Appeal for artists who lost all of their work in Belfast city centre fire smashes target

The GoFundMe appeal was set up by six artists whose rented studios on the upper floors of Cathedral Building in Writer’s Square which were destroyed in Monday’s fire.

In court yesterday, an 18-year-old was remanded in custody on a charge of arson with intent to endanger life.

Organiser of the appeal following the fire, Jennifer Mehigan, had set a target of £3,000 but in just over 24 hours the amount raised stood at more than £15,000 causing the artist to suspend donations.

The largest donation came anonymously to the tune of £500 while Belfast School Of Art at Ulster University donated £100.

Not including the losses suffered by the artists, early estimates are that the damage caused by the fire is around £3 million.

Jennifer, in launching the GoFundMe appeal, said that a lot of people had “lost their livelihoods”.

She said: “I know that over 15 years of my drawings, paintings, research, sketchbooks, photos, negatives and everything I’ve collected in those years in little IKEA document boxes are gone.

She added: “We obviously never expect to recuperate the majority of our losses as the fire has destroyed everything, but any donations will help us to try get back a little bit of what we have lost in terms of income, computers, and other smaller objects.

“Most of the losses are intangible and irreplaceable, artwork, sketchbooks, and research, etc.

“Please only help if you can, even a share makes such a difference, and we know times are tough for everyone right now.”

Another of the artists who lost all of her work was Elly Makem.

She said: “Every sketchbook I’ve ever owned, every piece of equipment I’ve gathered over the last eight years, a £3,000 iMac, physical and digital work made for clients, my entire livelihood for nearly two years that I worked to build. Gone.

“I shared this building with my friends, countless other creatives, musicians and artists. All of us were small businesses. All of us added to the creative culture of the city.

“This is another massive blow and what are the council or anyone going to do about it?”

While the upper floors of Cathedral Building were destroyed, other surrounding businesses and offices have been forced to close due to extent of the blaze, among them, the police ombudsman’s offices at an adjacent building at Writer’s Square.

St Anne’s Cathedral, although not damaged, is also closed to tourists due to the fire until at least Thursday.