Global Grooves work and Ray Mill up in flames

Reporter: Judith Grinter

Earlier today, 18 March, over five years of creative work produced by Global Grooves was burnt to a crisp. They are now reaching out to our global community to ask for support in raising funds to help replace these items. Every penny will help and be invested directly in to the replacement of this work.

In the earlier hours of today, there was a huge fire at one of the studio spaces where they were preparing their puppets and carnival items for the 2018 season. The mill has burnt down to the ground. Thankfully no one was injured.

50 fire fighters worked for 12 hours to save the building and contents of Ray Mill in Stalybridge but unfortunately this was in vain and all five floors have been devastated.

Over 5 years of work has been burnt to a crisp and nothing was saved. Although all of this work is irreplaceable they urgently need to make new work to enable us to bounce back and continue to offer incredible creative opportunities for their global community.

This is devastating news for their team of dedicated artists and volunteers that have contributed months of blood, sweat and tears to our bank of incredible work. It also means that their core social enterprise business model will be greatly impacted upon if they do not make alternative items for this years season. This will mean that their ability to reinvest into open and accessible creative opportunities in the communities they work with may not be realized (such as Mossley Light Festival, The Vale, International work, community workshops etc).

Leon Patel CEO of Global Grooves said: “We are absolutely devastated to wake up to this news. Over 5 years of work has been lost and over a lifetimes worth of project development by the artists and teams that have put this work together. Now more than ever we need to the support of our friends and partners. We are still in shock.”

They are now reaching out to their global community to ask for support in raising funds to help replace these items. Every penny will help and be invested directly in to the replacement of their creative work and we will develop a participatory training programme to do so. Please click the link below if you wish to contribute to this cause.

Help bring Global Grooves back from the ashes

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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