Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival Annual Review 2016/17

Annual Review 2016/17

About Us

Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival Inspiring creativity, Enriching lives

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Our Purpose To inspire and enable artists to be their most creative To champion the power of the arts to enrich and change lives

Our Vision To be one of Europe’s leading arts festivals and a year-round destination for artists and audiences

Our Goals To produce great art in England’s ‘city on the edge’ To be the city’s cultural heart To be a bridge to the arts for all To be a sustainable organisation

As custodians of the Grade I listed Brighton Dome at the cultural heart of the city, we present a rich and varied programme spanning music, theatre, dance, comedy, literature, spoken word, visual arts, film, digital, community and participatory events in our three iconic and historic venues: the Concert Hall, Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre.

Each May we produce Brighton Festival, the largest curated annual arts festival in England. Renowned for its pioneering spirit and experimental reputation over the last 50 years, Brighton Festival has become one of the city’s most enduring symbols of inventiveness. This has been further enhanced by our most recent Guest Directors Laurie Anderson and Kate Tempest.

Photo: Brighton Dome from the Royal Pavilion Garden, 2016 © Vic Frankowski

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Welcome

2016–2017 A landmark year With Brighton Festival’s 50th edition under Guest Director Laurie Anderson and the start of an exciting journey to restore and reunify the Royal Pavilion Estate 2016/17 was an especially significant year for our organisation. A £21.2m project in partnership with Brighton & Hove City Council, Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund will see the refurbishment of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre. Due to reopen at the end of 2018, Phase One of the Royal Pavilion Estate project includes restoring long-lost heritage features and will provide new state-of-the-art facilities.

With the organisation poised to work in new and exciting ways, we reached more people than ever before: over 669,000 people experienced our work as audiences, participants and visitors.

Board of Trustees

Executive Team

Polly Toynbee Chair Tim Aspinall Donald Clark Julian Crampton Simon Fanshawe Nelson Fernandez David Gann Danny Homan David Jordan Chris Martin Alan McCarthy Cllr. Adrian Morris

Andrew Comben Chief Executive

Cllr. Carol Theobald

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At the heart of our rich programme of events is our work in our local communities and with people of all ages offering ways to access and participate in the arts, reaching 17,725 people this year. This work is set to grow in future years as we focus our efforts even more on the role culture can play in place-making and addressing our city’s specific challenges.

Amanda Jones, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Finance

Carole Britten Director of Marketing and Audiences Peter Chivers Director of Music & Arts Zoe Curtis Director of Visitor and Venue Services Adam Harvey Director of Production Maxine Hort Director of Operations Tanya Peters Director of Artistic Programming

Photo: Brighton Dome from Church St © Murray Scott

On 1 July 2017 Brighton & Hove Music & Arts, lead partner of SoundCity and the LCEP, united with Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival, to create a city-wide hub for creative and cultural learning.

We believe this is a significant development for the city’s children and young people and for Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival’s greater ability to be a bridge to the arts for all.

We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to our success this year, especially our funders, supporters, patrons, members, partners and staff for making Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival what it is.

We hope this review of 2016/17 and our most recent Brighton Festival 2017 is a useful reminder of some of the outstanding work and testament to lives changed and enriched through the arts.

In total our work for April ‘16 to March ‘17 reached

669,617 audiences, participants and visitors

569

256,177

83%

80%

Ticketed Events

Ticketed Event Attenders and Digital Views

Total Occupancy Attendance

Percentage of Work

Considered Excellent

17,725

79,422

Participation in our Creative Learning

Conference and Private Events

Activities, Events and Open Days

167,571 Daytime Brighton Dome

Visitor Footfall

Attendance

F RE E

148,122 Brighton Festival Free Events and Visual Arts Attendance

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Brighton Festival

Brighton Festival 2016 Producing great art in England’s ‘city on the edge’

We reached a major milestone in 2016 as we celebrated the 50th Brighton Festival.

