Hi! I’m Gabi, and I’ve just started running creative workshops under the name Apple Tree Attic, locally in Southend. I create relaxed, beginner-friendly sessions for anyone who wants to try something new, get creative, or meet like-minded people nearby. I’ve been teaching art and photography in London, for over 12 years, (and ceramics more recently), working with incredible organisations, charities, councils and institutions. And with people of all ages, from 4 to 93! and I have lots of experience (over 10 years), supporting SEND learners too.

Web Developer

Hey there, I’m Ted! I’m a second-year animation student studying BA Animation at the University of the Arts London. I predominantly work in 2D digital character animation, but I have a strong passion for mixed media and stop-motion animation, and I take any chance I can get to combine the two. I also have a strong understanding of video editing, merchandise creation, and illustration!

I am an educator and printmaker, specialising in linocut printmaking.

Artist-run studios and dark room. theblokhouse is an artist-run studio and project space in Southend on Sea founded by local Fine Art graduates. We aim to provide affordable studio space and facilities to creative graduates and emerging artists in a supportive environment which nurtures individual and collaborative practice across all disciplines. We prioritise those who have faced physical, mental and financial barriers to accessing art studios.

I’m a creative designer with an extensive background in using impactful design to drive engagement and make messages stick.

Adrian Green’s work has appeared in magazines and anthologies in England and abroad, as well as three collections, Chorus and Coda, All That Jazz and Other Poems, and New Blues and Other Poems, from the Littoral Press. He co-edited an anthology, From the City to the Saltings: Poems from Essex, for the Essex Poetry Festival. A former trustee of The Jazz Centre(UK), he has had a long association with the Essex Poetry Festival, Open University Poets, and the Southend Poetry Group, for which his poems have appeared in each of their annual anthologies, Southend Poetry, over the past 40 years.

I’m Holly, a 2D Animator and Motion Designer based in Southend on Sea. I grew up watching a lot of cartoons and then found out I could learn to make them myself! I’ve dabbled in multiple sectors of animation during my time in the industry; explainer videos, TV animation and social media content to name a few.

Maddy Kilsby-McMurray is a non-binary poet who lives in Southend on Sea. Originally from Western Australia, they now live by the sea with their wife and their dogs. They have always been a writer, scribbling short stories in the margins of their notebooks when they should have been paying attention to maths. As they got older, writing became therapy, a way to process a world that is too busy, too harsh and too fast for their queer, disabled heart. They write trash fire poetry, which is written in haste and often destined for the fire. They can often be found at poetry events across South Essex, including Southend Pride Poetry and Dangerous Poetry. They were the winner of the first Queertopia Poetry Slam. Their poems can be found littered around Southend and Westcliff, on lampposts and telephone poles. But if you’re not local, you can find some of their work on Instagram and Substack at @trashfirepoet