The Spark Annual Report 12-13

Annual Report

2013

www.thesparkarts.co.uk

Contents

Welcome Festival highlights Festival attendance Tree Child Our work across the year Accessibility & sustainability Financial report Festival venues and staff Our Partners

page

3 4 7 8 10 12 14 15 16

Our Vision The Spark enables children to enjoy the opportunities for discovery offered by the arts as audiences, as learners and as creators of their own art.

A warm welcome to The Spark Arts for Children This Annual Report marks the end of a highly successful and busy year, in which we have made significant developments in the reach, ambition and scale of our work. In March we re-launched ourselves as The Spark Arts for Children, to reflect these changes and the fact that we now have a year round offer for children and young people. We have developed our staff team, increased the number of out-of-festival projects and produced our very own piece of work for some of the most hard to reach communities in the Leicester area.

The Spark Festival remains our flagship project and this year we saw 18,765 people attending 209 events over twelve wonderful festival days. This represents a considerable 40% increase in attendance from 2012 and is our highest attendance to date. In addition we have hosted a series of industry events, bringing colleagues from across the UK arts sector together. We have also supported the development of local artists through sharings and case study presentations.

Tim Crouch is an award-winning UK theatre artist, based in Brighton. An acclaimed actor, he has been writing, performing and producing his own work for over a decade. His work tours extensively both here in the UK and internationally, including his acclaimed productions fairymonsterghost - three children’s plays looking at Shakespeare through the eyes of the bit parts. We are delighted to have him on board as The Spark’s first ever Patron.

In July we were delighted to have the opportunity to produce our very first piece of work, Tree Child, which we toured across 20 libraries in Leicestershire, enabling us to reach 886 new attendees. The year ended with The Spark bringing a splash of the seaside to Leicester, turning Orton Square into The End of the Pier Delights and entertaining over 1800 children and families over the August bank holiday City Festival.

We are pleased to be able to report such positive results and would like to thank our funders and partners for the important role they play in enabling our success. The business and arts community continue to embrace what we do with great generosity and warmth, which brings significant benefits to the children we work with. With this wonderful support, we feel confident in our ability to continue this work and to grow our ambition, reach and impact in 2014.

Adel Al-Salloum Director

David Bell Chair of the Board of Trustees

“It is an honour to be Patron of The Spark Arts for Children. I had the joy of seeing Tree Child performed to a group of entranced children (and parents) at New Parks Library in Leicester this summer. Now, more than ever, we need this kind of work - work that connects children to the best of live performance, work that enriches their sense of culture, self and society. Every city, every community, every child needs a Spark!”

Tim Crouch Spark Patron www.thesparkarts.co.uk

3

“Wanted Rabbit was fantastic. We come every year and the quality of performances gets better and better - many thanks” Festival goer

“Congratulations @thesparkarts for such a diverse and wonderful festival. We adored Varmints @CurveLeicester, moving and inspired.”

4 www.thesparkarts.co.uk

Twitter follower

A festival to remember Nearly 20,000 people take in more than 200 events This year the festival played host to some of the very best national & international companies and artists. In total we welcomed 31 companies and artists, who delivered performances and workshops in 12 schools, seven pre-schools, nine community venues and five key theatre venues.

Highlights included the return of the acclaimed company Tangere Arts, who performed Noël Greig's Hood in the Wood in school halls and libraries. We also saw the wonderful Travelling Light present their dance-theatre show Varmints, choreographed by Willkie Branson and directed by Sally Cookson. Meanwhile the outstanding Maas Theatre and Dance (Netherlands) brought their WANTED: Rabbit production to Curve.

Phoenix commissioned digital artist Luke Woodbury's immersive and interactive environment Book of Worlds, whilst The Y Theatre introduced audiences young and old to Shlomo, a world recordbreaking human beatboxer and his Beat Box Adventure.

Embrace Arts hosted White Peacock, a participatory play for young teenagers with autism, which was a festival first for this audience. New Walk Museum threw open its doors, giving families an opportunity to explore the museum in an entirely new way. It was wonderful to see children running, hiding, crawling and playing their way through the galleries.

Festival companies & artists 2Funky Arts Ailie Cohen Anne Fine Bigmix Theatre Birmingham Stage Company Bombastic Dance Curve Young Arts Entrepreneurs Darbar Digital Fun Fair Frozen Charlotte Graffiti Classics Hema Acharya Hiccup Theatre Ju Ju Beats Krazy Kat Theatre La Baracca (Italy) Leicester Print Workshop Lucy Hammond Luke Woodbury M6 Theatre Company Maas Theatre and Dance (Netherlands) Nottingham Playhouse Roundabout Pedestrian Pif-Paf PW Productions Ltd + Nick Brooke Ltd Shlomo Trestle Theatre Tangere Arts Tutti Frutti Productions Turned on its Head Travelling Light Theatre Company

“So far we have been to shows, workshops and the Play-ground with four children aged 4-7. They've all loved something and enjoyed every minute of the performances they've seen. The Spark is definitely sparking their imaginations and firing their desire to do more.”

