A DISUSED building in Southend has become a hub for creativity and art exhibitions.

The old Essex and Suffolk Water building, in North Road, has been taken over by CoExist Arts, in partnership with Metal at Chalkwell Hall, and renamed Tap.

The building had been empty for ten years, but has been turned into affordable studios and galleries for local artists.

Colette Bailey, managing director of Metal, said she hoped artists in Southend would benefit from having a cheap, accessible place to exhibit their work.

She said: “We have worked really hard to make sure these areas would be a useful facility for the community and, hopefully, it will become a valuable resource.

“This is the perfect partnership. Chalkwell Hall is about ideas and Tap is about creating and showing your work. You can imagine that work will come from Chalkwell Hall to here.”

Colette said the lease was signed in June and as the project was now up and running, it showed how quickly artists could be mobilised in Southend.

She added: “We’ve done all this work in eight weeks and also had a show here. I think that shows there is a real appetite for art in Southend. There’s been a huge amount of people interested, we have a waiting list already.

“We really want to demonstrate how valuable spaces like this are for the town.

“There is also a small gallery here for artists starting out because sometimes a big space can be daunting so this space is perfect.”

CoExist Arts is an artist-led project founded in 2008 by artists Amy Mckenny and Emma Emmerton, who felt there were not enough spaces for new artists to make and show work in the Southend area.

Their ultimate aim is to create project spaces that provide new artists with studios, resources and gallery spaces to make and show their work. They find empty buildings and, working in partnership with the owners, revitalise them.

It is hoped this will attract visitors to the area, discourage vandalism and improve town centres that may have been blighted with empty shops and buildings because of the recession. The group is looking for more space they can take over, including any empty shops, factories or offices.

Five organisations will share the North Road site including Metal, CoExist, culture and arts magazine Level 4, Southend online arts network Idea 13 and White Bus has set up a screening room.

The 60-seater screening room has three original projection windows from the old Odeon cinema, in Elmer Approach, and will be the venue for White Bus to show its extensive archive of 16mm and 35mm films, as well as independent films.

Mike Lowther, from the group, explained: “Our films range from the 20th century to the 1990s and we are adding to that all the time. We are actually looking for more space to house our archive films.

“We will keep some here and show them on a regular basis.

“We will also be running film-based workshops here regularly, as well as on our launch day.”

There are also ten studios which are allocated to artists based on applications and printmaking, and darkroom areas which are available to hire by the hour.

Southend Council and the Arts Council have contributed grants to pay for the scheme. Essex and Suffolk Water has also sponsored Metal for the past 18 months, most significantly for the work on the 2008 Hampton Court Flower Show entry, the Water Table.

The table featured in Southend Council’s drought-resistant show garden, and won a bronze award at the show.

A special event to launch the North Road scheme will be held on September 10 and Leigh-based artist Heidi Wigmore will be exhibiting her work with Synchro at the building on Friday, October 16.