Trashed art studio thanks public for support

Vandals broke into The Market Gallery in South Shields and destroyed much of the artwork inside

The owners of an art studio left devastated after their work was trashed by vandals have thanked the community for their support as the clean-up continues.

The Market Gallery in South Shields was set to launch at the former Wilko store when it was broken into at the end of July, just days before it was due to open.

Laura Robertson and Theo Godfrey-Cass had planned to run art classes in the local community but are now hoping those same people will donate their time to help them. They have also launched a crowdfunding campaign.

Ms Robertson said the pair had received offers of help to tidy up the mess but they were still figuring out the extent of the damage. Police continue to investigate.

The break-in is believed to have have taken place between 20:00 BST on 25 July and 11:30 on 29 July.

As well as artwork being destroyed, there was also damage to equipment and booths.

Ms Robertson said over the last few days the pair had received further updates about the extent of the damage including to security equipment.

She said: "We want to get a team of people together once we have a better understanding of the damage to the building, because we're still assessing that at this point."

'Fake crowdfunding'

The Market Gallery has started to crowdfund to help "get them off the ground again" and to repair the damage. People have donated more than £1,500 so far.

But to make things worse, Ms Robertson said a fake crowdfunding campaign had appeared on another site, claiming to be for their studio.

She said she wanted to make sure those wishing to help them do not get scammed.

"This is the one campaign we have going, we're not getting different pools of money from different areas," she said.

For those wishing to help the studio Ms Robertson and Mr Godfrey-Cass said they planned to announce a clean-up day on their social media channels, once they worked out what needed to be fixed.

"People are reaching out and it would be good for them to link with us," Ms Robertson said.

She said "it would be incredible" if people wanted to help with volunteering or with fundraising.

A Northumbria Police spokesperson said it had received a report of burglary and inquiries were ongoing.

"It was reported that offenders had gained entry to the building and caused damage to walls and items before removing a number of items and leaving the scene," they said.