Esape Arts moved into rennovated Henson’s Butchers building ten years ago - celebrations took place over Birthday weekend

STRATFORD charity Escape Arts marked the grand reopening of their heritage centre home in style on Saturday.

The birthday event was to commemorate 10 years since the renovation of the historic Henson’s Butchers building. The charity held a birthday party which coincided with the Shakespeare Birthday celebrations in Stratford.

There was plenty of singing, dancing and dressing up across the day. It is one that chief executive of escape Arts Karen Williams told the Herald she was incredibly proud.

“We were very colourful, we were very loud, we did lots of singing and dancing and we had the most excellent birthday party.” she said.

“I have to give special thanks to our resident DJ who was Jason Edmonds, also known as Jason The Spaceman, and our choreographer Vivi Bayliss. These need a special shout-out as do all of our local musicians including a young group who performed called Porple Grass.

“We had lots of different people from lots of different ages, backgrounds. There were our participants, our volunteers, community members, and partners. Everyone came and got involved and it was really lovely to see. It was a very vibrant, fun celebration.”

The event created a welcoming environment for visitors, as Karen added: “Everyone was just really delighted. They said they felt very welcomed and they loved the music. They loved the monsoon coffee because we're doing monsoon coffee, the local roastery.

“Everyone just loved that kind of community vibe, that celebration of local people, local heritage and local community arts. Everyone just had a really fabulous time and left smiling. We couldn't have asked for a better day. It didn't rain, and the sun even came out in the afternoon.”

The special day was a way of Escape Arts to show how far they have come in their home.

“From such a derelict unused building, it’s been transformed into a vibrant community arts and heritage hub,” Karen said.

“There are huge amounts of pride in the group, and everyone has their place within the organisation and their role. We had so many volunteers helping out.”

“Our eldest volunteer is 92, who was helping all day long, doing the children's activities. We are for every single member of the community, and that's really important to us.”