Events
Each TOMA 24/25 artist has created a 60-second film that will be screened daily from 22 February to 21 March on the Big Screen Southend in Elmer Square, adjacent to Focal Point Gallery.
Join us for the Reject Reflect Reclaim opening event from 2pm to 4.30pm on the 22nd of February at the Beecroft Gallery.
Visit the Reject Reflect Reclaim exhibition at Beecroft Art Gallery from 11 -5pm Wednesday to Sunday till 11 May 2025.
Saturday 6 July
7pm - 10pm
@ The Old Waterworks, North Road, Southend, SS0 7AB
LOW COST tickets HERE please email emma@toma-art.com if you need a FREE ticket.
Join us for a night of love-themed karaoke as part of Pluto Press’ The Reading Room project, looking at the themes within Sophie K Rosa’s new book Radical Intimacy.
On Saturday 6 July 2024, Paige Ockendon and Emma Edmondson will host a night of karaoke along the theme of love in response to chapter 2 from Radical Intimacy, Us two against the world.
Paige and Emma are huge karaoke fans, seeing the past time as a space of hedonism, love, mutual aid and most importantly fun. The karaoke dance floor is a leveller where everyone is a star. But it can also be a place of vulnerability, especially if you have not karaoke’d before or you think you can’t sing. And so with this in mind Paige and Emma invite you to join them for an evening of supportive, feelgood karaoke asking themselves, and the audience, how can karaoke meet care? Is what makes a good karaoke host the same as what makes a good lover? What adaptations can be made so everyone can be in the karaoke moment together? Can karaoke work when we’re sober?
All are welcome to join karaoke fanatics Paige and Emma, whether you’re a first timer looking to pop your singing cherry, or a well-versed dark horse. There are no expectations to get up on stage but everyone is welcome to get involved in singing if they want, or sit and watch and support.
Free half-time chips for all attendees!
Get tickets via Eventbrite here. Tickets are low cost at £2.88 but please email emma@toma-art.com if you need a FREE ticket.
This is part of Pluto Press’ The Reading Room project. TOMA and The Old Waterworks are collaborating on more of these over 2024, continuing to look at Radical Intimacy by Sophie K Rosa.
Co-Build with Shaun C. Badham: Radical Intimacy by Sophie K Rosa
As part of the Reading Room project, a collaboration between TOMA and The Old Waterworks.
Sunday 30 June 12 - 3pm @ The Old Waterworks, North Road, Southend, SS0 7AB
***Get tickets via Eventbrite here. Tickets are low cost at £2.88 but please email emma@toma-art.com if you need a FREE ticket***
Join us for a creative workshop as part of Pluto Press’ The Reading Room project, looking at the themes within Sophie K Rosa’s new book Radical Intimacy. TOMA and The Old Waterworks are collaborating on these over the Summer.
On Sunday 30 June 2024, Shaun C. Badham will host a collaborative building activity and group discussion around the notion of ‘home’ in relation to chapter 4 of Radical Intimacy, A ladder is not a resting place.
Within an era of primarily developer led homes, the individual today seems the furthest they have ever been, from having any say or control around housing; so how did we get here? has it always been like this? We will initially explore a period of time (1890 to 1947) when working class families purchased freehold land and self-built homes, using alternative means and salvaged materials. We will speculate what might have been, if the policies which shifted power away from the individual, had never occurred, and whether Englands housebuilding crisis has always been inevitable under capitalism?
As homes (something essential) have become houses (a financial commodity), we will discuss from Radical Intimacy, the many alternative ways of living and support networks which have come to exist, from squatting, a chosen family, community unions and other forms of security.
The session will commence by collectively building a wooden elevated base, something akin to the base of a cabin, which in this case will be a platform for the group discussion. The wooden base, will be utilised and re appropriated for future events/activities as part of The Reading Room Project at The Old Waterworks, facilitating further conversation and hosting a multitude of voices.
