For over twenty years, Metal has shown the important role art plays in building community and making lasting positive change in places.
Over this time, we’ve been a catalyst for change in Liverpool, Peterborough, Southend and across the UK by increasing community agency and participation; founding networks like Shift, a group of 60+ Liverpool organisations working to resist climate change; leveraging funding; and supporting artists who have set up lasting initiatives in their home-cities as well as achieving international acclaim.
Through this work, we’ve developed a methodology, which we like to call our ingredients list, for inspiring positive change through art in places. It can be applied to the specific needs, concerns and unique personality of any location we work in over decades or in a lighter way over a shorter period.
Leadership and networks: networks support thriving creative ecosystems. We help convene cross-disciplinary networks that inspire collective creative action and participate as a voice for culture in major infrastructure and regeneration projects.
Community: local people should be an important part of everyday creative decision-making. Metal creates opportunities for people to have a say in art and culture where they live. When we say ‘community’, we mean people who are connected by place, identity or experience.
Artists and creatives: diverse artists and creatives need places to dream, get together and be supported. Artists and creatives at any stage come to us for space, training, networking, connections, help with funding, project support, commissions, international exchange, support to setup creative enterprises or organisations, testing ideas with audiences and many other questions.
Participation: artistic programmes are opportunities for everyone to create, learn, engage and express themselves together. Metal produces magical art events that show our public spaces and landscapes in a different light, helps artists share their work and supports others’ creative programmes, like music or film nights, to get off the ground.