New York artist and musician Laurie Anderson was a fitting Guest Director, with a career marked out by experimentation and innovation spanning the five decades that Brighton Festival has existed. The theme of ‘Home’ celebrated our symbiotic relationship with the city - its artists, its creative energy, its strong sense of identity - and considered universal concerns of belonging and places of safety.

From Spymonkeys’ re-enactment of every onstage death in Shakespeare The Complete Deaths to Blast Theory & Hydrocracker’s immersive Operation Black Antler, homegrown works commissioned from Brighton artists sat at the heart of the programme.

The 50th Brighton Festival concluded with nutkhut’s Dr Blighty, an ambitious outdoor experience co-commissioned with Royal Pavilion & Museums and 14-18 NOW. Shining a light on the Royal Pavilion Estate’s use as a temporary hospital for wounded Indian soldiers during the First World War, these week-long performances, installation and spectacular Royal Pavilion projections attracted over 60,000 people, and once again made us the talk of the city.

‘ The University of Sussex has been a longstanding sponsor of the Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival and views it as an important part of our continued Laurie Anderson’s own contribution included two exclusive performances Song commitment to the arts and the local Conversation, Slideshow; an installation of community. The Festival gives the guitars and amps Lou Reed Drones; and a University an opportunity to work with concert developed for canine ears Music leading thinkers and artists as well as a for Dogs. chance for us to engage with our own We teamed up with The Guardian Live for our supporters at events’ Books & Debate series, including a sell-out event with Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. And we welcomed major UK artists such as musicians Laura Mvula and Beth Orton, choreographer Akram Khan, visual artist Gillian Wearing and theatre-maker Simon McBurney, alongside international companies like Nederlands Dans Theater, and Argentina’s Lola Arias, whose remarkable play Minefield, co-commissioned with LIFT, brought together veterans from both sides of the Falklands War.

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Adam Tickell, Vice-Chancellor

‘ I think Brighton is a one of a kind Festival – sophisticated in terms of the experimental art it presents and very inclusive in other ways – I can’t think of another Festival that has that broad a base’ Laurie Anderson, Guest Director

Photo: Music For Dogs, Brighton Festival 2016, BOAT © Vic Frankowski

Brighton Festival 2016 featured 1125 performances across 154 events at 60 venues in every corner of the city.

We presented a record 54 commissions, premieres or exclusives - over one third of the programme.

226,000 people experienced Brighton Festival 2016 as audiences or participants.

67,074 tickets were sold - more than ever before.

Additional audience views of over 800,000 for street installations Luminary and the Clocktower Fanfare.

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Brighton Festival

Brighton Festival 2017 Everyday Epic

Our Guest Director for 2017 was acclaimed recording artist, poet, playwright and novelist Kate Tempest. Her inspiration was ‘Everyday Epic’ - art that helps us connect to ourselves and others - and explored our individual stories and differences, and encouraged audiences to take a walk in someone else’s shoes. She inspired a number of new approaches that helped us reach more new audiences and more parts of the city than ever before.

Our first ever Your Place, in partnership with Brighton People’s Theatre, brought a diverse line-up of free performances, workshops and activities Festival artists and local residents to the Hangleton and East Brighton communities with 1,500 people taking part across two weekends.

The Storytelling Army, a dynamic collective of people from all walks of life popped up in unusual locations across the city to tell their ‘Everyday Epic’ stories - in turn humorous, inspiring, thought-provoking, emotional, and rousing.

Artistic highlights included the UK Premiere of The Gabriels, Richard Nelson’s extraordinary, intimate depiction of one American family, written and set in real time during the turbulent US election year. The plays received a series of 5* reviews and were lauded by critics as ‘deeply moving portraits of the dissolving American dream’ (The Guardian). Other commissions included an ethereal promenade performance through Woodvale Cemetery for Circa’s Depart in partnership with LIFT. Of Kate Tempest’s many performances the standout was our commissioned live orchestration of her recent album Let Them Eat Chaos, produced in collaboration with Oscar-nominated artist Mica Levi.

