Featured event
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Shoe Heaven
Date: 2nd Feb 2013 - 29th Jun 2013
Location: Beecroft Art Gallery & Central Museum
Cost: Free
All the fabulous footwear on display comes from Southend Museum’s collection.
You won't find any designer names, but you will see the historic shoes which continue to influence fashion today.
If you like shoes, you'll soon be in 'Shoe Heaven'.......
Watch out for special shoe related events, demonstrations, pamper nights and an amazing raffle!
For further information please visit the Southend Museums website.
Happening Today, 20th May 13
Shoe Heaven
Date: 2nd Feb 2013 - 29th Jun 2013
Location: Beecroft Art Gallery & Central Museum
Cost: Free
All the fabulous footwear on display comes from Southend Museum’s collection.
You won't find any designer names, but you will see the historic shoes which continue to influence fashion today.
If you like shoes, you'll soon be in 'Shoe Heaven'.......
Watch out for special shoe related events, demonstrations, pamper nights and an amazing raffle!
For further information please visit the Southend Museums website.
Prittlewell Prince - Research Update
Date: 5th Mar 2013 - 3rd Jun 2013
Location: Central Museum and Planetarium, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea
Cost: Free
A chance to catch up on the latest research, view the stunning glass jars from the Prince's tomb and rediscover our stunning Saxon artefacts.
Watch out for related talks from specialists in their field throughout the exhibition.
Tue - Sat 10.00 - 13.00 & 14.00 - 17.00
For further informtaion please visit the Southend Musuems website.
Hive Collective at Beecroft Art Gallery
Date: 6th Apr 2013 - 15th Jun 2013
Location: Beecroft Art Gallery, Station Road, Westcliff-on-Sea
Cost: Free
A collection of work from talented artists based at the Hive Artist Studios in Chelmsford.
Tue - Sat 10.00 - 13.00 & 14.00 - 17.00.
For further information please see the Beecroft Gallery website.
Go Back for Murder
Date: 20th May 2013 - 25th May 2013
Location: Palace Theatre, 430 London Road, Southend-on-Sea
Cost: Please see below for ticket prices.
Now in its eighth thrilling year, the Agatha Christie Theatre Company presents a brand new production of the queen of crime’s classic time piece Go Back For Murder.
Carla Le Marchant has to live with a disturbing family secret; her mother, Caroline Crale, died in prison while serving life for killing her husband.
But on finding a letter in which Caroline claims that she's innocent, Carla becomes obsessed, determined to clear her mother's name.
Enlisting the help of Justin Fogg, the son of Caroline's defense lawyer, Carla tracks down a number of people from her mother's tragic past, only to uncover a shocking truth...
Suspects, secrets, and suspense abounds in this new production of Go Back for Murder starring Liza Goddard, star of such TV hits as Bergerac and the long-running quiz show Give Us A Clue, Sophie Ward whose extensive TV and film career most recently includes the award-winning BBC period drama series Land Girls, ITV's Heartbeat, BBC's Holby City and the 2011 film Jane Eyre, Robert Duncan who played Gus Hedges in the multi award-winning comedy Drop the Dead Donkey, Gary Mavers who is best known for playing the heart-throb doctor Andrew Attwood in Peak Practice, Lysette Anthony, known to television audiences as starring in the BBC sitcom Three Up, Two Down, ITV's soap opera Night and Day and in Woody Allen's award winning film Husbands and Wives and Ben Nealon, perhaps best loved for his role as Capt Jeremy Forsythe from the long running ITV drama Soldier Soldier.
Ticket Prices:
Seats: Mon-Thu 8pm £25.50, £23.50, £16.50Fri & Sat 8pm £26.50, £24.50, £17.50
Concs: £2.00 off (exc. Fri & Sat 8pm)
Under 16s £12.50 (exc. Fri & Sat 8pm)
Senior Citizen Thursday Matinee Special £21.50, £19.50, £12.50 (group discounts do not apply)
Group Discounts: 10% off for groups of 10-19, 20% off for groups of 20 or more
A £1.50 per ticket booking fee will be added to all orders. No booking fees for Groups bookings.
