Spark Annual Report 2018

Annual Report

2018

Our Vision

Igniting the potential for all children through extraordinary arts experiences The Spark gives children opportunities to immerse themselves in the arts. We offer children spaces to discover their own skills, passions and potential, as audiences, participants and creators of their own work.

We do this through commissioning and producing high quality, diverse and

innovative programmes; organising a bold and imaginative children's arts festival

and by championing cultural education activity locally to ensure that children in

Leicester/shire thrive through rich and adventurous experiences, no matter where

they start in life. .

We Value Creativity - taking a bold approach to developing new opportunities through the arts for children, young people and their families.

Accessibility - believing that all children and young people,

whatever their background, should experience high quality arts.

Our Focus

On Your Doorstep

Our work in partnership with communities

Commitment - we care about children and young people. We enjoy

At Your School

Sustainability - always seeking to form significant, sustainable

with schools

working with and for them.

relationships with long term goals.

Integrity - we are confident, professional, reliable and friendly. We

act with fairness, respect, honesty and integrity in everything we do.

Our work in partnership

In Your Venue

Our work with cultural partners

across the city

< Agent M

Making mischief in Leicester libraries and neighbourhoods to support

the Summer Reading Challenge

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Bringing stories to life

Artists in Residence working together with librarians and the community 2018 saw the culmination of 4 years work placing artists in residence within a library

to support storytelling as a medium to promote reading for pleasure. Imaginative

Spaces 2014 - 2016 and Imaginative Neighbourhoods, 2016 - 2018 saw artists working together with librarians and the community to encourage families and children

to become actively involved in the arts and culture at the heart of their community.

Over the 4 years the programme has included workshops, performances, exhibitions,

installations, the creation of ongoing youth theatre groups, publications, large scale

community celebration events, film and new plays that have been performed locally and nationally.

The four years culminated this summer with a programme of mischief, magic and

mild mayhem to support the Summer Reading challenge. Highlights included a

magical mischief family picnic, a library sleep over, Giggles in the Garden for early

years and Agent M - an interactive theatre performance that toured city libraries and

4

years

13

residencies

100

visiting artists / performers

56,000 over

young people and their families

appeared at The City Festival.

A special thank you to the artists in residence Manya Benenson, John Berkavitch,

Trina Haldar, Dave ‘Stickman’ Higgins, Andy Reeves, Parmjit Sagoo and Jayne

Williams and all of the librarians and families who worked with us.

" I like how we can come here and spend time with our friends and family. It gets us off our phones ‘cos at home

I’ll just watch YouTube all the time but when you make your own games it’s more fun."

10 year old participant

< Belgrave Kindness Festival

Belgrave Youth Theatre performing on stage at the Belgrave Community Centre

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Among Ideal Friends

Touring family theatre to libraries across the East Midlands In March we were delighted to secure funding to build on the successful library

touring network, Among Ideal Friends. This means we will be creating and touring family theatre in to East Midlands libraries until Summer 2022, giving families, schools and communities more opportunities to take part in quality arts and culture at venues on their doorstep.

In addition to the performances, the project will train and support the library

service as Artsmark Partners playing an active role in Cultural Education Partnerships locally.

The Gingerbread Man The new season started with The Gingerbread Man by Hiccup Theatre in

association with Derby Theatre. The production, originally produced for a studio

theatre, was reimagined to tour to non-theatrical spaces. This delicious musical adventure toured libraries and community centres across the East Midlands during July and August 2018.

Pop Up Theatre In addition to Among Ideal Friends, we work with Inspire to programme theatre

in Nottinghamshire libraries. Developing and growing their audience by providing high quality, fun, imaginative and accessible live theatre in their libraries.

In partnership with Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council, Rutland County Council, Nottingham City Council, Inspire: Culture, Learning and Libraries, supported by Arts Council England Strategic Touring fund.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Brilliant play, we had never watched one at a library but we definitely will again. Very good and very child friendly. Brilliant, thank you.â&#x20AC;?

