Chilli Studios Annual Report 15-16

Year starting

April 2015 and ending

April 2016

CHILLI STUDIOS ANNUAL REPORT & FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING MARCH 31ST 2016 Newcastle and Gateshead Art Studios LTD (Trading as Chilli Studios) Registered Charity & Company limited by Guarantee Company Registration 05028177 | Registered Charity 1116957

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CONTENTS

PAGES

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Introduction by Studio Manager

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Review of Activities, Developments and Achievements ! ! ! ! !

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Evaluation Model: Engagement, Participation, Development and Achievement

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Statement of Financial Activities

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Balance Sheet

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Key Staff Members of the Board

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NAGAS is a company limited by guarantee number 05028177, incorporated on 28 January 2004 and is governed by its articles and memorandum. It is a registered charity, number 1116957 The Charity’s full name is Newcastle and Gateshead Arts Studio Limited (NAGAS).

Trading as Chilli Studios.

This report was compiled December 2016 after the official Newcastle and Gateshead Art Studio Limited Annual report were finalized. Therefore further details and a richer picture of the year 15-16 activities have been gathered and submitted for this public production version of the Annual Report.

Notes to the Financial Statements and further details can be found in our TRUSTEES’ REPORT AND AUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2016 at Charity Commissions website and Companies House at the relevant submission time. Also available upon request.

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A year of Change: 2015-16

Well Chilli Studios has been through some significant changes over the years, but from my perspective, no other year could compete with this year’s mammoth changes.

Early on we all bid farewell to close friends and colleagues Kev and Jon, then through an arduous recruitment process supported by brilliant volunteers and members, we identified, interviewed and recruited the immense Jo and Nikki. The team was made complete with the in-house recruitment of the fabulous Lynne as User Involvement Officer.

A few months later things really took off, and by December we had successfully secured funds to develop our gallery shop Chilli Bizarre. As part of this ambitious venture, we recruited the lovely Kathryn, and with this year’s final recruitment the once male dominated team now was looking very different.

April15 to March16 will go down as a year of really positive growth, and I now am convinced that the change made will stand us in good stead for the many challenges of future years.

On behalf of all the team, I would like to say a huge thank you to all our brilliant volunteers and members who make the studio such a warm, friendly, creative and happy space.

Go Team Chilli!

Yours Bob Malpiedi Studio Manager

The studio is a great community. I feel inspired. The studio reduces my symptoms and helps me feel good about myself. I don’t know what I would do without the studio. (Les 2016)

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REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES, DEVELOPMENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Our service NAGAS is now referred to as Chilli Studios for branding and publicity purposes, as agreed by the Board in May 2015. We deliver services to those who are, or are at risk of experiencing diagnosed mental health problems, and those who experience other forms of social exclusion within their communities.

Our Aim is Improving Mental Health through Creativity

Our project objectives are: !

To widely promote our service and engage new members, supporting social inclusion

To use creative participation as an intervention to prevent deterioration To develop members’ involvement in activities that support recovery To signpost and support members to achieve goals within realistic timeframes

OBJECTIVES OF THE CHARITY To provide a sustainable service that engages people in creative activity, which promotes social inclusion and interaction, develops skills and ability which builds resilience, enables potential and improves wellbeing.

Overview This year has seen greater creation and change than at any other time in the studio's history. Staff changes, evaluation activity and support from the Big Lottery and North Star Ventures have allowed us to greatly develop and plan for our future success and sustainability.