The biggest talking-point was For the Birds, a spectacular night-time trail of sound and light installations at Hollingbury Hill Fort. With over 15,000 attending over 16 evenings, this unique experience was the largest ticketed event ever presented at Brighton Festival and set social media abuzz throughout the month.

Brighton Festival audiences were also encouraged to join the Pay-It-Forward movement for the first time and 1,300 people made a donation which then enabled Festival tickets to be given to those unable to afford the opportunity.

‘ Brighton Festival is a hugely important part of not only Brighton’s but also the nation’s cultural heritage, attracting large audiences to its wonderfully Kate leaves a legacy of sustainable community eclectic array of events. Through the engagement which we are furthur developing medium of the Festival, Nutshell can with our partners for Brighton Festival 2018. talk to both existing and potential clients in a very different atmosphere to the building site!’ en Copper, CEO, Nutshell Constructions, B Sponsor 8

Photo: Kate Tempest, Your Place: Hangleton, Brighton Festival 2017 © Vic Frankowski

‘ One of my big hopes was that we could do just what we have done, which is to bring the Festival out a little bit, open it up, and have some events going on in the communities, so people who can’t make it into town for whatever reason, still get to access some of the great programming and some of that feeling of this Festival.’

Kate Tempest, Guest Director

The total ticketed audience was up 20% to 81,235 – a new Brighton Festival record.

We live streamed 13 Brighton Festival events to audiences around the world for free achieving 44,000 views.

We reached 7,000 new bookers 9

Brighton Dome

The city’s cultural heart

1 in 3.5 1 in 3.5 households in the city attended our ticketed events

This year we presented 434 public events, workshops and activities at Brighton Dome across a varied programme of music, theatre, comedy, dance, community events, creative learning and artist development activities. We achieved record occupancy levels of 82% with paid attendance 77%.

We strive to create opportunities for diverse artists and audiences through our artistic and commercial programmes. Our spring 16 season at Brighton Dome featured a theatre programme of predominantly black and Asian artists (Inua Ellams, Ambreen Razia and Femi Martin), we welcomed disabled dance company Candoco, and we held free open days to mark International Women’s Day, Brighton & Hove Black History Month, Heritage Open Day and Disabled Access Day. Other artistic highlights included international musicians Toots and the Maytals and Mexico’s Mexrissey, Martin Green’s FLIT featuring the Unthanks, Laura Marling, Gregory Porter, and Stormzy alongside our monthly SPECTRUM series promoting and supporting local emerging bands.

Our theatre programme relocated to the Founders Room and other spaces close to the venue with two successful pay what you decide events - Hugh Hughes’ The Duke and Brighton People’s Theatre’s Tighten Our Belts.

We also had very strong audiences for our Christmas international circus from Canada - Flip Fabrique’s Catch Me! (Attrape Moi); and dance highlights BalletBoyz and Danza Contemporanea de Cuba and our comedy programme in particular Stuart Lee, Jack Whitehall and Sarah Millican.

We expanded our programme of assisted performances to include 15 British Sign Language interpreted and four relaxed performances, two audio described and four touch tours across our year-round events.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra brought four sold out concerts as part of their continued residency and we hosted The London Contemporary Orchestra’s live screening of There Will be Blood as well as our monthly chamber music Sunday morning Coffee Concerts.

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Photo: Primal Scream, Brighton Dome Concert Hall, 2016 © Jamie MacMillan

‘ Brighton Dome’s work to celebrate international artists is very well recognised and we always strive to support them by making the arts accessible to a wider audience in the local community.’ Melanie Wrightson, Community Engagement Manager, Gatwick Airport

Image:

Combined with private events, visits to our Cafe-bar and views of live streamed events, Brighton Dome reached an audience of more than 440,000 and for the very first time 1 in 3.5 households in the city attended our ticketed events. All with the temporary closure of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre from Autumn 2016.