Festival goer at The Snow Queen

www.thesparkarts.co.uk

5

A city Play-ground

Shiny

This year the Play-ground was the ‘festival hub’, based at Curve theatre. The hub served as an information point for festival goers, and offered a unique opportunity for children to access FREE arts activities. This year, with the help of over 1500 children and their families, we were able to transform Curve’s mezzanine area into an over-sized cardboard city.

The development of new professional work for children is an exciting departure for us. We offer strong artistic and administrative capabilities to assist companies and artists in the creation of new work. We proudly supported local dance company Turned on Its Head to première their new show Shiny at Embrace Arts and in five children’s centres across the city.

We expanded the Play-ground concept this year to involve many other cultural venues across Leicester. There were digital delights Sparking the Imagination at Phoenix and Diversions at New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, whilst smaller children visited Embrace Arts in search of Paperbelle by Frozen Charlotte. The Play-ground offers children and their families a wonderfully diverse range of opportunities to engage with the arts in some of Leicester’s best venues, widening access to high quality participation and cultural experiences.

Turned On its Head have since gone on to tour Shiny extensively and have performed it at the Just So, Juice and Big Imaginations festivals.

Extending the free half term activities across the city

An exciting première of new work

“James and the Giant Peach was brilliant. Other highlights for us were Shiny at Embrace Arts and Honey at Knighton Park. Can't wait for next year!”

Vicky on facebook

6 www.thesparkarts.co.uk

Festival attendance We are delighted that we saw a 40% increase in our attendances at The Spark Festival in 2013. This increase can be attributed to our first year working successfully with New Walk Museum, hosting Birmingham Stage Company’s James and the Giant Peach on Curve’s main stage and offering more performances in schools.

Summary of attendance 2013 In Your Theatre Theatre performances / workshops

At Your School In school performances including workshops

On Your Doorstep * Performances in community venues e.g. libraries, community centres, shopping centres and museums

The Play-ground * Free family activities at Curve

Visual & Digital Arts * Phoenix Square, New Walk Museum and Pedestrian Gallery family activities Total

number of events 2012

2013

attendance

2013

2012

50

55

5,547

9,140

46

53

3,637

4,660

22

19

1,695

674

11

32

1,840

1,985

18

50

934

2,306

147

209

13,653

18,765

* estimated audience figures at free activities.

www.thesparkarts.co.uk

7

“I thought the Tree Child was amazing.

I especially liked that you had to use your imagination a lot. My favourite character was the squirrel” Child audience member at Leicester Central Library

“Wonderful storytelling, theatre at its best” A parent at Belgrave Library

8 www.thesparkarts.co.uk

Tree Child Exciting new work and new models of partnership working Through developing a year round programme of participation & learning and bespoke events, The Spark facilitates and commissions a range of projects which complement and extend the work of the festival. In January 2013, The Spark was awarded Strategic Touring funding from Arts Council England, enabling us to develop and tour a programme of work called Tree Child across libraries in Leicester. Created for children aged eight years and over, it ran during the summer holidays as part of the Summer Reading Challenge.

We commissioned talented playwright and poet Joseph Coelho to create this performance, in collaboration with director Philip Osment and puppet maker / designer Sue Pyecroft. We also involved Year 5 children from two schools through creative writing and drama workshops. Tree Child is a story of growing up, of learning to live with life's knots and gnarls and seeking out its blossoms. It was a mythical adventure in storytelling and puppetry.

Tree Child marked a new moment in time for The Spark, demonstrating our ability to innovate new models of partnership working to produce exciting work for children and families in community settings. It also enabled us to develop a strong strategic partnership with Leicester Library Services which we hope to continue in the future.

Performers Bhawna Bhawsar Daniel Copeland Writer Joseph Coelho Director Philip Osment Designer Sue Pyecroft Music by Arun Ghosh Stage Manager Laura Duncan Thanks to: Spinney Hill Primary and Hazel Primary Schools Paul Gobey, Leicester Libraries Services and all of the libraries we visited

“The libraries’ partnership with The Spark is developing through each project, adding considerably to the quality and impact of work undertaken. It has led to measurable improvements for our reader development aims.”