Realising my 'problems' aren't unique to me but shared by so many and understood (Anon 2015)

Our achievements during the year include: - Implementing the “Achievement” in our evaluation model EPDA both in recovery & artistic (see EPDA model page 9) - Success in Fresh ideas funding to explore and open a new shop ‘Chilli Bizarre’ - Employed a ‘Shop Co-ordinator’ (a previous member), participated in Open studios and numerous profile raising events. Increasing networks between professional galleries, awareness and visibility - Engaged with Newcastle University’s Business and Architecture schools in developments - Set up online sales platform, full policies and procedures for retail purposes - Designed and promoted Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Brochure, 3 studio publications, 1 studio album, 1 business plan, 1 service report, and developed organisational review - Chilli Radio: numerous members’ musical, audio & discussion and debate podcasts - Delivered Engagement event “Apples in the Castle” Philanthropic and CSR event - Social media expanded to 686 followers on Twitter, 930 likes on Facebook sites - Growth in Staff & Governance. Following the departure of two staff members we employed 4 new members of staff with new roles, gained 1 new Board member and welcomed Patron Artist, Derek Eland - Supported, participated and evaluated in North East Art Studio Partnership (NEASP) project, information sharing and support sessions - Positioned ourselves as an integral part of the Recovery College at Broadacre house - Applied for numerous grants, and through to final stages with two - Expanded studio premises, office & studio space and incorporated ‘Chill out space’ as a response to needs - Engaged with Newcastle Council’s New Years Eve Carnival - Engaged outside agencies to deliver sessions such as ‘Opera helps’, ‘Outside in’ & ‘Music in hospitals’ - Artistic partnership work with cross sector work e.g archive research with Tyne and Wear Museums - Promotional & awareness stall at Newcastle Mental Health Day - Implemented Creative Wellness Logs for members

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continued to be stored on a secure database and is updated regularly.

Profile Our rebranding has been highly successful and our increased presence within the community, due to our public facing shop, has elevated the status of the Charity greatly. This has led to a number of new and exciting partnerships that are becoming opportunities to engage future commissioning bodies.

Staffing

Activities

The service is staffed by a full-time Studio Manager and, from September 2015, a part-time User Involvement Officer (UIO), Arts Worker and Administrator. This structure was created following a staffing review in the summer of 2015, brought about by the departure of our previous Assistant Manager and UIO to new opportunities. The new roles allowed us to separate the distinctly differing aspects of our work for maximum benefit. Before recruiting we approached The Big Lottery for authorisation and to request we use savings created in ongoing salary costs to fund sessional artist work.

Activity and levels of participation have dramatically increased following our staffing restructure: - Delivered 599 core artistic sessions at Chilli Studios - Delivered and reported on 3 outreach projects, 96 workshops with 816 participations by 46 individuals - 9 exhibitions, 12 external visits, 12 events and supported 11 skill shares as part of budding scheme.

- 5664 overall attendance with 5196 participations in workshops - 8954 general public attendance & footfall in Chilli Studio events and exhibitions.

- 172 regular individual member participations and 551 total membership - Part of ‘North East Art Studio Partnership’ Lifelines project and thereafter evaluation report.

We have assisted members in developing skills in a wide range of creative based activities, these have included: Drawing, Painting, Ceramics, Sculpture, Photography, Digital Media, Printmaking, Glasswork, Textiles, Creative Writing, Animation, General Arts and Crafts as well Audio & Music.

Members have been given the freedom to work independently in the studio or join any of our structured workshops which we have delivered weekly.

The new recruits were appointed after an open recruitment process and the new post holders have dramatically increased our capacity, professionalism and activity.

The challenge of staff changes and new roles felt like a step into the unknown, but the process was a resounding success.

The last six months of the year has seen them flourish within their roles, imparting new ways of working and inspiring real positive change. Supervision has identified just how much they value the service; this passion has been a catalyst within the studio. To further support our offer we have employed 7 sessional artists, worked with 24 volunteers and continued to have 2 doctoral researchers engaged in evaluating certain aspects of our work.

New Projects that started and continued development over the last year.

• Chilli Bizarre began trading in December 2015 following significant research and business planning. The shop has provided a perfect vehicle to develop the new ‘Achievement’ The Art Room is invaluable to me. It is my primary social element in our method of working. It has also given interaction and the only place I can express myself creatively a new platform for engagement within the wider doing artwork and sculpture. It’s so good to have somewhere community. Developing all the systems, policies and promotion of the retail enterprise has improved I can be myself and people don't judge me for my mental the organisation’s knowledge base and capacity to health. It is a warm community type place. seek opportunities.

