We are excited to be partnering with Studio 459 and their co-living residency programme to support socially engaged artists from Southend, Liverpool and Peterborough. 

  
Studio 459 is a new co-living artist residency space, set in the beautiful, forested hills on the outskirts of Tomar (UNESCO world heritage site) in central Portugal. Hosted by partners Mark Richards and João Gravanita (and their dog Poppy!) on their small farm, it offers artists from all disciplines the opportunity to explore their practice and creativity in a new international rural context whilst sharing their domestic and studio environment with other creatives. It is a space for artists to live and work in proximity and engage in collaborative or solo research. 

  
Studio 459 aims to be a place for learning from nature and the local environment, history, daily shared practices and each other. We are interested in the exchange between people, ideas, methodologies and disciplines. This is activated through the physical sharing of living and working spaces, food, and experiences in a domestic context.

2-week residency in Tomar Portugal

Date: 10th - 24 September 2025 

  
The residency includes accommodation, studio, prepared meals, utilities and trips. You will receive a £400 stipend towards travel and expenses, and you will be responsible for booking your own flights and return train journey from Lisbon to Tomar, where you will be collected from the station.

Studio 459 Artist Residency Opportunity

Metal is looking for a Structural Change Artist to join Metal’s staff team for 3 years on a PAYE contract.

We’re looking for a Structural Change Artist as part of our long-term aim to inspire positive change through art and creativity. We want an artist to lead learning and reflection through artistic practice exploring how Metal can reimagine systems of power, knowledge and equity in our programmes, organisational development and the places we work.

The Structural Change Artist will work across Metal. The funding, from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, particularly supports deep work on our flagship programme The Unlonely City, itself an experiment in citizen-led decision-making and positive change.

**_The Unlonely City_** is an arts programme disrupting loneliness, nurturing moments of solidarity, surprise and laughter in Liverpool, Peterborough Southend. Through a series of artistic commissions, citizens assemblies, parties and public conversations, The Unlonely City will take place across Liverpool, Peterborough and Southend, where Metal is based, to imagine what an unlonely city could be.

The Structural Change Artist will lead learning and reflection on The Unlonely City as a critical friend through artistic practice with Metal staff, artists, trustees, partners and residents. This will feed and nurture our organisational and programme development.

The role will be a fixed term PAYE contract to work with us as an artist from August 2025 for 3 years.

  
Salary: £7,912 p/a 1 day per week based on '4 day working week' policy (FTE salary £30,000)

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