Image credit: Installation view of Heron Stream x Strawberry Concorde base, prior to build completion, in collab with Josh Langan. 2023. Photo: Shaun C Badham
Weblink: https://shauncbadham.com/Herons-Stream
About Shaun C. Badham:
Shaun C. Badham is an artist born and lives in Essex, received a BA Fine Art from University West of England in Bristol (2012) and MFA Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London (2017). He produces installations and objects that draw out our relationship to exterior spaces and structures from the urban to the Edgelands. He has created long-term projects, which have included I’M STAYING (2013 – 2021), MORNING (2014-2018), PLOT (2018-2023) and recently EDGELANDS (2022 to present) which holds a collaborative element with Josh Langan, self building cabins on abandoned, disused or land banked land. Works have been presented at, House of Annetta, London; Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin; Tsarino Foundation, Bulgaria; Focal Point Gallery, Southend on Sea; Outpost Gallery, Norwich; Sculpture in the City, London; South Kiosk, London; Newbridge Project Space, Newcastle; Back Lane West, Cornwall, Annka Kultys Gallery, London and Arnolfini Centre of Contemporary Art, Bristol.
About The Reading Room:
The Reading Room is a new collaborative project where people can read, learn, listen, and share ideas. Through linking up with other spaces across the country, Pluto Press and the Left Book Club have created libraries stocked with thought provoking books, where reading groups and opportunities to meet authors are being established, providing resources and activities that hope to catalyse creativity, collaboration and conversation.
This is part of Pluto Press’ The Reading Room project. TOMA and The Old Waterworks are collaborating on more of these over 2024.
ENERGY CONSOLE
Group show from TOMA 2022/24 artists
Beecroft Art Gallery, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, SS2 6EX
27 April - 14 July 2024
Open 11am - 5pm Wednesday to Sunday
Artists exhibiting…
Neeral Bhatt | Graham Burnett | Erene Dellaporta
Joanna Hartle | Edi McGurk | Eva Sbaraini | Kate Sullivan
Energy Console is the end of year show of alternative art school The Other MA’s current 2022/24 cohort. It will take place at the Beecroft Art Gallery.
Visitors are invited to experience work created during the past 18 months of the TOMA course. The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of free workshops and public events, details of which can be found on the TOMA instagram.
Exhibiting TOMA artists are showing work that explores a broad range of themes such as: emerging technologies and performativity, performance and textiles, orchards, permaculture, access intimacy, disability, anti-gallery, consumption and value, science fiction, motherhood, the body and imaginative play, expanded portraiture and digital: analogue, photography, appropriation, memory and collaboration; and the resonance of past experiences in people, places, and things. Artist-led tours of the show are scheduled throughout the exhibition period.
The exhibition entitled Energy Console is inspired by a report on ‘The TOMA way’ written by researcher Jack Ky Tan, titled ‘TOMA Dreamings’ and published in 2023. The report can be read in full here.
Please feel free to join us for the Energy Console opening event from 2pm to 5pm on the 27th of April at the Beecroft Gallery, and then for an opening party with performances, entertainment, and food and drink available to buy, from 6pm to midnight at Twenty One Southend, SS1 2EH.
About TOMA - The Other MA (TOMA) is an 18-month artist-run education model based in Southend-on-Sea, supporting artists who have faced barriers accessing art education and the ‘art world’. The participants meet several times a month at The Old Waterworks for group-selected visiting artist talks, workshops, tutorials and crit sessions.
TOMA was set up in 2016 to offer responsive, affordable, accessible art education to artists. It is currently the only postgraduate-level art programme in Essex after all others were stopped by their host universities.
ENERGY CONSOLE - OPENING EVENT
Group show from TOMA 2022/24 artists
Opening event: Saturday 27 April from 2-5pm
After party: 6pm - midnight at Twenty One Southend, Western Esplanade, SS1 2EH
Energy Console is the end of year show of alternative art school The Other MA’s current 2022/24 cohort. It will take place at the Beecroft Art Gallery.
Visitors are invited to experience work created during the past 18 months of the TOMA course. The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of free workshops and public events, details of which can be found on the TOMA instagram.
