Redruth fire: £40k raised to help Krowji centre artists

Artwork, studio space and office space was destroyed in the fire in Redruth

Supporters of artists who lost equipment and work have raised more than £40,000 after their community hub in Cornwall was damaged in a fire.

Sixty firefighters tackled the blaze at the Krowji building in Redruth after it broke out on 16 May.

Seventeen studios were destroyed, with a number of others damaged by water.

A fundraising page has raised more than £22,000, and the Cornwall Community Foundation said it was also committing £20,000 to help.

Creative Kernow boss Dr Fiona Wotton said emotions were still "raw" after the fire

Dr Fiona Wotton, CEO of Creative Kernow, the charity behind Krowji, said the "devastation for those artists is real".

She said the money would go towards providing new studio space for artists, equipment and emergency grants.

Dr Wotton said: "It's still very raw, but we're moving towards being as productive as we can."

She added staff and artists were "still working on totting up" the value of the damage caused.

Ceramics maker Anna Hewett, who lost her workshop and had "everything destroyed in it", said the response had been "amazing and "overwhelming".

She said: "People are so effervescent with their love and their support and their wanting to help."

Ceramicist Anna Hewett said people had been "overwhelming" in wanting to help

Jeweller Sinead O'Connor, who lost her studio, said support had been "awe-inspiring" and "not just from Cornwall".

She said: "A company in Leicester has given us money towards tools, and I drove to Nuneaton to pick up a retired jeweller's spare kit that they donated to us."

No-one was injured, but, as well as artists losing studios, other creative businesses, including the Cornwall Heritage Trust, lost offices.

The Krowji building was part of a £3.7m project to transform a former school into an arts hub for 200 creative businesses, completed in 2015.