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Enriching Lives 12

A bridge to the arts for all

‘ Before Miss Represented...

I genuinely didn’t think I had a future before and now like... there’s so many other ways I can go.’

Young woman, participant of the Miss Represented Programme

17,725 Record number of participants in our creative learning activities, events and open days

We’re committed to finding imaginative new ways to discover and take part in the arts. Each year our Creative Learning team produces workshops, drop-in events, tours and open days alongside year-round outreach projects in the city.

Key projects range from SPECTRUM, dedicated to nurturing and cultivating our vibrant local music scene, to Umbrella Club which reaches out to young people with life-shortening conditions and their families by offering performances and dedicated activities.

This year we gifted 173 tickets through Umbrella Club and held Memory Making Day, in partnership with Forward Facing, for 60 children and their families on stage at Brighton Dome Concert Hall.

‘ The Umbrella Club is a great project that clearly understands the needs of young people’ BBC Children In Need

Miss Represented is our flagship outreach project for young women in the city who are facing challenging life situations.

Through theatre, photography, art, music and pastoral care, Miss Represented provides a safe space in which its members can explore their experiences and gain a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them. We are very grateful to the Big Lottery Fund for supporting the growth of the project over the next two years, starting with a tour of a new show Can You See Me Now? to theatres, schools, community venues and pupil referral units to reach even more young people in autumn 2017.

Our leadership role in Our Future City (Brighton & Hove’s Local Cultural Education Partnership) and our new remit for the operation of Brighton & Hove Music & Arts Service from July 2017 will allow us to develop long-term plans to reach even more young people in the city, furthering our goal to be ‘a bridge to the arts for all’.

Photo: Miss Represented, Can You See Me Now? Dress Rehearsals, 2017 © Lauren Joy Kennett

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Our Audience

Our Audience We pride ourselves on the adventurous spirit of our audiences and on the breadth and diversity of those we engage in our activities. We attract significant numbers of visitors from all postal sectors across Brighton & Hove and beyond.

Brighton Dome

Brighton Festival

49%

63%

42%

23%

9%

14%

Brighton & Hove

Brighton & Hove

South East

South East

London & Beyond

More than 50% of Brighton Dome’s year round ticketed audience come from outside the city.

We attracted 26,000 new bookers this year.

20% of our audience have been to more than 4 events with us.

London & Beyond

The highest proportion of Brighton Festival’s ticketed audience are from the city with more than a third of those (38%) buying tickets for family and friends.

74% of our surveyed audience want to be intellectually stimulated and 58% want to try something new.

70% of our tickets are sold via our website.

Our Net promotor score* for recommendation rating achieved a new high of 69.

‘ I have been attending events at Brighton Dome for many years and can always find something either for me and my husband, me and friends or the family (we have young children and I love to introduce them to new cultural experiences).’

‘Something for everyone. Brings a lot of money into Brighton. Encourages me to see something different.’

Audience Comment

‘Fantastic mix of events that were always thoughtprovoking whilst being emotionally varied and rewarding.’

Audience Comments

Media Partners

Latest 7 14

* NPS is a measure of the proportion of our promotors (scoring 9 – 10) minus any detractors (scoring 1 – 6)

Three cheers for all involved in creating this fabulous 50th anniversary @brightfest, It’s been brilliant”

@brightdome is a beautiful venue.

Impressed by the fact that it was actually the stall for the Regent’s horses

#thought-proviking #clever #moving #entertaining #outstanding theatre #thankyou @brightfest

Audience Tweets

Photo: Hot 8 Brass Band, Brighton Festival 2017, Brighton Dome Concert Hall © Vic Frankowski

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A Sustainable Organisation 16

A Sustainable Organisation

69% Proportion of total self generated income

79

Conferences & private events

We are a registered charity and 69% of our income is self generated.

