Welcome
The Vale is an old converted mill at the top of Micklehurst Road in Mossley, Tameside. We’ve called The Vale home since 2012, when we moved into part of the building and, two years later, opened our mixed-use studio to artists for rehearsals and making space and to the community for gigs, cinema and other happenings.
Though we love The Vale, it soon became clear that it wasn’t ideal for all of our activities and audiences as it was not fully accessible, and we needed more storage space. As we’re an ambitious bunch, we also wanted to develop high quality studios and performance space to drive forward our productions and make them the best they could be.
In 2018, we were overjoyed to be awarded a capital refurbishment grant from Arts Council England to develop the Northern Carnival Centre of Excellence, to take our home to the next level. The Northern Carnival Centre of Excellence has enabled us to refurbish, renovate and recreate The Vale to provide top notch facilities for the development of Carnival, so think high quality performance space, purpose-built studios for a wide range of making activities, additional (and waterproof!) storage… With facilities like this in-house, we are now able to host Carnival practitioners from around the world as they nurture their own practice, as well as ensure that our own productions and performers have a tip-top home to call their own.
Community is also integral to Global Grooves, and our work couldn’t flourish without the involvement of the people on our doorstep. We’re fundraising ongoing so that The Vale can become a continually improving, accessible, multi-purpose arts space for local people – the kind of place where people can come to watch cinema, participate in an arts class, drop their kids off to a band rehearsal, or simply call in for a cuppa.
The Vale is the only arts centre of its kind in Tameside, and only the second dedicated centre to Carnival in the UK.