Exhibiting TOMA artists are showing work that explores a broad range of themes such as: emerging technologies and performativity, performance and textiles, orchards, permaculture, access intimacy, disability, anti-gallery, consumption and value, science fiction, motherhood, the body and imaginative play, expanded portraiture and digital: analogue, photography, appropriation, memory and collaboration; and the resonance of past experiences in people, places, and things. Artist-led tours of the show are scheduled throughout the exhibition period.
The exhibition entitled Energy Console is inspired by a report on ‘The TOMA way’ written by researcher Jack Ky Tan, titled ‘TOMA Dreamings’ and published in 2023. The report can be read in full here.
Please feel free to join us for the Energy Console opening event from 2pm to 5pm on the 27th of April at the Beecroft Gallery, and then for an opening party with performances, entertainment, and food and drink available to buy, from 6pm to midnight at Twenty One Southend, SS1 2EH.
Sunday 10 December 1pm - 5pm - Meet TOMA artists and take part in a collage and monoprinting workshop during our drop-in day.
Wednesday 6 December 6.30 - 8pm - Tune in for a talk about TOMA and ask any questions about the programme.
Thursday 16 November 5pm - 8pm - Meet TOMA artists and print your own risograph poster during our drop-in eve.
Join us for a series of reading groups as part of Pluto Press’ The Reading Room project. TOMA and The Old Waterworks are collaborating on these over the coming year.
Get tickets via Eventbrite HERE.
From May 2023, Elliot Gibbons will host three reading groups that will look at the publication Southend’s Twilight Worlds that he edited on local queer history and Pluto Press’ Towards a Gay Communism by Mario Mieli. Meili’s book was first published in Italian in 1977 and is considered one of the earliest books of queer theory, although it was not seen as queer theory during the time. Over the course of these sessions, you will collectively consider LGBTQIA+ culture and theory by drawing connections between these two books.
Elliot Gibbons is a curator and writer based in Essex.
** ALL EVENTS WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED **
Get tickets via Eventbrite HERE.
** ALL EVENTS WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED **
* All events are free to attend but booking is advised and we ask that you can commit to all three groups to ensure continuity *
All sessions will take place at The Old waterworks, North Road, Southend-on-Sea, SS0 7AB
You will be sent readings in advance of each session once you have signed up. If you can’t make the event please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend.
Reading groups are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
The Reading Room is a new collaborative project where people can read, learn, listen, and share ideas. Through linking up with other spaces across the country, Pluto Press and the Left Book Club have created libraries stocked with thought provoking books, where reading groups and opportunities to meet authors are being established, providing resources and activities that hope to catalyse creativity, collaboration and conversation.
Join us for a series of reading groups as part of Pluto Press’ The Reading Room project. TOMA and The Old Waterworks are collaborating on these over the coming year.
Get tickets via Eventbrite HERE.
From May 2023, Elliot Gibbons will host three reading groups that will look at the publication Southend’s Twilight Worlds that he edited on local queer history and Pluto Press’ Towards a Gay Communism by Mario Mieli. Meili’s book was first published in Italian in 1977 and is considered one of the earliest books of queer theory, although it was not seen as queer theory during the time. Over the course of these sessions, you will collectively consider LGBTQIA+ culture and theory by drawing connections between these two books.
Elliot Gibbons is a curator and writer based in Essex.
** ALL EVENTS WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED **
Get tickets via Eventbrite HERE.
** ALL EVENTS WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED **
* All events are free to attend but booking is advised and we ask that you can commit to all three groups to ensure continuity.
All sessions will take place at The Old waterworks, North Road, Southend-on-Sea, SS0 7AB
You will be sent readings in advance of each session once you have signed up. If you can’t make the event please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend.
Reading groups are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
The Reading Room is a new collaborative project where people can read, learn, listen, and share ideas. Through linking up with other spaces across the country, Pluto Press and the Left Book Club have created libraries stocked with thought provoking books, where reading groups and opportunities to meet authors are being established, providing resources and activities that hope to catalyse creativity, collaboration and conversation.
Join us for a series of reading groups as part of Pluto Press’ The Reading Room project. TOMA and The Old Waterworks are collaborating on these over the coming year.
Get tickets via Eventbrite HERE.
