B o x O f f i c e: 0 2 3 8 0 6 7 17 71
w w w. n u f f i e l d t h e a t r e . c o . u k
Strategic Developments 2009/10 was a challenging year for the arts. The recession affected income, and at year-end changes in government policy and funding levels were anticipated as the country awaited the elections. In Southampton, this position of uncertainty was further impacted by Southampton City Council’s major review of its grants and Arts Council’s awaited decision about its funding of the Southampton New Arts Complex (SNAC). For The Nuffield this unstable external environment has come at a time of significant strategic growth, requiring an intelligent, flexible and creative approach to ensure our ongoing healthy development.
Apples & Snakes
The cultural growth of the city and the cultural confidence of its people are vital to our long term artistic strategy and audience development plans, and therefore as we look forward, it is encouraging that despite the funding challenges Southampton City Council has remained determined in its vision to develop a cultural quarter with an arts complex at its heart. Throughout the year we worked closely with Southampton City Council and the SNAC arts partners (John Hansard Gallery, Art Asia and City Eye) on this project and significant achievements have been made in the areas of design, governance, vision, audience development and fundraising. Most crucially, Grosvenor was appointed as the preferred developer and Southampton City Council raised its financial commitment to ensure that the arts complex could be achieved. The Arts Council’s decision on funding is anticipated as this report goes to print.
The development of outdoor arts and audience development activities has become a significant part of our work this year. The Nuffield is working with the other SNAC arts partners as co-curators of Art at the Heart, an audience development and City Animation Project which launched in spring 2009. We are leading Southampton’s artistic work as part of ZEPA, an Interreg funded Anglo-French outdoor arts project. Our first ZEPA project, Midsummer Dreams, involving Transe Express and Walk the Plank took place on 27 June 2009 and attracted an estimated 7,000 people. We were also involved with other key projects in the city this year including the Cultural Olympiad and PUSH4Culture. The Nuffield was appointed as one of the theatres to deliver A Night Less Ordinary, the Free Theatre scheme for under 26 year olds. This project fitted well with our audience development strategy, and it has proved extremely successful with 2,728 members signed up to the scheme at The Nuffield.
We recruited for a new role of Audience Development Officer and developed an audience development strategy for the Free Theatre scheme, SNAC and The Nuffield’s core work. Through this work, we have made links with 164 local groups new to the Nuffield, including 74 groups supporting disabled people in the region and 36 youth service projects. We are also delighted to report that our total audience has increased by a further 4.7% this year. We refurbished our offices in the summer, to better accommodate our staff including the new Audience Development Officer, and Apples & Snakes South East office (see Collaborations and Visiting Companies below). We also invested in coaching, mentoring and training for our staff, and development opportunities for our Board. Finally, despite being a difficult year financially we are delighted to report that we managed to achieve a small surplus of £29k at year end.
“ Katherine Tozer is outstanding as the crippled Martirio, so eaten up by longing it is as if she is being consumed from the inside out. Best of all, though, is Ann Mitchell’s superb Bernarda Alba, who presides over her daughters like a malevolent mother superior” The House of Bernarda Alba
4
The Guardian on The House of Bernarda Alba
Midsummer Dreams
5