Memberships, donations, trusts and foundations account for 5% with the remaining 64% earned from ticket sales, catering, private events and sponsorship.

31% of our income is received from our public funders Arts Council England and Brighton & Hove City Council.

Appeals & Fundraising We are grateful to all of our donors, Members, Patrons, Corporate Partners and Trusts and Foundations for their continued support of our artistic programme and outreach work in Brighton & Hove.

We welcome a growing number of Members (from £30 per year) and Patrons (£1,000+ per year), all of whom enjoy a closer relationship with Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival throughout the year.

A two-year grant from the Big Lottery Fund was confirmed this year, allowing us to increase the impact of our flagship outreach project Miss Represented.

We also saw an increase in online donations much valued support from our audience.

Conferences & Private Events Our Conferencing & Private Events team had another very successful year generating income of over £500,000, (2016: £530,037), in spite of the challenges posed by the limited availability of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre.

Overall, we hosted 79 private events (a small increase on last year) including graduation ceremonies for University of Sussex and University of Brighton; the CILIP Conference for

UK library professionals; the EU Referendum count; Superdrug’s annual conference; and the 10th anniversary of leading digital conference, Reasons to be Creative.

Our national profile as a unique conference venue was boosted when Brighton Dome was recognised in the Best UK Unusual Venue category at the Meetings & Incentive Travel Awards.

Environmental sustainability As a producer of live events in a Grade 1 listed building, we’re keenly aware of the challenges and opportunities for reducing our environmental impact.

This year, we installed LED house lights in the Concert Hall, reducing electricity usage to a quarter of its previous level. Electricity and water consumption in our off-site offices went down by 15% and 20% respectively (despite additional staff) as we optimised settings and promoted behaviour change. We continue to choose to buy our electricity from renewable sources.

59% of the organisation’s waste was recycled, and this year we formed partnerships to recycle coffee cups and bulky items as we work towards our target of 0% of waste to landfill.

Photo: Digging For Shakespeare, Brighton Festival 2016, Roedale Allotments © Vic Frankowski

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A Sustainable Organisation

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Our Finances

Income

Expenditure

52%

93%

36%

5%

12%

1%

Charitable Activities

Grants & Donations

Trading Operations

Charitable Activities

Trading Operations

Cost of generating voluntary income

Through robust financial management we achieved a surplus of £407k from our normal operating activities for the year and were able to invest 93% of our total expenditure in our charitable activities including all of our artistic and creative learning programmes. This was an important achievement to have built significant reserves at the commencement of our major capital refurbishment.

Summary consolidated statement of financial activities - unrestricted funds

Incoming resources Grants & donations Trading operations

General unrestricted funds £’000 General 2,866 935

Investment income

1

Charitable activities

4,159

Total incoming resources

7,961

Charitable expenditure Cost of generating voluntary income Trading operations Charitable activities

91 411 7,052

Total charitable expenditure

7,554

Net incoming/resources for the year Transfer to designated fund

407 0

Net movement in funds

407

Funds brought forward

163

Total surplus funds carried forward

570

The figures in this report were extracted from Brighton Dome and Festival Limited’s full financial statements. The audit opinion on the annual financial statements for the year ended 31st March 2017 was unqualified. The financial statements should be consulted for a full understanding of the results of Brighton Dome and Festival Limited and its financial position.

Photo: Belonging(s), Brighton Festival 2016, Hove Town Hall Car Park © Vic Frankowski

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Our Future 20 20

The Heart of the City Restored and Reunited

Visualisations of refurbished building, Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios, 2016

This year has been a significant one in our history, as the first phase of the restoration and reunification of the Royal Pavilion Estate moves from a planned ambition to a reality.

Our plans for the reopening of our Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre are now a major focus, as we establish exciting partnerships with artists and organisations who will benefit from our improved performance and creation spaces.