From May 2023, Elliot Gibbons will host three reading groups that will look at the publication Southend’s Twilight Worlds that he edited on local queer history and Pluto Press’ Towards a Gay Communism by Mario Mieli. Meili’s book was first published in Italian in 1977 and is considered one of the earliest books of queer theory, although it was not seen as queer theory during the time. Over the course of these sessions, you will collectively consider LGBTQIA+ culture and theory by drawing connections between these two books.
Elliot Gibbons is a curator and writer based in Essex.
** ALL EVENTS WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED **
Get tickets via Eventbrite HERE.
** ALL EVENTS WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED **
* All events are free to attend but booking is advised and we ask that you can commit to all three groups to ensure continuity *
All sessions will take place at The Old waterworks, North Road, Southend-on-Sea, SS0 7AB
You will be sent readings in advance of each session once you have signed up. If you can’t make the event please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend.
Reading groups are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
The Reading Room is a new collaborative project where people can read, learn, listen, and share ideas. Through linking up with other spaces across the country, Pluto Press and the Left Book Club have created libraries stocked with thought provoking books, where reading groups and opportunities to meet authors are being established, providing resources and activities that hope to catalyse creativity, collaboration and conversation.
TOMA artist Erene invites you and your child/children to a self reflective workshop on mothering and the many ideals put upon us.
Friday 28 April 2023 - 10.30am - 12.30pm @ Twenty One Southend, Unit 21, Pier Approach, Western Esplanade, Southend-on-Sea SS1 2EH
BOOK FREE TICKETS ON EVENTBRITE HERE
You will be working with found, natural and everyday materials. If you own a mothering book that you potentially disliked and would like to destroy with your child or maybe there's one you loved and would like to turn into a temple, please bring it along, or any other mothering or childhood paraphernalia that you could recreate into an art piece. Also if you would like to collect some found materials with your child to bring to the workshop please do.
This will be a self-explorative guided workshop, there is no required outcome, the focus is on process and being guided by your own feelings, experiences and collaborating with your child's experimentation with the materials. However mothers are also welcome to attend without their child/children.
BOOK FREE TICKETS ON EVENTBRITE HERE
Erene Dellaporta // www.erenedellaporta.com
TOMA artist Fredrix Vermin hosts a free drawing workshop to build confidence around drawing from you imagination.
Saturday 15 April 2023 11.30am - 1.30pm @ Twenty One Southend, Unit 21, Pier Approach, Western Esplanade, Southend-on-Sea SS1 2EH
BOOK FREE TICKETS ON EVENTBRITE HERE
This FREE workshop aims to show you that everyone can draw, and you don’t need magic! Fredrix will show you how to use modular drawing to create an incredible amount of things using simple shapes, the only restriction is your imagination.
We will be working with black line drawing and delving into how line weight can enhance your drawings. The workshop will last one hour and will be followed by a freeform drawing session where you can explore everything you’ve learnt and contribute to a group drawing.
BOOK FREE TICKETS ON EVENTBRITE HERE
Fredrix Vermin // https://fredrixvermin.com
OPENING EVENT
PATCHWORK ARCADE ~ TOMA 2022/24 INTERIM SHOW
1 April 2023
from 4pm @ Big Screen Southend
from 6pm @ Twenty One Southend
Patchwork Arcade
1 April 2023 - 1 May 2023
Opening event: 1 April 2023
*** Get FREE tickets on Eventbrite here ***
You are invited to the opening event! Meet @ 4pm Big Screen Southend, for a watch of the artist videos outside Focal Point Gallery and then walk down to the show from 6pm - 11.30pm at Twenty One Southend with performances and DJs.
Addresses: Big Screen Southend, Elmer Square, Southend-on-Sea SS1 1NS
Twenty One, Unit 21, Pier Approach, Western Esplanade, Southend-on-Sea SS1 2E
This TOMA 2022/24 cohort interim event comprises a dual sharing of short films on Focal Point Gallery’s Big Screen Southend and a group exhibition at Twenty One gallery. Patchwork Arcade offers visitors the chance to experience new work created during the past 6 months of the programme from our current TOMA artists bringing together the artists’ diverse practices including video, painting, drawing, photography and sculpture.
Artists...