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(Camille, June 2016)

Referrals have continued come from a wide range of areas including Social Workers, Carers, Community Psychiatric Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Doctors and Support Workers. Each member was required to complete a form, which gives staff the essential information required to facilitate a safe and well-informed working space. This information has

! • Because of the additional financial requirements involved in sales, the management of our accounts required further assistance. Through positive negotiations with Mental Health Concern an improved contract was agreed and implemented April 2016.

• Chilli Seed (Business start-up model) which is specifically for

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The staff are really good. They are helpful with my art work but also with my mental health.

I feel safe and protected here. We can always talk to staff about problems. (Heather 2016) Training creatively based enterprises within the studio. Involvement within the NEASP Lifelines project has developed strong partnerships and shared learning.

Relationships with NTAS have further evolved and we are now entering in plans to work together with Helix Arts to develop an Arts Council proposal that are seen as a pilot project towards developing our Chilli Seed model.

Over the course of the year all staff and a number of volunteers took part in training for First Aid and Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults. There were also 2 Mindfulness courses and informative conferences attended throughout the year.

Attendance • ReCoCo is a project that is under development with partners from Mental Health Concern, Recovery College (NTW Mental Health Trust), Newcastle and Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group, Launchpad and VOLSAG. The outreach projects that were delivered in the Recovery College and The Wellbeing Centre were overall extremely successful.

However these too had issues with staff illness and change.

Therefore the capacity of staff to support the sessions was at times limited and future outreach activities will be now programmed with greater consideration of capacity.

Partnerships Chilli Studios has worked in partnership with: •!

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The North East Art Studios Partnership (NEASP) Newcastle City Council’s Arts Development Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM) NTW Mental Health Trust Launchpad! ! !

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VOLSAG The Recovery College!

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Helix Arts! ! !

WellNorth! ! !

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Wunderbar Festival Ouseburn Open Studios! •!

The Holy Biscuit

The attendance in the studio has increased on the previous year. Attendances within both outreach and studio ( * based on averages). ! ! !!

2016! 2015!

Yearly Total ! ! ! (separate attendances) Monthly*! ! !

Weekly*! ! !

Daily*! !! !

5,665! 4,520 532!

118!

28!

377!

94 23

Total recorded members ! 551!

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Evaluation Evaluation of our new shop and our Chilli seed model has been completed and work has commenced at starting our in-depth evaluation towards the full service to be completed in summer 2017.

The EPDA model is now implemented across all our Charity evaluation methods and a more robust member recovery and creative development evaluation is now in place. This includes the new “Achievement” element. Creative Wellness Logs and artistic diaries have also been developed to allow members to self monitor their mental health as well as creative endeavors.

Board Our board currently consists of 6 trustees with very strong representation from professionals working in key areas; within Senior Management, Service User Involvement, Influencing Mental Health Policy and Best Practice, Legal Practice, Finance, Personnel Management, Arts Development and Education.

Our previous Assistant Studio Manager has agreed an invite to join our Board in the coming months.

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If it was not for the studio and support from staff and members, I would not be where I am today. I would not have tried different things, in the last 6 months I have been more productive than I have in years but in so many different ways. (Marie2016)

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This report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions for the small companies under Part 15 of the companies Act 2006 Alisdair Cameron
 Trustee Approved by the Board on 22 December 2016 Notes to the Financial Statements and further details can be found in our Audited accounts at Charity Commissions website and Companies House at the relevant submission time. Also available upon request.

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Nelly Stavropoulou
 Andrea satty

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Chilli Studios | Newbridge Street | Newcastle Upon Tyne | NE1 2TQ 0191 209 4058Â | chillistudios.co.uk |

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