'Beside the Sea' on Friday evening by the actress Lisa Dwan - readings from Sjon (From the Mouth of the Whale), Roma Tearne (The Swimmer) andThomas Joshua Cooper (The Atlas Project) kept the packed house spell-bound, whilst Lara Fiegel (Modernism on Sea) and Sue Jones (Whitstable Biennial) took us on a coastal journey of visual art, poetry and design around the UK, with Southend making its own significant contribution.

Sunday saw a powerhouse panel of Iain Sinclair (Ghost Milk); Robert MacFarlane (The Wild Places) Jay Griffiths (Wild) Yang Lian (Where the Sea Stands Still) Stephen Watts (The Blue Bag) and Rachel Lichtenstein (On Brick Lane) and talking about their relationship both professionally and personally to the Sea.  As well as contributions from Syd Moore (The Drowning Pool), Tom King (The Thames Estuary Trail) Paul Gilson (Tales of a Leigh Fisherman) and Shaun Levin.

All in all a thought-provoking and inspiring weekend.

Donwload a PDF of the full programme here.

Last week Metal Liverpool hosted an exhibition by Laurence Payot which brought together some of the process and materials collected during the 'Coincidence' performance that happened from 25th May- 5th June on the streets of Picton.  The film, made by Sam Meech, followed two of the participants each day as they performed their daily action.  One of our favourites was 'Let's chalk a Hopscotch in the street for people to hop on as they walk past'!  There was also a free newspaper given away that gathered together people's thoughts, comments and images from the blog that was active throughout the fourteen day performance.  Read more here www.coincidenceproject.co.uk.

Images below by Ian Poulson.