When Greater Manchester Youth Federation took on the lease for Partington Youth and Community Centre from Trafford Council in the summer of 2022, we inherited a building that needed a great deal of work and considerable financial investment by our charity to make it a safe space, fit for purpose.
One of the numerous tasks included emptying our dance studio of thousands of stacked archives that Trafford had been storing in our building throughout the several years since it had last been used as a youth centre.
The clearing of the room took many weeks and a large team from Estates at Trafford came along and placed thousands of paper files into storage boxes that then had to be transported securely to their next destination. Then GMYF organised for the removal of other unwanted items, stored away and covered in dust and memories of by gone days. The room was finally our own to put to good use.
Almost a year after we moved into the building we had large full length mirrors fitted to the studio and then we set about bringing it into present day.
The photo above shows artwork already in place on our arrival. It had been done by youth centre members some years before its original closure and we were certain to take photo’s for posterity before changing things up.
Our chosen artist for our new mural was Tony Kelzo, a renowned Manc street artist, born and bred in Hulme and with strong links to Partington through friendships with members of our community and his work on parks in our area. Partnered by Evan Barlow, a Rochdale based artist of spectacular talent, the two of them transformed our dance studio with their artwork.
Tony has superior knowledge of Manchester past and present and he makes a point of finding out as much as he can about places he works in, visiting by cycle, public transport and foot to ensure he understands as much about the places as he can. He has a fascinating page on Fb called Manchester History, so if that’s your thing, check it out for certain!
This second photo is the finished product.
There is so much to see on the mural, lots of genre’s of dance, and as an added Partington twist the young man seen on the record decks is ‘EVO’, Stephen Evans, a world champion break-dancer who travelled the globe in his B-Boy days winning competition after competition on the dance circuit but never forgetting his local roots, or the days he practised his head spins on a piece of kitchen lino outside Oak Rd chippy.
Also featured on the last right hand panel, is one of our local churches, Saint Marys, with a break-dancer outside of it, close to Partington’s millennium clock, provided by Partington Parish Council to celebrate the year 2000.
Even more thoughtful, Tony ‘set it’ to 09-22 and our youth centre re-opened in September 2022 so this is a very special nod to our club being invested in and once again open for use, by Greater Manchester Youth Federation.
The above photos’ show our mural in progress, Evan can be seen at work in one of them. We would like to thank both Tony and Evan for their time and talent in transforming our dance studio to its unique status. we are proud and privileged to house a piece of your art and all who see it, love it. Thank you.