Urgent plea for help as Plymouth Music Zone faces closure

'The very real possibility of closing our doors for the last time'

The bosses of the award-winning Plymouth Music Zone have made an emotional plea for cash to stop the charity closing next month. The Devonport-based organisation needs £11,000 a month to keep going and is begging for donations.

The charity’s chair of trustees Chris Hunt and music programme director Karl Meyer said PMZ is facing a crisis and have issued an urgent plea on the PMZ website and set up a page on the fundraiser JustGiving. They said it was with “a mixture of emotions and with sadness” that after 25 years of “tireless hard work and creativity” the charity faces “the very real possibility of closing our doors for the last time”.

They stressed that at the moment PMZ continues to work with, and is supported, by local and national funders and stakeholders and still has a programme of activities being delivered by staff and volunteers.

But they said: “However, if PMZ does not secure additional and vital funding over the next couple of months, by the middle of November we will begin the process of saying goodbye and winding up.”

The are pleading for “anyone who would like to help us survive this crisis to please donate” at the JustGiving page. Mr Hunt and Mr Meyer said: “To keep us going and deliver our existing programme of workshops and events, it costs a little under £11,000 a month. PMZ really does need your help if we’re going to get through this.”.

Established in 1999 as The Music Zone it has since delivered hundreds of thousands of hours of music, art, “love and laughter” through open workshops and outreach work in schools, hospitals and community centres throughout the city.

Mr Hunt and Mr Meyer said: “PMZ’s work has always been about challenging ourselves and others, meeting people from all walks of life, accepting and exploring our differences and disputes, celebrating throughout what connects and binds us. From Devonport, to the whole city of Plymouth and beyond, PMZ has endeavoured to recognise, respect and explore these connections.”

But they said that PMZ was not “another in a long line of sad announcements, statements of closures indicative of our time and the ever changing and challenging world in which we live”.

In their statement Mr Hunt and Mr Meyer said: “We have all witnessed these struggles play out across our communities and sadly, as a member of these communities, PMZ is not immune nor impervious to the economic pressures impacting us all.”

They stressed they wanted PMZ to keep going but said: “If our news in a couple of months’ is the worst, we will meet this news head on and promise to pour our final energies into opportunities that will give everyone a chance to say goodbye, enabling everyone willing to be part of remembering and celebrating PMZ.”

But they said if the charity can survive “we want to fully acknowledge the chance that we have been given and those that have offered their support along the way”.

They said they want to address challenges and to look to communities for “ongoing counsel, support and help” and continue to work to benefit “those that need music to make the most difference”.

They concluded: “Thank you for caring enough, believing in and supporting PMZ over all these years. It is with you we look forward to either shaping a memorable legacy or maybe, just maybe, a brighter future.

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