What's on

Try your hand at print design with Patrick Moriarty, owner and designer at Paisley Power! Transform hand-drawn motifs, photographic imagery, graphics, watercolour illustration, doodles or small objects into eye-catching textile prints in one creative evening, with 1-2-1 guidance. These classes are open to all levels, with various artistic techniques to explore each week. Create repeat patterns by hand and learn how to replicate these digitally for printing. At the end of your session, you can order a large FREE sample of your design on…

Our Listening Bench has just been updated with the latest audio content. Find out what our artists in residency been up to and a listen to a new song by young musician from Southend – Leo C. Interview with Figs in Wigs Interview with Charles Sharman-Cox Interview with Dean Atta Leo C’s new release – We Age The Listening Bench is located outside Chalkwell Hall – on the decking facing the sea and is accessible 24/7. More information about the Listening…

\ \ \ NEW TOMA OPEN CRIT DATES @ Chalkwell Hall / / / While the TOMA education programme draws to an end before the next open call we will continue our outward facing open crits series into the new year. They are taking place on a variety of eves / days so hopefully a session to suit all – – – bring something 2 discuss or share – – – this can be an idea, the start of something, the…

METAL SOUTHEND PRESENTS ~ Netpark Wellbeing Project Dementia Drop-ins: Supporting positive mental health. Project coordinator Emma Mills.

The Netpark Wellbeing Project welcomes Adult Carers to join us for a 12 week course, exploring traditional and digital methods of creativity. Discover photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, NetPark digital storytelling apps and much more! These sessions are totally free to attend, with refreshments provided, all in our space and welcoming studio at the centre of Chalkwell Park. Free 12 week course Tuesdays – 1.30 – 3.30pm To find out more or book your place, contact chalkwell@metalculture.com

A new short course from the Netpark Wellbeing Project. For adults living with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), Anxiety, Depression or other mental health concerns. Discover mindfulness and yoga for beginners, plus explore your own artwork and photography, with guidance from artist and art therapist Emma Mills. 12 Week course. Every Wednesday from 10am to 12pm All classes are free with refreshments provided. To find out more or book a place, please contact chalkwell@metalculture.com

Working with the NHS Recovery and Wellbeing team from Rayleigh, Rochford and  Castle Point this is for people living with low level mental health conditions. The 10 week digital art course incorporates using  NetPark apps, walking in Chalkwell Park and using Ipads to create digital art and photography. We hope to improve confidence using technology, gentle exercising  in the park whilst meeting new people and helping raise self esteem. 1.30 – 3.30pm Wednesdays, Metal Art School. This course is free to attend,…

Supportive, artist-led sessions which explore drawing and using different materials, in a welcoming and relaxed space. Six weeks of sessions, from Fri 18 Jan – Fri 22 Feb 2019. 10am – 11.30am each week £5 per session, payable directly to Ali. If you are currently caring for someone and would like a regular creative break in your weekly routine to meet new people in a similar position and explore your creativity, Ali invites you to come along to spend some time…

STORY BITES WRITES Fridays from 17:30 – 19:00 £7.50 per week Metal Art School, Chalkwell Park  Story Bites Writes is a weekly writing club lead by Jacqson Diego Story Emporium. The session is for children of all abilities who are passionate about writing. Our group of 8 and 12 year olds meet weekly at the Metal Art School, in Chalkwell Park, to grow ideas, share their writing and start new writing projects that have been inspired by a range of activities and…

Discover Chalkwell Park in a new way and experiment with drawing methods during with these relaxed, guided sessions. Join artist and teacher Lisa Meehan for her popular six week course! All levels of artists welcome. Contact Lisa directly to book your place.

Part of our month-long programme, Essex Writers House, throughout March.  For the full listings of events and activities, please visit www.essexwritershouse.com WRITERS HOT DESKS 1 – 31 March Two ‘Hot Desks for Hire’ on the top floor of Chalkwell Hall, with spectacular views of the Thames Estuary are available to writers, FREE OF CHARGE, to book by the day (9am – 9pm) for the duration of the Pop Up Essex Writers House.  We have named these desks after two great writers who…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com   Writers Café 1 –  31 March 12noon  –  5pm (Thurs – Sun) From Voltaire to Hemingway and Sue Townsend to JK Rowling writers have a long tradition of people watching, writing and observing life from cafés and bars. Come and enjoy a cuppa in our Pop Up Writers Cafe, with Book Swap / Book Shop / 1 o’clock Reads and individual…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com   Damn Write:  SAY WHAT NOW? Fri 1 March 8pm – 10pm Old Trunk present a Politics edition of their sell-out & often mischievous new writing and storytelling night Damn Write.  Come hear some knuckle-whitening rants and head-scratching musings by writers just as WTF as you. There won’t be salvation, but there’ll be booze.  Hosted with feverish confusion by Sadie Hasler…

