The Spark Annual Report 2014

Annual Report

2014

www.thesparkarts.co.uk

Contents

Welcome Festival Highlights Festival Attendance Imaginative Spaces Our work across the year Our Supporters Financial Report Festival venues and staff Our Partners

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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.

Welcome This Annual Report marks the end of a highly successful and busy year, which includes the launch of new and innovative programmes of work such as Imaginative Spaces (our work in Libraries) and Pop Up Play (our Digital R&D project). Our portfolio of work continues to grow in ambition and reach as we engage the communities in Leicester and beyond.

Regionally we have been collaborating with colleagues to deliver a series of strategic and inspiring summits to look at The Cultural Life of the Child across early, primary and secondary years. This has involved professionals from different sectors, extending our advocacy role in new and dynamic ways.

The Spark Festival remains our flagship project and this year we saw 24,880 people attending 190 events over twelve wonderful festival days. This represents a considerable 25% increase in attendance from 2013 and is our highest attendance to date. In addition we have hosted a TYA (Theatre for Young Audiences) industry event, bringing colleagues from across the UK arts sector together. In partnership with IdeasTap we were able to support the development of two emerging UK artists, platforming new work as part of the festival offer.

We are pleased to be able to report sustained 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 2015.

Spark Festival 2014 was the biggest to date. 190 events and 24,480 attendances. It's rare to see such consistent growth and momentum in any arts organisation. Even rarer when the organisation is devoted to that most marginalised sector: children! The success of Spark is proof that both the need and the audience are there for high quality arts provision for young people. I'm excited to see where the Spark's momentum will take it next.

This year's festival was particularly special for me as I was lucky enough to be part of the programme. I, Malvolio played at Curve and I felt honoured to be able to contribute practically to the output of such a wonderful event. Just as my Malvolio is nothing without his audience, the Spark is nothing without the young people it is devoted to. Bring on Spark 2015!

Tim Crouch Spark Patron

Adel Al-Salloum Director

David Bell Chair of the Board of Trustees www.thesparkarts.co.uk

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“It was mind-blowing. I loved it! I want to keep it in my head always.”

Solomon, Pupil at Mellor Primary School about Yummm!

“I will tell other people that the Spark Festival was really good and tell them to go and see it.”

Pupil at Mellor Primary School 4 www.thesparkarts.co.uk

Festival Highlights 2014 This year’s Spark Festival was another resounding success, with many fantastic artists visiting Leicester, creating countless memorable moments. As always our loyal Spark audiences came out in their droves and here were some of our favourite moments: At Your School

British-Asian clarinettist, composer and musician, Arun Ghosh and his sextet took part in our ‘At Your School’ programme, adapting and performed a jazz concert that has traditionally been performed to adults. Our audiences loved the show, which almost raised the roof at a number of primary schools. Arun also worked with Key Stage 2 pupils from Sandfield Close Primary, Glebelands Primary and Mowmacre Hill Primary schools for a number of weeks in the run-up to the festival. These pupils were then involved in a special performance at The Y Theatre – our schools and venues programme meeting together for the very first time.

In Your Theatre

Multi-award winning international company Aracaladanza captivated a sell-out audience at Curve with Constellations, as one of our exciting performances recommended for older audiences. As a result of our work as part of the East Midlands Children’s Theatre and Dance Network, Frozen Charlotte’s Too Many Penguins sold-out at Embrace Arts and thrilled our youngest Spark audiences.

On Your Doorstep

Diversions: Route II returned to New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, who tied it into their work hosting the Alexandra Reinhardt Memorial Award (ARMA) artist residency award. Children got to meet and work with Danish-born artist Maria Zahle, helping to shape her artwork for this prestigious residency. Hundreds of children got to take over the Renaissance Hall in this wonderful experience.

Festival companies & artists Aracaladanza Arun Ghosh Quintet Bamboozle Theatre Company Birmingham Stage Company Camille Scherrer Circle of Two Company of Angels Christian Lee Curve Young Arts Entrepreneurs Half Moon Krazy Kat Theatre Company La Baracca – Testoni Ragazzi Leicester Print Workshop Linda Harding Lucy Hammond macrobert and Frozen Charlotte Maria Zahle Monski Mouse Movers Theatre Company Norwich Puppet Theatre Pedestrian Rene Baker Replay Theatre Company Science Museum Live Shlomo Sinfonia Viva Tall Tales Big Moves Tell Tale Hearts Tessa Bide Theatre-Rites Tim Crouch tutti fruitti

www.thesparkarts.co.uk

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This year’s festival contained some brand new productions, one of which was our own co-production with Bamboozle Theatre. We are proud the festival is a platform for new work and talented emerging artists in this way.