Parent / Audience Member

1

show

36

performances in

35

different venues

1,994

audience members

91%

net promoter score

< The Gingerbread Man

Gilbert Taylor and Kate Spencer perform The Gingerbread Man at Fosse Library

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The Spark Festival

Unforgettable arts experiences for young people aged 0 - 13 years in schools, theatre, parks and community venues across the city

SparkPlus Our work with schools has always been at the heart of the festival, taking world class music, dance and theatre productions in to school halls. In 2018 we

successfully piloted SparkPlus, a new project created by The Spark, alongside teaching professionals, with the aim of having a greater impact on children’s

development and learning and contributing to school improvement. As well as complementing the festival’s touring productions the programme incorporated

poetry and music residencies giving pupils the opportunity to collaborate and

perform with world class artists. A total of 536 children received their Discover Arts Award. SparkPlus also saw our first Arts Ambassadors scheme piloted in

partnership with Falcons Primary school, ensuring pupil voice is a key part of

cultural education in both our work and at their school.

The Spark Festival is moving!

The 2018 Spark Festival was a resounding success with over 12,000 people

experiencing unforgettable arts events in schools, theatres, parks and commuity

venues across the city.

To ensure The Spark Festival continues to have as big an impact on the children

of Leicester/shire as possible we are repositioning its regular slot on the calendar

from May to February. This shift gives us the opportunity to embed The Spark in

to the local learning curriculum, to co-curate work in communities and enables

us to develop our own product through our Vital Spark programme.

The next Spark Festival is 10 - 16 February 2020 - Save the Date

“Lots of the children in my class shy

away

from

speaking

publicly, some won’t even give an answer in class so it was brilliant to see them on stage.”

Teacher, Powerful Words Project

8

amazing days

31

companies / artists

27

venues

96

festival events

80

school workshops

12,000 over

participants

< A Square World

Daryl Beeton performs A Square World at Mellor Community

Primary School, Leicester

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Tiny Sparks

Early Years learning and development through music We were thrilled to create ‘Tiny Sparks’ again this year, with further support from

funders Youth Music. The 10 week music residency saw internationally renowned

musicians Arun Ghosh and Dave 'Stickman' Higgins deliver a series of workshops for early years children and their families.

These sessions provided practical professional development and peer learning

opportunities for teachers and play workers in north and central Leicester

children’s centres and nursery settings.

Learning resources were created for staff and parents including Rhythm Play Express, a CD of songs from Dave ‘Stickman’ Higgins produced by Thomas

'Juga-Naut' Higgins and Bang a Drum a book of words & music by Arun Ghosh, illustrated by Juliet Kirby.

Artist Development This year saw the introduction of a two day residency ‘music lab’ to encourage

musicians from a diverse range of backgrounds to consider making work for early years.

The Importance of Music in Early Years

“So unique and interactive, kept my 2 year old fascinated.

Great that parents can be involved too.”

Petre Horner, Parent

10

weeks of musical play

70

activities

294 children

286 parents

In June we ran a region wide early years symposium, bringing together Tiny Sparks

with national learning to consider the role of music in pre school education. The

event featured key note speaker Nicola Burke, author of Musical Development

Matters.

Tiny Sparks is supported by Youth Music, Leicester City Council and The John And Susan Bowers Fund

< Rhythm Play Express

Artist in Residence Dave ‘Stickman’ Higgins delivering a music led play session.

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Vital Spark

Working together to shift the landscape of theatre and dance for children Vital Spark is an ambitious four-year programme which aims to address the gap in diverse work for children by supporting a talented group of BAME, D/deaf &

“After attending the Vital

Spark Roadshow I feel

inspired to produce something

innovative

and relevant to modern

Disabled artists.

day children.”

Through an artist development programme, commissioning opportunities and the

Mahsuda Snaith

production of new work, Vital Spark will collaborate with artists to produce great art

that ensures all children are represented, recognised and given role models.

Over the course of the programme there will be: • •

16 artists who have completed a bespoke Vital Spark Development Programme

offering artists the time, space and resources to develop their work for children.

8 new ideas commissioned and presented through the Ideas Fund, giving

artists or companies an opportunity to take a bold and exciting idea to the next stage of it's life.

•

2 new productions of high quality work ready to tour locally, nationally and

internationally.

•

Opportunities to hear from a wider range of BAME, D/deaf and Disabled artists

•

Discussions which connect the views of children, artists and arts professionals.

passionate about the children’s sector.