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Women Sat 2 March 7pm – 10pm Join Laure Eve (The Graces, 2016 Faber & Faber; The Curses, 2019 Faber & Faber) and Samantha Shannon (The Bone Season series, 2013-2017, Bloomsbury; The Priory of the Orange Tree, 2019, Bloomsbury) in conversation. Men have famously dominated science fiction and fantasy, both in terms of writers and readers. The genres have also been well known for their absence of nuanced female characters.  But with such developments as an…

Part of our month-long programme for Essex Writers House – to see full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com   Stranger Than Fiction Syd Moore in Conversation with Kirsty Brimelow QC Sun 3 March 7.30pm – 10pm In January 2019 an international conference brought together experts to explore past, present, and future perspectives on witchcraft beliefs and persecution with a focus on present day witchcraft practices and human rights abuses across the UK and the world.  It was at this…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com LITTLE BUSY BOOK CLUB Thurs 7 March  /  14 March /  Thurs 21 March  /  Thurs  28 March   11am – 12noon   Like any other book club, except it’s for children aged 3 And 4 years old (and their grown- ups). Join Jacqson Diego Story Emporium to read and share books and explore the stories and characters in fun ways. There…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com Future Park / FREE ENTRY Friday 8 March 2019  –  7pm – Late Future Park is Metal’s regular fast-paced evening for creative people working in any artistic discipline. It happens 4 times a year. Each evening includes an invited guest speaker, a live performance plus 10 x 3 Minute Wonder presentations from writers, artists, makers, performers, designers and more.   Anyone can take…

Sat 9 March Life’s a Pitch 1.30pm – 4.30pm “So, tell me all about yourself…”  Does that sentence fill you with horror? Do you clam up? Or worse, do you start to ramble incoherently until the other person’s eyes glaze over? Fear no more! This is a workshop that shows you how to use creative writing techniques in the everyday world. Movies and books are built around hooks, conflict and mystery – that’s how they keep us engaged, and you…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com NETPARK STORIES:  Scentopia Sat 9 March  2pm – 3.30pm Suggested Ages:  5 – 8 years Come and experience this GPS located adventure story set in Chalkwell Park.  Experience the park as you never have before through iPad audio. Each chapter takes you on a rip-roaring quest and journey around the park – followed by a short writing workshop when you return to our Writers…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com   NETPARK STORIES:  Scentopia Sat 9 March  2pm – 3.30pm Suggested Ages:  5 – 8 years Come and experience this GPS located adventure story set in Chalkwell Park.  Experience the park as you never have before through iPad audio. Each chapter takes you on a rip-roaring quest and journey around the park – followed by a short writing workshop when you return to our…

Wed 13 March Paradisus Launch 5.30pm – 6.30pm Meet the next generation of Southend pioneers – the writers, designers, publishers and artists of the future. Metal’s Arts Award students launch the third edition of their zine, Paradisus. Created entirely by the students themselves as a vehicle to communicate through images, the issues that are important to them. ‘PARADISUS : freedom’ is a third wave look into how students at Metal arts award have developed their art into a collaborative piece focusing…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com WRITING THE SHORT FILM Sat 16 March 11am – 2.30pm (with ½ hour lunch break) The short film is often overlooked as a story telling medium, but it can be a great calling card for the new writer or those coming from other writing disciplines. This half day course run by Maria Solecki is designed to equip those new to writing…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com   NETPARK STORIES:  Garden of Remember Sat 16 March 2pm Suggested Ages:  15years and above Created by a writer, artist and illustrator working with Tony, Alan and Eddie who have all lived with dementia and a group of young students from Westborough Primary School.  Garden of Remember takes audiences on a tour of stories and past loves remembered and told in fragments in this moving…

