Global Grooves continue work online as part of pandemic

Mossley’s carnival arts organisation Global Grooves have highlighted the importance of arts to society, after the sector took a heavy blow due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Thousands of culture venues and companies are struggling, unable to open up or trade due to the current situation, and Global Grooves are now different. However, the team at the Vale Mill have been hard at work ensuring there was still a job to return to once the pandemic subsides.

Company CEO Leon Patel was one of those to look to the future. He said: “‘We probably wouldn’t have jobs to return to. Instead, we’ve come up with ways to sustain us and keep our communities occupied during the long and often worrying days of lockdown.”

One of those ways was by pivoting to online, offering remote art projects such as ‘The Missing Patch’. This project sent out 200 kits to people to allow them to create their own ‘batik’ - a traditional Indonesian style of fabric colouring - which would then be combined to contort to a larger work.

Those looking for work also benefited from their ‘Creative Careers Camp’ and ‘Creative Computing’ courses, both designed to develop digital skills for those out of work.

As the organisation’s headquarters, Vale Mill, on Micklehurst Road in Mossley, undergoes a huge transformation in preparation for its new status as the Northern Carnival Centre of Excellence, Global Grooves has announced ‘Cotton Culture’, a new community heritage project funded by Heritage Lottery Fund. 

Cotton Culture will see volunteer researchers unearth the history of the mill and how the wider community spent their leisure time, and their findings curated in an exhibition and represented in a subsequent Carnival.

“Carnival is about everyone in the community coming together. We’ve tried to foster that feeling even when we’ve been stuck indoors, in our own homes and behind computer screens” Leon says. 

“The arts plugs gaps that the rest of society often doesn’t see, helping people gain confidence, make new friends and develop skills in a friendly, encouraging way."