21/04/2026
“It’s been a little bit of a wake up call for me” - Participating teacher 💡
We’ve been gathering around studio desks, dining tables, campfires and projectors to spend time with school teachers and artists. Here’s a look back at the first year of Creative Break Time, a collaborative, active research project hosted by Focal Point Galley, Metal Southend and The Other MA (TOMA), supported by
So far, we have hung out in intensive residencies across Essex, travelled by boat to cross the Blackwater Estuary, shared our work at the iJADE 2025 Conference, hosted crits for artists and teachers, commissioned teachers to create wellbeing gifts and tools for their colleagues and co-developed new tools to ‘itch the curriculum’. Our co-researchers include teachers from Greenways Primary, Milton Hall Primary, Shoeburyness High and St Bernard’s High School.
We want to bring Southend artists and teachers together in transformative ways, emphasising care, rest, wellbeing and meaningful collaboration. By investing in teachers’ creativity, we hope to bring about lasting change in Southend schools across all curriculums and key stages.
This film was made by Realm Video and includes footage filmed at Old Leigh Studios, Metal Southend, Othona Community, The Old Waterworks and Hadleigh Country Park.
If you’d like to find out more, contact our project team at [email protected] 👀