This £21.2 million project now has £19.7 million raised including key support from Arts Council

England and Heritage Lottery Fund. We continue to work with Brighton & Hove City Council and Royal Pavilion & Museums alongside welcoming new funders and supporters to secure the success of this first and future phases.

As refurbishments progress, we’ll continue to work together on further phases of this ambitious vision.

We believe the Royal Pavilion Estate project will make a central contribution to Brighton & Hove and its economy.

Leadership Support

Visualisations: Refurbished building, 2016 © Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios | Photo: Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, 2017 © Carlotta Luke

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Our Supporters

Our Supporters As a charity we rely on the support of our individual, corporate and trust & foundation donors.

We would like to thank them all for their generosity and partnership.

New image

‘There is a real sense of purpose to be supporting a cultural institution and in these days of austerity, it’s critical that institutions such as Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival continue and flourish.

What I most enjoy is the knowledge that we are supporting and, in our own way, taking Brighton Festival forward.

And after my first full festival, it’s also remarkably good fun!’

Donald Reid, Patron 22 22

‘And that sense of being part of it is what we enjoy most. There are the practical benefits, but it’s the less tangible benefit of feeling that we are contributing that means most to us. Imagine the joy of sitting in an audience enthralled by something very special knowing that it’s your money that helped to make it possible.’

Margaret & Andrew Polmear, Patrons

Thank you to our supporters Funders

Major Sponsors

Sponsors

Corporate Supporters

WSP West Sussex Print Limited

ASDA | AVT Connect | Book Nook | Brighton & Hove Buses | Facelift | Gunns Flowers | KAVE Theatre Services NCP | The Old Ship Hotel | PR Industrial Ltd Programming Partners

same sky dream & build

Brighton College | Dance Consortium | nabokov | South East Dance

Trusts & Foundations

Mrs A Lacy-Tate Trust | The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust | BBC Children in Need | The Chalk Cliff Trust The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust | Esmée Fairbairn Foundation | The Lynn Foundation | The Pebble Trust | Sobell Foundation Patrons The Aisbitt Family | Sue Addis | Paul & Dee Bonett | Ali Braithwaite | Caroline & Howard Carter | Sir Michael & Lady Sue Checkland Andrew Comben | June Crown | Rachel Dupere | Michael Farthing & Alison McLean | Gay Fearn Prof. David Gann CBE & Ms Anne Asha | Arjo & Sejal Ghosh | David Harrison | John Hird & Yoshio Akiyama | Danny Homan Lady Helena Hughes | Dr Glynn Jones DL OBE | Karl Jones | Sang Jun Lee | Gary Miller | Ms Diane Moody & Prof. Frans Berkhout Philip Morgan | D V Newbold CBE I Judge Marian Norrie-Walker | Michael Pitts | Andrew & Margaret Polmear Ronald Power MBE | Donald Reid | Clare Rogers I Dr Donia Scott & Prof. Howard Rush | Richard & Soraya Shaw Robin & Anja St Clair Jones | Polly Toynbee | Lady Betty Watson | Martin Williams | Those who wish to remain anonymous Photo: African Dance Party, Brighton Festival 2016, Brighton Dome Corn Exchange © Vic Frankowski

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Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival We are the south coast’s premier multi-arts venue, hosting over 600 events a year spanning music, theatre, dance, comedy and more.

Every May we produce the internationally acclaimed Brighton Festival – England’s largest mixed arts festival.

We are recognised globally as well as being right at the heart of our community and our city as part of the Royal Pavilion Estate.

brightondome.org | brightonfestival.org

Brighton Dome & Festival Ltd. Registered office: 12a Pavilion Buildings, Castle Square, Brighton BN1 1EE Company no. 889184 | Registered Charity no. 249748 | VAT no. 730 203001

Cover image: Dr Blighty, Brighton Festival 2016, The Royal Pavilion Brighton & Hove. © QED Productions