Our co-production with Bamboozle Theatre

Lighting the fire with IdeasTap

This year’s festival featured an exciting collaboration with theatre company Bamboozle, creating a dramatic adaptation of Julia Donaldson’s well-loved book Jack and the Flumflum Tree. Designed for children aged 7 - 14 with learning disabilities, the show launched at this year’s Spark festival before touring to special schools nationwide and embarking on a tour of regional theatres.

Creative development opportunities are vital to supporting artists in creating new work for children and young people.

This year we worked with IdeasTap, a charity that works to create industry opportunities for artists, on order to mentor and support two emerging artists to create new and distinctive work for children. The Spark Festival gave a warm welcome to Tessa Bide and Arnold’s Big Adventure and Rachel Birch-Lawson’s Sea Story.

Bamboozle Theatre has a strong track record in producing immersive and interactive theatre for children and young people with learning disabilities, including projects with the National Theatre on War Horse and Curve on 42nd Street.

www.ideastap.com

“Fantastic - lots of lovely sensory props and sounds. Lovely interactions with students and accessible on lots of levels - an inspiration!”

“The opportunity to showcase our work at The Spark was invaluable, giving us an opportunity to perform our work to a new audience and receive feedback which was crucial to the work’s development.”

Jeff Renner, Ash Field Academy

Rachel Birch-Lawson

6 www.thesparkarts.co.uk

Another record year Our 2014 festival surpassed all expectations, with our audiences growing by 25% from last year. In the last two years our attendance levels at the festival have almost doubled. This increase can be attributed to our growing relationships with the venues we work with including a fantastic programme of digital events at Phoenix. Horrible Histories was hosted on Curve’s main stage and De Montfort Hall returned to the festival with a bang, hosting the fabulous The Energy Show.

Summary of attendance 2014 number of events

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 parks

Curve Playground * Free family activities at Curve

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

* estimated audience ďŹ gures at free activities.

2013

2014

attendance

2013

2014

55

65

9,140

11,663

53

53

4,660

4,810

19

14

674

897

32

20

1,985

3,146

50

38

2,306

3,964

147

190

18,765

24,480

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“I’ve heard that in this library if you read a book the stories come true” Year 5 pupil from Granby Primary arriving at Southfields Library

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Imaginative Spaces Re-imagining libraries as cultural hubs at the heart of the community Imaginative Spaces is a year long 'artist in residence' project which focuses on a programme of work delivered in Southfields and Braunstone libraries, to support storytelling as a medium to promote reading for pleasure and language development.

Over the course of 2014 Jayne Williams (based at The BRITE Centre) and Andy Reeves (Southfields Library) have been working with library staff, schools, families and community groups to develop a programme of work that shows creative and innovative ways to use library spaces, books and other resources.

The artists have created a bespoke programme for each setting which reflects the needs, dynamics and relationships of the communities. Local children and families have been taking part in a range of activities and pop up events, half term and summer performance projects, regular workshop sessions and theatre performances. In the first few months over 2,000 people engaged with 67 activities.

This project is being delivered in partnership with Leicester Library Service and forms part of a broader strategy that seeks to develop libraries as a beacon of excellence, cultivating a renewed sense of ownership of local libraries, and encouraging families and children to become actively involved in arts and culture at the heart of their community.

“Leicester Libraries have worked with The Spark for a number of years, and we consider them to be an exceptionally important partner. The Imaginative Spaces project has been an enormous success and is encouraging children and families to actively engage with their library in new and exciting ways.”

Cllr Sarah Russell, Assistant Mayor for Neighbourhoods

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“I am both interested and excited to see how this type of immersive digital technology may enhance children’s learning, overall enjoyment and understanding of a book.”

Karen Hammond, Head Teacher at Mellor Primary School

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Our work across the year

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

Cultural Life of the Child

The Spark Arts for Children has been working on exciting new project in partnership with De Montfort University and Digital Artist Luke Woodbury, thanks to funding from the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts. Our Pop Up Play project aims to question how immersive technology can support creative learning and communication skills with and for children and young people.

“Every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts, museums and libraries” Leicester’s Cultural Ambition Statement

The team have delivered a series of case studies involving students and teachers from Mellor Community Primary School, Leicester and Three Ways School, Bath alongside a number of libraries, museums and arts organisations across the UK in order to develop this project.

This year The Spark have been part of a region wide advisory board working to support and deliver a series of summits led by The Mighty Creatives (East Midlands Bridge) The ambition for the Cultural Life of the Child is to create a meaningful system that will help transform our children's future; to find better ways of working and living together with more effective co-ordination and collaboration across and between local government, arts and culture, health and education sectors.

The result of the project will be an open source Pop Up Play product that is freely available to use by all. The software will be accompanied by a creative framework, a tool kit that is flexible, and maximises engagement for teachers, arts practitioners, librarians and other educational professionals.

