A LOCAL arts organisation says a significant funding award represents a major boost for Oldham’s “cultural power”.
Carnival arts organisation Global Grooves is celebrating after securing three years of support from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Arts Fund.
The team was successful in a highly competitive national funding round.
Global Grooves’ CEO Leon Patel said he hopes the investment will mark a turning point for Oldham, whose cultural sector has historically received far less funding than neighbouring Manchester.
Figures from 2024 show Oldham attracted just £2.44 per head investment from Arts Council England, compared with £28.17 per resident in Manchester.
Over the next three years, Global Grooves has pledged to engage with 90,000 people from Oldham, Tameside and beyond. The organisation also plans to create paid opportunities for 150 artists and support 54 external organisations, “strengthening the local cultural ecosystem and keeping talent rooted here in Oldham and Tameside”.
The funding will allow the team to significantly expand their programme, including developing new local festivals and increasing support for musicians, dancers and visual artists.
The investment will also support Global Grooves in exploring and addressing deeper, systemic barriers to cultural access through its work at The Vale on Micklehurst Road.
Leon said that while the historic former mill continues to evolve as a space where local artists, grassroots groups and underrepresented artforms can shape activity themselves, the organisation is increasingly focused on how cultural access is experienced more broadly.
He said: “For us, access is not only about physical space, it is about who feels welcome, who gets to take part and who has a voice in shaping culture. This investment allows us to better understand and challenge those barriers, and to work towards a more inclusive and equitable cultural offer for Oldham and Tameside.
“Rather than seeking a standard ‘community arts’ investment, we are focused on longer term, strategic change, a shifting of cultural power.”
Leon added that the funding will allow Global Grooves to work alongside communities across Oldham, Tameside and beyond, “co-creating new festivals, performances and training initiatives that reflect local interests, aspirations and ambitions.”
He said that the funding is not only focused on creating new work, but also on empowering local people and reducing barriers to cultural participation.
“The funding will help us to strengthen long term trust, increase opportunities for co-creation with local communities, and develop leadership pathways for talented local people,” he said. “It will allow us to build infrastructure in a place that has been underinvested for generations.
“Now that Paul Hamlyn has demonstrated belief in and commitment to Oldham and Tameside, we are in a much stronger position to bring further long term national investment into the borough.”
Friends Leon Patel, from Mossley, Holly Prest, from Greenfield, and Brazilian artist Eraldo Marques launched Global Grooves in 2003 to bring people of all ages together through participation in carnival arts.
Since then, the organisation has worked internationally while maintaining a strong presence across Oldham and the wider Greater Manchester area, including collaborations with groups such as Dipak Dristi for older women and autistic social group A Team.
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