The Ten-by-Fifteen Club: Colchester’s Pocket Art Exchange Goes Postal

Colchester has a long history of people making things and then finding quietly unusual ways to pass them on. The latest example is small enough to fit through a letterbox.

The rules are pleasingly simple

The postcard exchange — sometimes called mail art, sometimes just “the postcard thing” by the people who do it — works like this: you make an original piece of art on a postcard-sized bit of card or paper. Roughly 10cm by 15cm, though nobody is going to turn up with a ruler. You sign it, date it if you remember, and post it to someone else in the swap. In return, a different postcard lands on your doormat a week or two later. No frame, no private view, no gallery wall. Just a stamp, a sorting office and a small thud on the mat.

The loose network has been ticking along in Colchester for a few years now, mostly through word of mouth and a few noticeboards. This winter, though, it is opening up. A December 2026 swap is being organised with a simple brief: make one, send one, get one. The theme is “home”, broadly interpreted. That could mean a drawing of your street, a collage of your kitchen table, a print of the river at Wivenhoe, or something more abstract. The organisers are keen to stress that skill level is not the point. A neat biro sketch is as welcome as a linocut.

What actually arrives

The joy of a postcard exchange is that you never quite know what you are going to get. One participant, Anna, a printmaker who works from a small studio near the Hythe, has been taking part since she saw a call-out on a cafe noticeboard. “I’ve had a tiny watercolour of a cat, a photo of someone’s nan’s back garden, and a really beautiful little etching of a gate,” she says. “The cat is on my fridge. The etching is propped up by my kettle. They are not valuable in the insurance sense, but they are valuable.”

Another regular, Dev, makes collages from old magazines and bus tickets. He likes the exchange because it forces him to finish things. “I can spend three weeks on a painting and then never show anyone,” he says. “With a postcard, I have to make a decision, stick a stamp on it and let it go. It’s good for me.”

That sense of letting go runs through the whole thing. Postcards get slightly bent in transit. Corners get scuffed. Sometimes a sorting machine adds a faint grey line across the sky. Nobody minds. The wear is part of the point. It is art that has been somewhere.

Why postcards, why now

There is something happily old-fashioned about sending original art through Royal Mail in 2026. We are used to sharing images instantly, usually for free, usually with a thumbs-up reaction. A postcard is slower and more deliberate. It costs the price of a stamp. It requires an address, a pen and a willingness to trust the postal system. In return, it gives you a small, tangible surprise that is not on a screen.

For artists in Colchester, it is also a low-pressure way to make work. No submission fees, no rejection emails, no need to fill out a form about your practice. The size is a built-in constraint, which can be freeing. A postcard is small enough to finish in an evening and cheap enough to post without wincing. You can try something odd — a colour you never use, a subject you usually avoid — and if it goes wrong, you have lost a piece of card and a second-class stamp.

Where to see it and how to join

The December 2026 swap is being coordinated by a small group of artists and letter-writers who have been quietly running exchanges since 2023. Sign-up is open now, and the deadline for posting is mid-December. You do not need a website or a portfolio. You need an address, a postcard-sized piece of card and a willingness to send something into the unknown.

If you want to see examples before committing, there is a small display of received postcards planned for early December at a central Colchester venue — keep an eye on the noticeboards at Firstsite and The Minories, and ask at the independent art shops around Culver Street and Eld Lane. The organisers are also hoping to run a drop-in session where you can make a card on the spot, with materials provided, though details are still being confirmed. The best way to find out is to ask in the places where this sort of thing usually gets pinned up: cafe noticeboards, library foyers, studio windows.

A small reason to head to the postbox

Colchester is full of art if you know where to look, but not all of it is hanging on a wall. Some of it is in a pigeonhole in a sorting office, waiting to be redirected to a stranger who will prop it against their kettle. The postcard exchange is a reminder that art does not need a frame or a fancy private view. It can be small, slightly scuffed, and addressed to someone you have never met.

If you have been meaning to make more things, or if you simply like the idea of a letter arriving that is not a bill, this is a good place to start. Make one. Send one. See what comes back.