Lu Williams is an artist living and working in Southend. They use research and community engagement to produce zines, print, sculpture, drawing, writing, events and workshops. Lu is interested in social history, accessibility, labour, DIY culture and protest and explores them through a personal experience of queerness and working class culture.
In 2015, they founded Grrrl Zine Fair, which platforms womxn, trans and non-binary artists and zine makers through workshops, events, Grrrl Zine Library (based at The Old Waterworks, Southend) and Grrrl In Print zine. In 2021, they co-founded Dog Ear, a place for sculptural dog toys and artist publishing. In 2024, they co-founded Care Contractors, a collective working with councils and commissioners to protect and produce public art works.
Lu Williams won the commission to create the new Castle Point Guide, including new self-guided walks and activities, as part of the Estuary Festival 2025. The guide is available to download online and printed guides are distributed during the festival.
For the Castle Point Guide's design, Lu was inspired by American artist and graphic designer Susan Kare, who created icons for the first Apple Mac computers between 1983 and 1986. Lu ran workshops to explore this type of design with members of the public, and created new icons using a pixalated style.
Image credit: Eliza Hatch.
Contemporary visual artist exploring possibilities of our beliefs and behaviours.
Explores ways of enabling different forms of communities in relation to site and context.
New collaboration between We Live Here and award-winning photographer Allie Crewe.
The Creek Crawling Collective (CCC) is an outdoor learning collective inviting people to explore and share knowledge about the Thames Estuary's intertidal zone through mud walks, boat journeys, and drifts.
Visual artist and muralist working in drawing, painting, sculpture, spray-painting and mixed-media.
Research and creative practice exploring sculpture and public space.
Transcending the divisions between art, architecture, theatre and social practice.
Artist, designer, researcher and creative educator exploring collective experience.
A constellation point for a spectrum of multidisciplinary works calling for radical change.
Challenging creative industry norms whilst uplifting marginalised communities.
Collaboration interrogating the once dominant nightclub culture of Essex.
© 2024 Estuary Festival CIC
