THE Holsworthy Creatives Enterprise (HCE) has come on leaps and bounds since its inauguration last year and is already looking at a possible gallery space.

The group, headed by artist Dawn Ensor, hopes to set up a community gallery space in the town centre of Holsworthy and is looking at the possibility of repurposing the former Barclays bank building.

The group already has the backing of MP for Torridge and West Devon Geoffrey Cox, Devon County Councillor Barry Parsons, mayor of Holsworthy Jon Hutchings and many more and are hoping in time to grow their ranks further. But before that they need to establish funding in order to take on this large project.

Dawn said: “We are looking at Barclays at the moment, or another site, we just know we would prefer to be in the town centre. However, if we were to take on somewhere like Barclays we would need a massive amount of funding to carry out the work needed there.

“We are currently looking at applying for Heritage Lottery Funding but we need to be wary as with an old building like this you don’t know what problems it could have.”

Dawn explained that the group doesn’t want to see the building go to ‘rack and ruin’ and hope they can breathe new life into the premises.

She said: “If the building does have a lot of issues it will put other investors off. It will go to rack and ruin if it isn’t used but, if we can get enough funding, there are limitless possibilities for what we could do and we could make it into a really nice community space.”

She said the group have carried out research into the building’s history and looked at problems experienced when it was previously the Stanford Hotel, but that they still intend on pursuing it as their gallery space.

“The creative’s enterprise are going to pursue this and we will be moving forward with the funding application but we need people to know that these things take time so even though we have worked quickly so far to get a lot of the ground work in place for the group this next step will be the real grind!”

In order to grow their numbers HCE are hoping to hold an exhibition in St Peter and St Paul’s Church during St Peter’s Fair week.

Dawn said: “The church have really given us free reign over the space. We will be holding an open event and can talk to people about joining — we are also putting out a call for artists to take up a stand during this event too.

“At the moment it is very much a case of ‘watch this space’ with us and anyone who wants to come on board and help out is most welcome to.”

To find out more about HCE and how to join or donate to their cause visit their website www.holsworthycreativesenterprise.com