*The Other MA (TOMA) is an artist-run education model set up in 2016 and based in Southend on sea supporting artists who have faced barriers accessing art education and the ‘art world’.
**Big Screen Southend is a purpose-built display screen which opened in 2013 for the presentation of artist commissions, live transmissions, and short and feature films relative to the cultural context of Southend, South Essex and further afield. Twenty One is a live arts venue who work with local performers and artists, have an exhibition space and speciality pizza café & bar, located on Southend seafront.
*** Get FREE tickets on Eventbrite here ***
Join us for a series of reading groups as part of Pluto Press’ The Reading Room project. TOMA and The Old Waterworks are collaborating on these over the coming year.
First up, from January 2023, Morgan Quaintance will host three reading groups that will focus on ‘PsychoPolitics’ by Peter Sedgwick. As relevant today as it was when first published in 1982, the book changed the conversation on mental health and illness, demanding that we assess its relationship to the wider decay of social institutions. Morgan will explore one of the most significant and credible critiques of the anti-psychiatry movement through readings and discussion.
* All events are free to attend but booking is advised and we ask that you can commit to all three groups to ensure continuity *
GET FREE TICKETS VIA EVENTBRITE HERE
The dates are...
Reading group 1 - Thursday 19 January - 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Reading group 2 - Thursday 23 February - 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Reading group 3 - Thursday 30 March - 6.30pm - 8.30pm
* EACH EVENT WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED *
You will be sent readings in advance of each session once you have signed up. If you can’t make the event, please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend. Reading groups are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
The Reading Room is a new collaborative project where people can read, learn, listen, and share ideas. Through linking up with other spaces across the country, Pluto Press and the Left Book Club have created libraries stocked with thought provoking books, where reading groups and opportunities to meet authors are being established, providing resources and activities that hope to catalyse creativity, collaboration and conversation.
All events will take place at: The Old Waterworks, North Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, SS0 7AB.
Morgan Quaintance is a London-based artist and writer.
Join us for a series of reading groups as part of Pluto Press’ The Reading Room project. TOMA and The Old Waterworks are collaborating on these over the coming year.
First up, from January 2023, Morgan Quaintance will host three reading groups that will focus on ‘PsychoPolitics’ by Peter Sedgwick. As relevant today as it was when first published in 1982, the book changed the conversation on mental health and illness, demanding that we assess its relationship to the wider decay of social institutions. Morgan will explore one of the most significant and credible critiques of the anti-psychiatry movement through readings and discussion.
* All events are free to attend but booking is advised and we ask that you can commit to all three groups to ensure continuity *
GET FREE TICKETS VIA EVENTBRITE HERE
The dates are...
Reading group 1 - Thursday 19 January - 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Reading group 2 - Thursday 23 February - 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Reading group 3 - Thursday 30 March - 6.30pm - 8.30pm
* EACH EVENT WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED *
You will be sent readings in advance of each session once you have signed up. If you can’t make the event, please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend. Reading groups are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
The Reading Room is a new collaborative project where people can read, learn, listen, and share ideas. Through linking up with other spaces across the country, Pluto Press and the Left Book Club have created libraries stocked with thought provoking books, where reading groups and opportunities to meet authors are being established, providing resources and activities that hope to catalyse creativity, collaboration and conversation.
All events will take place at: The Old Waterworks, North Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, SS0 7AB.
Morgan Quaintance is a London-based artist and writer.
Join us for a series of reading groups as part of Pluto Press’ The Reading Room project. TOMA and The Old Waterworks are collaborating on these over the coming year.
First up, from January 2023, Morgan Quaintance will host three reading groups that will focus on ‘PsychoPolitics’ by Peter Sedgwick. As relevant today as it was when first published in 1982, the book changed the conversation on mental health and illness, demanding that we assess its relationship to the wider decay of social institutions. Morgan will explore one of the most significant and credible critiques of the anti-psychiatry movement through readings and discussion.
* All events are free to attend but booking is advised and we ask that you can commit to all three groups to ensure continuity *
GET FREE TICKETS VIA EVENTBRITE HERE
The dates are...