Performance Times: Mon-Sat 8pm, Matinees Thu & Sat 2.30pm.
For further information or to book tickets please visit the Southend Theatres website.
Internet Taster Sessions - Westcliff Library
Date: 15th Apr 2013 - 15th Jul 2013
On this day every month
Location: Westcliff Library
Time: 9:30 - 12:55
Cost: FREE
Sessions are held in each library once a month except during school holidays. Individual sessions last up to 45 minutes and must be booked
Sessions are held on:
15th April
20th May
17th June
15th July
Adult Learners’ Week
Date: 11th May 2013 - 24th May 2013
Location: Southend Adult Community College, Ambleside Drive, Southend-on-Sea
Time: 10:00 - 12:00
Cost: £2.50 per hour
Southend Adult Community College has over 25 Adult Learners’ Week (ALW) bitesize courses enrolling now.
There is a fantastic range of courses including Spanish, Skype, Polish Embroidery and Zumba plus many more. Now in its 22nd year ALW is the UK's largest and longest running learning campaign. It encourages thousands of adults, whatever their age and background, to give learning a go.
Visit our website www.southend-adult.ac.uk for full details of each course, please book early to avoid disappointment!
For further details or to book please phone 01702 445700 or Email: generalenquiries@southend-adult.ac.uk
Foster Care Fortnight
Date: 13th May 2013 - 26th May 2013
Location: Various Locations
Cost: Free
Fun Day and Official Launch Sunday 12th May at The Skylark Hotel, Aviation Way from 11am. The day will have live music, bouncy castle, sumo suits, BBQ, Crafts and much more.
15th May - 10:00-12:00 - Come and see us at The Royals Shopping centre and pick up a leaflet about Fostering in Southend.
16th May - 10:00-16:00 - We will be in the Civic Centre Foyer and also have a private room booked to speak in more detail about becoming a Foster Carer.
21st May - 10:00-12:00 / 18:00-20:00 - We will be at the Cliffs Pavilion with our information stand, come and have a chat with us about becoming a foster carer whilst taking in the view.
22nd May - 10:00-14:00 - We will be at the busy Metal Café in Leigh community centre.
25th May - We are attending the Garons Open day.
Sea Creature Design Competition
Date: 23rd Apr 2013 - 1st Jun 2013
Location: Royals Shopping Centre
Cost: Free
The Royals Shopping Centre has teamed up with Essex Wildlife Trust, the county's leading conservation charity, to challenge the region's primary school children to flex their creative muscles.
Over 50 finalists will have their work exhibited at the centre in a designated gallery area, which will be unveiled at a wildlife themed family fun day on Saturday 25th May 2013. The exhibition will continue until Saturday 1st June 2013, and then just the two wining designs will remain as a lasting legacy from the competition.
The two wining pieces of artwork will be selected by a panel of judges, including representatives from The Royals Shopping Centre, Essex Wildlife Trust and other partners. The winners will have their designs permanently exhibited at the centre and will also receive prizes donated by retailers from the centre, plus their schools will also receive £250 cash. The closing date for entries is Friday 10th May 2013.
Eddie Peake ‘Video’
Date: 27th Apr 2013 - 13th Jul 2013
Location: Focal Point Gallery, Southend Central Library
Cost: Free
Opening: Saturday 27th April 2013 between 2.00pm and 4.00pm Exhibition runs: 29th April to 13th July 2013
If Staffordshire Bull Terriers have a contentious reputation in the British psyche for being fierce and aggressive, in Essex they are known affectionately as 'nursery dogs' for their ability to guard young children. Their warmth towards people (it's been said that 'no breed is more loving with its family'), combined with their natural astuteness, could be seen to reconfigure preconceptions of intelligence, within the context of Southend-on-Sea, a town where 'Staffies' are the most commonly owned dog, an environment where loyalty and care pervades.
Water-cut from Michelangelo marble, Peake's Staffie Innately Fluent (all works 2013) stands proudly with its eyes and mouth cut to the shape of Mediterranean Gulls in flight, another creature that appears en masse at the end of Southend Pier, and which has adopted Southend-on-Sea and the surrounding Thames Estuary as its home. The dog's mouth glides straight towards the viewer, while each eye hurtles away from the other.