We are excited to have selected the first six artists Sameena Khan, Mellow Baku,

Takeshi Matsumoto, Lucy Hayward, Parmjit Sagoo and Chad Taylor. You can follow

4

roadshow events

46

registered artists

37

applications

6

successful artists / ideas

their journey at www.vitalspark.blog.

“There were maybe people for whom no other portal into the

arts / young audiences might have worked? Very exciting to

see the programme reaching the parts others don't.”

Louise Katarega, Creative Director Foot in Hand, commenting on Leicester Roadshow

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Financial Report

The Spark Staff

The Spark receives National Portfolio Organisation funding from Arts Council

General Manager Harriet Roy

Director Adel Al-Salloum

Financial year September 2017 - August 2018 England and has received an uplift for the period April 2018- March 2022 to support our Vital Spark programme. We are extremely grateful for their

continued support.

The Spark Arts for Children continues to receive the majority of its income from

projects grants and grant dispersal across the breadth of our work in libraries, schools and communities. We also receive a grant from Leicester City Council for the Festival. This year there was an increase in voluntary income on the previous year due to these grants.

The charity also received welcome support from its corporate and venue

partners, Trusts & Foundations and individual donors this year. We would particularly like to thank all those who took part in the Family Abseil Challenge, which made an important contribution to our fundraising.

Income 2017/18

Arts Council & LCC Grant

22%

Fundraising & Sponsorship

13%

Project Grants

Earned Income

Total income for the year Expenditure 2017/18

13%

ÂŁ507,866

Library Activity

34%

Other Project Activity

13%

Festival + Schools Activity Core & Project Staff

Cost of Fund raising Overheads

Total expenditure for the year

Figures shown are based on pre-audited accounts.

A copy of our published accounts can be supplied on request.

< Tiny Sparks

51%

Enjoying a Rhythm Play Express session

17%

25%

4%

7%

ÂŁ484,063

Creative Producer Tara Lopez Projects Manager Gemma Bhagalia

Press & Marketing Manager Keith Turner Development Manager Carrie Carruthers Project Co-ordinator Jess Richards

Administration & Marketing Assistant Jessica Colebourne-Viggers Marketing & Events Support Maya Biswas Associate Festival Director Tony Reekie Board of Trustees Mike Candler (Chair) Jasbir Mann Aashish Parmar Mahmood Reza

Patron Tim Crouch

Rachael Mabe Vijay Mistry Jon Prest Akshay Sharma

Spark artists in residence Parmjit Sagoo Dave Higgins Jayne Williams John Berkavitch Arun Ghosh Adriano Adewale

Creative Champions Coordinator Liga Orlovska

De Monfort University Student placements Sammy Mitchell Maureen Njoroge

Spark Photographer Pamela Raith Report design Mooli

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Our Partners Business Partner

Higher Education Partner

Design Partner

Media Partner

mooli Media Partner

Media Partner

Festival Partners

Equity

•

Chutney Ivy

•

Exchange Bar

Funders

The John and Susan Bowers Fund • Edith Murphy Foundation • The Ernest Cook Trust • The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Open Gate Trust • The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust • Florence Turner Trust • Writing East Midlands • #DMULocal Co-operative Central Local Community Fund • Maud Elkington Charitable Trust • The 29th May 1961 Charity Thanks to our Donors: Friends of Knighton Park, Next, Aviva Community Fund, Rolls Royce, Shoezone, Spearing Waite, Maber Associates Ltd, Nelsons Law, Write the Talk, Waitrose Community Matters, Mellor Community Primary School

Partner Venues: Attenborough Arts Centre • Beaumont Leys Library • Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre The Brite Centre • Curve • Hamilton Library • Knighton Park • Leicester Print Workshop • New Walk Museum & Art Gallery Pedestrian • Phoenix • The Gallery, De Montfort University • The Y • Two Queens

We are proud to be the lead partner of Leicester(shire)'s Cultural Education Partnership www.cityclassroom.org

Contact Us

The Spark Arts for Children, LCB Depot, 31 Rutland Street, Leicester LE1 1RE Tel: 0116 261 6893 Email: info@thesparkarts.co.uk

Online: thesparkarts.co.uk

SparkArtsFestival

@thesparkarts

Cover - selection of Spark memories 2018 - photography Pamela Raith The Spark Arts for Children is a company limited by guarantee, no.5254229. Registered charity no. 1106952.