Reading group 1 - Thursday 19 January - 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Reading group 2 - Thursday 23 February - 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Reading group 3 - Thursday 30 March - 6.30pm - 8.30pm
* EACH EVENT WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED *
You will be sent readings in advance of each session once you have signed up. If you can’t make the event, please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend. Reading groups are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
The Reading Room is a new collaborative project where people can read, learn, listen, and share ideas. Through linking up with other spaces across the country, Pluto Press and the Left Book Club have created libraries stocked with thought provoking books, where reading groups and opportunities to meet authors are being established, providing resources and activities that hope to catalyse creativity, collaboration and conversation.
All events will take place at: The Old Waterworks, North Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, SS0 7AB.
Morgan Quaintance is a London-based artist and writer.
Join us at The Old Waterworks for a series of events that are part of Pluto Press’ anti-capitalist fashion week which celebrates the release of Tansy E. Hoskins’ text: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion.
You’ll be able to meet the author, take part in reading groups, Q&A’s about the industry, drop-in sewing sessions and customisation and reclamation workshops with local artists.
All events are free to attend but booking is advised. If you can’t make the event, please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend. Workshops are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
24 September 2022. 3.00pm - 5.00pm. 'Meet the Author' Booking Link
*THIS EVENT WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED*
Join us to hear from Tansy E. Hoskins about her new publication. Tansy’s extensive research took her from the clothing warehouses in Solihull all the way to Bangladesh, India and North Macedonia, shining a light on the exclusive and alluring world of fashion to expose class division, gender stereotyping and wasteful consumption.
Join us at The Old Waterworks for a series of events that are part of Pluto Press’ anti-capitalist fashion week which celebrates the release of Tansy E. Hoskins’ text: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion.
You’ll be able to meet the author, take part in reading groups, Q&A’s about the industry, drop-in sewing sessions and customisation and reclamation workshops with local artists.
All events are free to attend but booking is advised. If you can’t make the event, please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend. Workshops are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
18 September 2022. 2.30pm - 4.30pm 'Anti-Capitalist Fashion Reading Group with Angela Smith' Booking Link
*THIS EVENT WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED*
This event is part of Pluto Press’ anti-capitalist fashion week which celebrates the release of Tansy E. Hoskins’ text: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion.
Angela Smith will host a reading group that will focus on chapter 8 “Resisting Fashion” from Tansy E. Hoskins forthcoming book ‘The Anticapitalist Book of Fashion’.
Angela trained in fashion as a mature student in the 80’s and has spent the last 40 years variously employed in the industry, but most consistently teaching in various colleges including London College of Fashion, Southend, and Thurrock and for 8 years led an ambitious fashion department within a women’s prison with the aim of rehabilitating inmates into fashion colleges and the trade.
She has worked in design, pattern cutting, illustration, construction and has lots of associated skills including embroidery and surface decoration, knitting, textile manipulation, deconstruction and repurposing.
Fifteen years ago she made a sideways step and took a BA course in Drawing at Camberwell and has since used art as a creative endeavour particularly forming assemblages including carefully considered found objects, incorporating worked textiles and word pursuing the spiritual life of objects.
She has written with increasing seriousness all her life, frequently using poetry and have completed a novel.
Angela embarks on a Masters degree in Fashion Cultures and Histories at London College of Fashion this September.
Join us at The Old Waterworks for a series of events that are part of Pluto Press’ anti-capitalist fashion week which celebrates the release of Tansy E. Hoskins’ text: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion.
You’ll be able to meet the author, take part in reading groups, Q&A’s about the industry, drop-in sewing sessions and customisation and reclamation workshops with local artists.
All events are free to attend but booking is advised. If you can’t make the event, please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend. Workshops are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
18 September 2022. 11.00am - 2.00pm 'Reclaim and Remake' Booking Link
After talking about the impact of the fashion industry, Philippa Stewart will host a workshop showing you how to offset waste by reclaiming materials from unwanted garments to create something new. Based around and inspired by the hand stitch technique Boro, the process of repairing clothes and reworking cloth is a peaceful process with lots of application.
