OVER £7,000 has been raised for three Belfast community centres in a Christmas campaign  to highlight poverty and distribute money, food and heat directly to people who need it.

The Right to Work:Right to Welfare (R2W) campaign, PPR and The MAC Belfast worked together with local artists to raise money for Whiterock Children’s Centre in West Belfast, Marrowbone Community Hub in North Belfast and The Larder in East Belfast.

So far, over £7,000 has been raised thanks to an online art exhibition, H.E.A.R.T (Heat and Eat: Artists Rally Together).

Work auctioned off included a piece by Terry Bradley, a portrait of PPR’s founder, Inez McCormack by Susan Hughes and a series of limited edition prints commissioned by The MAC for the R2W campaign.

Louise Mathews from Time To Shine Drama said: “My sisters and I donated some of our dad's work, Gerard Matthews, a working class artist who had to retrain as a plasterer to put food on the table. 

“His art remained private all these years and is now drawing a lot of attention. I also managed to get Terry Bradley on board and he has donated one of his works. 

“Artists are struggling dramatically due to Covid but know that so many others are too, so the combination of raising artists profile while helping those in desperate need for Christmas seemed like the best response. 

“The MAC, PPR, Whiterock Children's Centre, Marrowbone Community Hub and East Belfast Larder have all teamed up with the artists and activist to create this campaign.

“The more money we raise, the more urgent help we can give to these amazing organisations.”