Adrian Wills, Head of Libraries & Information Services, Leicester City Council

www.thesparkarts.co.uk

9

“The Spark has always encouraged us to strive for excellence and has been an incredible and passionate advocate for us as a company. We consider The Spark to be our most influential partner in developing cutting edge work�

Liz Clark - Turned On Its Head Dance Company

10 www.thesparkarts.co.uk

Our work across the year

The Spark works to increase its impact on the creation and presentation of arts for children in the UK

Associate Artists – delivering artistic excellence

Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) – our advocacy work

The Spark is committed to providing and investing in regional artists who are making work for and with children and young people. Throughout the past year we have been working with a number of associate artists including Liz Clark & Oksana Tyminska (Turned on its Head) and Trina Haldar (Mashi Theatre) to support the development and delivery of new work.

Throughout the year, The Spark is an active member of the Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) England Network. As part of the 2013 festival we hosted a regional network meeting, in partnership with Curve. This provided a great opportunity to experience work in development, presentations and panel discussions around the needs of programmers and companies producing new work for children and families.

The panel included representation from Curve, Derby Theatre and Royal & Derngate Theatre (Northampton).

Through the festival programme we are able to platform work in development, giving artists a vital opportunity to showcase their work at a critical point and profile their company amongst industry professionals.

Leicester City Mayor, Peter Soulsby said:

“For the past 10 years, The Spark has entertained, educated and engaged the children of Leicester with its unique range of arts events. Its contribution to our first ever City Festival in 2013 – a package of family-friendly fun called End of the Pier Delights – was one of the highlights of the festival. The Spark plays a huge part in involving the city's communities in the arts and we're extremely grateful for the contribution they make to Leicester's cultural life.”

City Festival – delivering family events A grand finale to an action packed year saw The Spark produce The End of The Pier Delights, a two day event for children and their families as part of the City Festival.

Working in partnership with Leicester City Council’s Festival & Events team, The Spark transformed Leicester’s Orton Square into a seaside spectacle with live theatre, music and sandcastle sculptures. The Spark works hard to ensure its arts provision is of the highest quality and that it introduces families and children to something different – something they wouldn’t find and experience anywhere else.

www.thesparkarts.co.uk 11

“The performance was excellent and the students thoroughly enjoyed it. We brought a bottom set of Year 9 students, most of whom had never been to the theatre before.

This alone had a major impact�

Holly Roberts, Carlton Le Willows Academy

12 www.thesparkarts.co.uk

Going a little bit further Widening access to memorable cultural experiences The Spark Arts for Children exists to ensure that all children in Leicester have the opportunity to access high quality arts, which will spark their imagination and raise their future aspirations. We play a vital role in contributing to the well-being and prosperity of children and families - this year 50% of our festival performances were in schools, libraries and community centres.

Leicester is the only city outside of London that has a non-white majority population and over a third of the city’s population was born outside of the UK. Many children live in some of the country’s poorest areas and more than half come from homes where English is not their first language.

This year, 20% of our audiences experienced a FREE activity at The Spark Festival. Examples of these included Play-ground at Curve, Diversions at New Walk Museum and Sparking the Imagination at Phoenix. These offered children and their families a wonderfully diverse range of opportunities to engage with the arts in some of Leicester’s best venues, thus widening access to high quality cultural experiences.

This year, our partnership with Western Power Distribution enabled us to programme Turned on its Head’s Shiny. This was a heart-warming and beautiful performance aimed at children aged 6 months – 4 years, which we toured into family and children’s centres across Leicester. We also continued our successful partnership with John Lewis, showcasing Tutti Frutti’s Hue Boy in their Highcross store at no charge to audiences. Woods Coaches, another festival partner also helped us to offer a transport subsidy to all schools booking theatre trips to festival events.

Due to festival work in libraries and Leicester’s African Caribbean Centre, almost 5% of shows in this year’s festival cost less than £1.50 for attendees.

Environmental sustainability We are committed to working in a safe, ethical and environmentally responsible way. This year we have developed an Environmental Policy, which formalises our ongoing commitment to sustainability and which sets targets for our electricity usage, business travel and programming.

For our 2013 festival, thanks to Taylor Bloxham and Howard Smith Paper, all printed marketing materials were created using sustainable paper.

We will also continue to seek out ways in which we can make our performances and workshops more sustainable. This year as part of our Playground event we chose to make a cardboard city, due to the availability and environmentally friendly nature of this resource.

www.thesparkarts.co.uk 13

Financial report

Financial year September 2012 - August 2013 During the year 2012/13, The Spark continued to receive National Portfolio Organisation funding from Arts Council England and a grant from Leicester City Council, which enabled us to organise and programme activities for our 2013 festival. We are extremely grateful to both organisations for their support.

In addition we also secured Strategic Touring funding to support the development of new work in local libraries. Through our Catalyst programme, we were able to build our capacity for fundraising and the subsequent matched funding from the Arts Council will be carried over to 2013/14, to enable us to invest in supporting the year round production of new and diverse work for children and families. The charity also received support from its corporate partners, trusts and foundations and donors who have enabled us to grow our ambition, reach and impact beyond the festival and across the year.