Please bring some clothes with you to repurpose - old t-shirts or leggings are ideal. There will be donated materials at the workshop if you don't have anything suitable.
Join us at The Old Waterworks for a series of events that are part of Pluto Press’ anti-capitalist fashion week which celebrates the release of Tansy E. Hoskins’ text: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion.
You’ll be able to meet the author, take part in reading groups, Q&A’s about the industry, drop-in sewing sessions and customisation and reclamation workshops with local artists.
All events are free to attend but booking is advised. If you can’t make the event, please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend. Workshops are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
17 September 2022. 4.30pm - 6.00pm. 'Anti-Capitalist fashion Q&A' Booking Link
*THIS EVENT WILL BE BSL INTERPRETED*
Using the themes of The Anticapitalist Book of Fashion, TOW Co-director, Ruth Jones will host a Q&A with Philippa Stewart, a womenswear designer and trend forecaster turned artist.
Please join us with your own experiences and questions as we explore the current situation and think through ways we can enact change together.
Join us at The Old Waterworks for a series of events that are part of Pluto Press’ anti-capitalist fashion week which celebrates the release of Tansy E. Hoskins’ text: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion.
You’ll be able to meet the author, take part in reading groups, Q&A’s about the industry, drop-in sewing sessions and customisation and reclamation workshops with local artists.
All events are free to attend but booking is advised. If you can’t make the event, please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend. Workshops are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
17 September 2022. 1.00pm - 4.00pm ‘Customise Your Existing Wardrobe’ Booking Link
Breathe new life into an old piece of clothing with various customisation techniques with artist Charlotte Hamilton. Using screen printing, patches, sewing and cutting we will transform your clothes into something new, ready to wear many more times.
Bring a piece of clothing from your wardrobe that you're tired of or don't wear to customise. We will cover: basic screen printing techniques, attaching patches, basic hand-sewing and fabric cutting techniques.
Join us at The Old Waterworks for a series of events that are part of Pluto Press’ anti-capitalist fashion week which celebrates the release of Tansy E. Hoskins’ text: The Anti-Capitalist Book of Fashion.
You’ll be able to meet the author, take part in reading groups, Q&A’s about the industry, drop-in sewing sessions and customisation and reclamation workshops with local artists.
All events are free to attend but booking is advised. If you can’t make the event, please return your ticket as soon as you can so someone else can attend. Workshops are not suitable for children under 16 years of age.
17 September 2022. 11.00am - 3:00pm 'Chat and Sew Drop In' Booking Link
Join Tricia North and the refugee sewers group in a drop in session between 12-3pm to mend your clothing, sew, mend or knit and chat about the positive impacts of getting more life out of your garments and homewares.
Bring any clothes that need mending or sewing and knitting projects with you and enjoy an informal chat with an existing sewing group.
Join Lu Williams at TOMA Project Space for a zine making workshop to celebrate Southend Pride.
This is a free event. No ticket required - just come along anytime from 1-3pm!
Lu Williams will be hosting a special zine making workshop during the Southend Pride march to coincide with the exhibition Southend’s Twilight Worlds. Participants will be encouraged to use the exhibition as inspiration for their zine.
Zine making is a versatile process that can pull together ideas, encourage collaboration, function as a method of self care and act as a vehicle for accessibility.
Materials are provided during the workshop, however it is possible for participants to work with their own materials if they wish to bring them, such as their own artwork or writing.
FREE
Saturday 16th July, 1-3pm
TOMA Project Space, Unit 13, Royals Shopping Centre, High St, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 1DG
--
Lu Williams is an artist living and working in Southend. They use research and community engagement to produce zines, print, sculpture, drawing, writing, events and workshops. Lu is interested in social history, accessibility, labour, DIY culture, protest and explores this through a personal experience of queerness and working-class culture.
They founded Grrrl Zine Fair in 2015 which platforms womxn, trans and non-binary artists and zine makers through workshops, events, Grrrl Zine Library, based at The Old Waterworks, Southend and Grrrl In print Zine. In 2021 they Co-founded Dog Ear, a place for sculptural dog toys and artist publishing
Southend’s Twilight Worlds
16 July to 8 October
Saturday 12 - 6
Sunday 12 - 5
Exhibition and Book Launch
Friday 15 July 2-6pm
Southend’s Twilight Worlds is a new exhibition uncovering the complex and stimulating history of marginalised identities within the city of Southend-on-Sea.
The exhibition showcases Southend’s queer and alternative histories through new and existing artworks, including a new film commission by Amy Pennington, previously unseen archival clippings, and objects from Southend Museums.
Southend’s Twilight Worlds is inspired by an article published in the Southend Evening Echo following the passing of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967. The article’s author, Louis Blake, writes an investigation into the borough’s twilight world and the three to four-thousand “men in fear who haunt it”. He interviewed many of these so-called “twilight men” of Southend, often highlighting the violence and apprehension most experienced due to their sexuality, despite the introduction of “well-meaning” laws. Even noting how some of these men discriminated against queers of colour.
Over the past few decades there has been an explosive impetus to unearth queer histories that do not continue to centre the stories of urban and white gay men. To rethink Southend’s “twilight world” is to begin to address the lack of accessible queer and alternative histories within the city from an intersectional perspective.
The exhibition is accompanied by a series of activities to deepen our understanding of the vibrant histories of marginalised identities within Southend-on-Sea. Events include artist workshops, a series of public tours and reading groups, alongside a fortnightly youth club for young people aged 16 to 25.
Featured artists include The Agency of Visible Womxn, Sunil Gupta, Ruth Hazel, Josephine Melville (SEACA), George Morl, Amy Pennington, Scottee and Lu Williams.
Southend’s Twilight Worlds is curated by Elliot Gibbons and produced in partnership with TOMA (The Other MA), The Old Waterworks, Grrrl Zine Fair, Southend Pride, Metal Southend, Focal Point Gallery, Southend Museums and Essex Cultural Diversity Project, and is made possible with funding from Arts Council England and Essex Heritage Trust.
Join us for the official launch of Southend’s Twilight Worlds, a new exhibition uncovering the complex history of marginalised identities in Southend-on-Sea.
Drinks will be provided and you'll get an exclusive chance to see the exhibition and pick up a limited edition copy of the book.
The exhibition showcases Southend’s queer and alternative histories through new and existing artworks, previously unseen archival clippings, and objects from Southend Museums.
Southend’s Twilight Worlds is inspired by an article published in the Southend Evening Echo following the passing of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967. The article’s author, Louis Blake, writes an investigation into the borough’s twilight world and the three to four-thousand “men in fear who haunt it”. He interviewed many of these so-called “twilight men” of Southend, often highlighting the violence and apprehension most experienced due to their sexuality, despite the introduction of “well-meaning” laws. Even noting how some of these men discriminated against queers of colour.
An accompanying events series includes artist workshops, public tours and reading groups, and a fortnightly youth club for young people aged 16 to 25.
Featured artists include The Agency of Visible Womxn, Sunil Gupta, Ruth Hazel, Josephine Melville (SEACA), George Morl, Amy Pennington, Scottee and Lu Williams.
Southend’s Twilight Worlds is curated by Elliot Gibbons and produced in partnership with TOMA (The Other MA), The Old Waterworks, Grrrl Zine Fair, Southend Pride, Metal Southend, Focal Point Gallery, Southend Museums and Essex Cultural Diversity Project, and is made possible with funding from Arts Council England and Essex Heritage Trust
Find out more about joining TOMA this October, get a risograph printer tutorial, and join Paige Ockendon for art bingo in the evening!
Find out more about joining TOMA this October 2022 with founder and director Emma Edmondson for a talk and Q & A!
Find out more about joining TOMA this October and learn about writing applications and sustaining a creative practice with Nick Kaplony!
Oh hold up ~ we’re back with our crits! Both online & IRL at forever pals The Old Waterworks ~ come join us! Email emma@toma-art.com to book a place, spaces limited to 5 per crit to ensure time & space for all.
Oh hold up ~ we’re back with our crits! Both online & IRL at forever pals The Old Waterworks ~ come join us! Email emma@toma-art.com to book a place, spaces limited to 5 per crit to ensure time & space for all.
