We’re launching three new creative commissions to disrupt loneliness in unique and interesting ways in Southend.
Created by artists, each selected project features ideas that will bring moments of laughter and connection, in ways which are incidental and that might go on to be long-lasting. These three projects have been chosen by a citizen-led panel, made up of Southend residents from different walks of life across the city, and are part of The Unlonely City project, a programme taking place at Metal’s other sites as well. The Unlonely City programme is funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation as part of the Arts Award.
Learn more about how we trialled a new way of commissioning artistic work with our citizen-led creative action panels here.
At Metal Southend, we’re working with Mark Massey, Gulsen and Maddy McMurray. Find out more about each of the ideas and the artists below.
Southend Strangers with Mark Massey
Mark will be leading Southend Strangers, a participatory photography project that pairs people from different generations and backgrounds to create portraits of connection.
Mark is a photographer from Westcliff. He is interested in photography as social documentary – observing and discovering everyday places and photographing people within their communities and the environment. Past projects have included community portrait commissions in Basildon, Laindon and Southend, and documentary projects focused on the Thames estuary and on challenging the ‘Essex Girl’ stereotype.
Southend-on-Imagination with Gulsen
Gulsen will bring groups of Southend residents with a recent personal immigration history together with those who have been living in the area for more than 15 years, through resident-led walks and creative sessions.
Gulsen is a multi-disciplinary researcher and artist exploring collective imagination as a way to challenge, question and interrogate how modern technologies, systems, and infrastructures prioritise nebulous concepts of efficiency, growth, and innovation instead of, and often in opposition, to the real world effects these pursuits have on people. With her practice, Gulsen looks at what kinds of spaces, activities, rituals, responses, and conversations might allow us to embrace uncertainty and to come together to imagine different possible futures.
Rainbow Roots with Maddy McMurray
Maddy will be working on Rainbow Roots, a community gardening project in partnership with Southend Pride, Transpire, and HARP Southend.
Maddy is a non-binary poet and writer, who is involved with a number of local creative and LGBTQIA+ groups. They are a neurodiversity advocate and regularly host talks sharing their lived experience as a person diagnosed with ADHD.
The commissions, including events and projects will take place in Southend between January and March 2026. Watch this space and join us to disrupt loneliness in the city.