I’m With The Banned Performed talk – followed by pub quiz By Syd Moore and Daryl Easlea Sat 16 March 7.30pm – 10.30pm Throughout history books have been barred, banned and even burnt having incurred the wrath of the censors for the strangest of reasons. Many of them remain on the prohibition list in different parts of the globe today. Join writers Syd Moore and Daryl Easlea as they reprise their celebrated and entertaining show about silenced stories and their…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com BIG BOOK CLUB GET TOGETHER Thurs 21 March  7.30pm (reading starts at 8pm) Did you know – Essex has more Book Clubs than any other county in the UK?  If you are part of a book club already, or perhaps you’d like to learn more about what Book Clubs do – we’d love you to come to our mass gathering of…

Sat 23 March Workshop: Writing Comedy Ages 12 – 19 yrs 11am – 4pm (with an hour for lunch) Author and screenwriter, Simon James Green gives you his top tips through a series of fast-paced exercises to create and develop character. Designed to allow students to really get to ‘know’ their fictional creations in a way that will bring them to life on the page. Includes guided writing exercises to develop attention grabbing opening lines and comedic scenes. Whether its…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com NETPARK STORIES:  Sound and Poetry Tour by Mark Grist and MC Mixy Sat 23 March 2pm Suggested Ages:  5 – 8yrs – The ‘What Said That?’ tour 13yrs and above – The 30 Year Love Story Take the What Said That tour and see if you can solve our poetry riddles.  Or if you’re a bit older, why not listen to our hip-hop love…

Sat 23 March The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta 5pm – 7pm  Grab your opportunity to meet our Writer in Residence and get a sneak preview of The Black Flamingo prior to its publication in hardback, set for August 2019 (Hachette Children’s Group). Fiercely told, this is a timely coming-of-age story told in verse and written by the celebrated poet, Dean Atta. A boy comes to terms with his identity as a mixed-race gay teen – then at university he finds his wings…

Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story by Celeste Bell and Zoe Howe Sat 23 March 8pm Join Celeste and Zoe for this pre-publication launch of their much anticipated new biography of Poly Styrene.  Tickets are FREE – with an exclusive opportunity to purchase a signed advance copy for £20 (20% discount – RRP £25) when you book a ticket to this event – to be collected on the evening. With DJ set by Pegbags. Poly Styrene was a singer-songwriter, an artist, a free-thinker, a post-modern style…

Sun 24 March Music Writing  – with Zoë Howe 11.30am – 3.30pm (with an hour for lunch) Zoë Howe (‘one of the UK’s great biographers’ – Dr Simon Warner, Text & Drugs & Rock ’n’ Roll) joins us fresh from launching her latest book Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story here at Essex Writer’s House the night before  to run an entertaining music writing workshop for all levels. Themes to be discussed include interview techniques, research, classic music writing and dissecting what works…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com Low Country: Brexit on the Essex Coast:  Tom Bolton Fri 29 March  7.30pm   Celebrated walker and essayist Tom Bolton walks the boggy, winding coastline of Essex, encountering stunning landscapes, wind-battered towns and front-garden Union Jacks. Spanning both landscape and political writing, Low Country interrogates the natural and social environments of Essex, asking why its particular politics is so pronounced, and what we can…

Part of our month long Essex Writers House programme – for full listings of events and activities visit www.essexwritershouse.com Proud:  Stories, Poetry and Art on the theme of Pride Dean Atta and Caroline Bird perform, alongside young poets from Southend. Sat 30 March  7.30pm   Join poets Dean Atta and Caroline Bird for an evening of LGBTQ+ poetry performances to celebrate the publication of PROUD, an anthology of writing, poems and art for teens by LGBTQ+ creatives, compiled by Juno Dawson.   Aspiring…

Sun 31 March Lowborn 4pm – 6pm Prize winning novelist, Kerry Hudson in conversation with Southend based creative producer, Jules Easlea in advance of the May 2019 publishing date of her new book, Lowborn.  The book asks what does it really mean to be poor in Britain today? As Kerry revisits her childhood and some of the country’s most deprived towns ‘When every day of your life you have been told you have nothing of value to offer, that you…

We’re back for the 6th year, with another amazing FREE day of arts for all of our local young people. We invite young people from across our borough to join us for a full day of art workshops, creative learning, fun and performances, as we explore theatre, music, visual arts, acrobatics, puppetry, sculpture, storytelling, costume, circus skills and much, much more. Are you part of a school or community group? Why not come along to try new things in brilliant…