As a twin (Peake was born two minutes apart from his brother Lewis), the artist has a natural affinity with Chuka and Dubem Okonkwo, who grew up in the same area of north London as the artist. Peake has known Chuka and Dubem, The Islington Twins, since he was seventeen years old, and for this exhibition decided to present footage of both men positioned within Southend Central Library. In the work Tumult, featuring an HD video shot with a Canon 5D Mkii, the twins' similarity to one another constitutes an analogy for the fidelity of reproductions of reality, a characteristic which could be said to be typical of photography at large. They also appear to be a facsimile of one another, conjured by digital trickery, whilst in fact the video is an un-doctored truth.
Re-presentation, and an exchange of opposing, or even synchronic positions, is taken further and performed within the gallery in Peake's examination of the ethos of Berthold Lubetkin's early Modernist Tecton designs for Dudley, Whipsnade and London zoos. In the main gallery space, the artist has constructed an eight-foot high walled enclosure which shares an endeavour towards imposing a theatrical narrative on its inhabitants, in this case, the gallery's spectators. This structure contains the aforementioned footage of the twins, and is peered into by the huge and slightly absurd model giraffe - the concept design for which was created by Peake's twin Lewis - in a situation where an obvious reversal of spectatorship takes place between animal and human. In a wry but curious comment, any imposed theatricality enacts the opposite intention of Lubetkin; this is a situation where the act of viewing is put on display.
However, Peake's project is anything but a rumination on the perceived failure of Modernist architecture. Instead, it's an elaborate puzzle or optimistic historical and ideological Russian doll that situates one form of Modernist architecture within another via a contemporary performative twist. When seen within the context of the soon-to-be-emptied Brutalist building that Focal Point Gallery and Southend Central Library currently occupy (both organisations will move to another structure in late 2013), Peake's project is akin to the endearing vision of Tecton which, much like the collection of animals in a zoo, or the archive of books in a library, somehow continue to survive against all external forces.
For further information and images, please contact Laura Bowen, Focal Point Gallery Exhibition and Marketing Officer on 01702 534 108 / laurabowen@southend.gov.uk / www.focalpoint.org.uk.
Eddie Peake 'Video' is generously supported by Arts Council England and Southend Borough Council.
'Escapart' Stuart Burrell
Date: 3rd May 2013 - 24th May 2013
Location: Southend Central Library
Cost: Free
Southend Central Library is thrilled to host ‘Escapart’, a most arresting exhibition of Photography, Installation Art and Performance Art by record-breaking Escapologist, Stuart Burrell.
The exhibition comprises a series of photographic images linked to specific acts of escape and one series analogous of spiritual, rather than physical liberation, from addiction and oppression.
Qualifying as sculptural and installation pieces in themselves, certain props and equipment used in these acts will also be on display.
A Southend resident, Stuart has been performing Escapology locally since 2001; twice achieving Verified Guinness World Records in Escapology. Remarkably, in both fields of interest: Art and Escapology Stuart is entirely self-taught. Following sufficient research of his great inspiration Houdini, Stuart has successfully managed re-enactments of some famous Houdini escapes: whilst citing amongst his artistic inspiration, Joseph Kosuth's conceptual art work of the 1960's and more recently Damien Hirst; visitors to the exhibition may expect a powerfully emotive and intellectual experience.
Works will be available to purchase and may be viewed at www.saatchionline.com/escapart
During the private view, to be held on the evening of 10th May, Stuart will perform a live escape; another demonstration will be held on an appointed day later in the course of the exhibition.
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Website Consultation Drop-In Session
Date: 20th May 2013
Location: Southend Central Library
Time: 14:00 - 17:30
Cost: Free
Now is your chance to give your views on the Council’s website.
Come along to one of the drop-in sessions at Southend Central Library to give your views about our website.
This improvement project, which will take advantage of new technology now available, aims to deliver:
- A website containing easily-found information which is useful to its customers.
- A complementary website version accessible to those viewing it on mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets.