£50,000 'Save the Hive' campaign draws support from comic book artist Charlie Adlard

The Hive in Shrewsbury is a young people’s creative arts and wellbeing charity but it faces closure ahead of mounting pressures to get funding.

Mr Adlard, over a 25 year career, has been involved with projects include Batman and The Walking Dead, Mars Attacks, the X-Files, Judge Dredd, X-Men, Superman plus his own projects such as White Death, Damn Them All, and Altamont.

From Shrewsbury, he is a patron of the Hive and has urged the community to help save the venue.

The Hive, which operates across Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, needs to raise £50,000 to keep its Belmont base open.

Mr Adlard said: “The Hive is the only community Arts hub of its kind in Shrewsbury helping children, young people and young adults.

“The arts is a very solo, lonely thing to do. So many people can work in silos and be isolated.

"It’s a precious thing to have a space where people have the opportunity to meet other creatives."

The Hive has operated in Shrewsbury for more than 19 years, supporting almost 50,000 children and young people. Many of those they help face complex challenges in their lives.

Hive chief executive Katie Jennings outlined the difficulties in seeking funding.

“As an independent charity, we have always prided ourselves in securing considerable sums of external grant funding for decades in Shropshire, to be able to develop deeply meaningful projects - more than £4.5m over the last 19 years.

"But this last year has been exceptionally challenging, and we have found that the demand for grant funding, particularly from national bodies like the National Lottery, Arts Council England, and Children in Need has been extraordinarily high and despite us writing strong funding bids which meet funders criteria, we have been knocked back by the sheer volume of applications."

To support The Hive visit justgiving.com/thehivehmmartsltd