This additional funding means that income increased by 44% over the previous year and expenditure increased by 29% over the same period, as we programmed year round activities outside of the festival. Overall we had a small surplus of income over expenditure, leaving the charity in a balanced position and within the requirements of its reserves policy.

Shine for The Spark Appeal Last year we raised over £6,000 through our Shine for The Spark Appeal. This helped us to maintain FREE activities for families and to protect our education programme. This money will make a difference to thousands of children in Leicester each year by inspiring them, developing their confidence and boosting their learning. Any donations to this Appeal are matched pound for pound by the government through the Catalyst Fund.

To donate to The Spark appeal go to www.thesparkarts.co.uk/donate

Income Arts Council England Grant Leicester City Council Grant Other Grants including Catalyst Fundraising & Sponsorship Earned Income Total income for the year

36% 4% 38% 9% 13%

£225,877

Expenditure Festival Activity Project Activity Core Staff Overheads

Total expenditure for the year

34% 22% 33% 11%

£212,511

Figures shown are based on pre-audited accounts.

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

14 www.thesparkarts.co.uk

“A chance for the whole family to enjoy a beautifully tailor made performance for each and every audience member.”

Festival goer, Varmints at Curve

The Spark staff Director Adel Al-Salloum General Manager Harriet Roy Press & Marketing Manager Rachael Mabe Development Manager Carrie Carruthers Arts Administration Intern Rosanna Sloan Marketing & Events Support Maya Biswas Board of Trustees Stephan Aal Lucy Bani David Bell (Chair) Mike Candler Mitch De Faria Ravinder Kaur Vijay Mistry Mahmood Reza John Townsend Jeremy Waterfield

Patron Tim Crouch

Student placements Lauren Brinkworth Jenny Cross Nicole Smith

Spark Photographer Pamela Raith

Cover photograph Hue Boy audience Pamela Raith

Report design Mooli

Special thanks Verity Bartesch Stephanie Robinson Sara Sanderson Francessca Wright

Festival venues Curve Embrace Arts The Guildhall Loughborough Town Hall Phoenix The Y

Abbey Park and Knighton Park African Caribbean Centre Beaumont Leys Library Hamilton Library John Lewis New Walk Museum & Art Gallery The Workshop@Pedestrian

In 2013 we worked with over 30 festival makers, who supported the many activities and represented The Spark at various venues both in the weeks leading up to the festival and during the festival week itself.

This year we also took on our first Arts Administration Intern, Verity Bartesch, for a seven-month placement which proved highly successful.

The Spark would like to say an enormous thank you to all of the individuals who so generously gave their time, energy and talent to deliver the festival and associated events.

Volunteers Ha Le Alice Lee-Fox Tanuja Maisuria Farheen Malek Jo-Anne Marlow Paula Maughan Jonny McLean Hannah Moore Sinead Mudaliar Liga Orlovska Paul Rogers Setsuko Satsaki Sarah Shepherd Danielle Simmons Claire Tebbutt Kelly Tziouveli Ella Wheway Sarah Whitrick Li Xiaomei

Victoria Alexander Merlin Aro Laura Barber Samantha Blundell Amy Bradley-Greer Lauren Bradley-Greer Sarah Burch Laura Butler Lucy Chamberlain Guilia Cipolla Daisy Crump Megan Ford Anita Fügedi Richard Goodman Gem Greaves Samantha Ireson Mingjun Jiang Hayley Kalaher Melanie Kwok

“Lovely day. Always a great day out. Thank you to all the volunteers” Kerry on Facebook www.thesparkarts.co.uk 15

Our partners We would like to say a special thank you to all those who support The Spark Arts for Children.

Print Partner

Paper Partner

Transport Partner

Media Partner

Event Partner - Shiny

Media Partner

Funders

Festival’s Official Hotel

Community Partner

Festival Partner

Young Business Network Partner

Media Partner

Design Partner

mooli

Proud to be part of

Funders The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust, The P&C Hickinbotham Trust, John Lewis Partnership Music Matters programme, Leicestershire and Rutland Community Trust, Leicester Community Ward Funds, Ernest Cook Trust, Tesco Charity Trust, Provincial Grand Chapter of Leicestershire & Rutland Donors De Montfort University, J P Boden, Kirby & West, MAS Architecture, Mellor Community Primary School, Next plc,

Upstage Theatre Supplies, Wyvern Primary School

Contact Us

The Spark Arts for Children, LCB Depot, 31 Rutland Street, Leicester LE1 1RE

Tel: 0116 261 6893 Email: info@thesparkarts.co.uk Web: www.thesparkarts.co.uk Facebook

@SparkArtsFestival

Twitter

@thesparkarts

The Spark Arts for Children is a company limited by guarantee, no.5254229. Registered charity no. 1106952.