To date we have supported Summit #1: The Early Years, Summit #2: The Primary Years and Summit #3: The Secondary Years - three inspiring days involving over 200 delegates from across the East Midlands. The summits have proved incredibly successful and we are proud to be able to contribute to this exciting series of conversations with colleagues across the region.

A final symposium and product launch is planned for February / March 2015.

City Festival

“simple and accessible Pop Up Play giving a new era to digital education #SparkPUP” Immerse

Back by popular demand, The End of the Pier Delights returned to Orton Square this August, bringing good old fashioned family fun to the City Festival and ending a wonderful summer for The Spark.

Tongue Tied Theatre brought The Revenge of Mr Trout, a highly interactive performance for 5-12 year olds, whilst Talking Birds brought The Whale to Orton Square – enabling children to step inside the belly of the beast to meet Jonah, a submariner who needs the audiences help to take a message back to the surface. We also welcomed back La Bella Ukulele, who entertained the 1100 people who attended. www.thesparkarts.co.uk 11

“Lovely Saturday so far enjoying Leicester’s @thesparkarts festival. It’s brilliant fun so do go down and get involved.”

Jonathon Ashworth MP

12 www.thesparkarts.co.uk

Thank you to our Supporters The Spark Arts for Children exists to ensure that all children in Leicester have the opportunity to access high quality arts experiences, 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. We keep our ticket prices as low as possible and offer 20% of our festival activity free to audiences and participants.

50% of our festival performances took place in schools, libraries and community centres.

We couldn’t have done it without you...

This year we renewed our partnership with the Belmont Hotel – the Spark Festival’s official hotel, who provide wonderful hospitality to all of our artists throughout the year.

Our print partner continues to be Taylor Bloxham, with whom we produce all of our high quality festival print, with reduced paper costs from Paperlinx. This year we started a new partnership with De Montfort University, enabling students to gain valuable arts festival experience at our Play-ground event at Curve. Once again local restaurant Chutney Ivy hosted a delicious company meal for our artists and supporters, supported by our festival partners Equity.

Thanks also go to the schools who supported us on Hero Day. In May we launched a new Spark Supporters scheme, to help secure regular individual and business donations, with options starting from just £5 a month. In return for this much-needed support we offer membership of a new Rocket Club to a nominated child who will receive a quarterly newsletter, a badge and a certificate.

We are also grateful for support from trusts and funds helping us with specific projects with children and young people during the year (see list on the back page).

“The Spark Festival is an inspiration in itself to encourage children to think outside the box and to enhance their thinking by stimulating their imaginations” Taylor Bloxham, Print Partner

T E K C O R lub c

Thank you everyone! www.thesparkarts.co.uk 13

Financial report

Financial year September 2013 - August 2014 During the year 2013/14, The Spark continued to receive National Portfolio Organisation funding from Arts Council England and a grant from Leicester City Council, which represents about one third of our income. We are extremely grateful to both organisations for their continued support for the Spark Festival. The charity also received continued support from its corporate partners, trusts, foundations and donors.

We secured additional funding from the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts to support the Pop Up Play research project, and we have worked alongside Leicester Libraries to deliver the Imaginative Spaces project. Through our Catalyst programme we were also able to raise matched-funding from Arts Council England and therefore our income has increased by 10% during this financial year.

This extra income enabled us to produce the Spark Festival and also has allowed us to grow our ambition, reach and impact beyond the festival, supporting a yearround production of new and diverse work for children and families. As a consequence, expenditure rose by 12% over the previous year as we programmed additional activities.

We ended the year with a small surplus of income over expenditure, leaving the charity in a balanced position and contributing to the reserves.

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

33% 4% 28% 13% 22%

£248,124

Expenditure Festival Activity Project Activity Core Staff Overheads

Total expenditure for the year

20% 29% 39% 12%

£239,301

Figures shown are based on pre-audited accounts.

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

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“For more than a decade, The Spark has entertained, educated and engaged the children of Leicester with its unique range of arts events.

It plays a huge part in involving the city's communities in the arts – and the contribution it makes to Leicester's cultural life is hugely appreciated.”

Leicester City Mayor, Peter Soulsby

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

Spark artists in residence Andy Reeves Jayne Williams Student placement Lucy Tester

Spark Photographer Pamela Raith

Cover photograph Yummm! audience

by Pamela Raith Report design Mooli

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

Abbey, Evington, Knighton and Spinney Hill Parks Ashby Baptist Church Beaumont Leys Library Southfields Library The BRITE Centre New Walk Museum & Art Gallery Pedestrian

In 2014 we worked with a number of wonderful volunteers all-year round, as well as those festival makers who supported us in the run-up to and during the 190 Spark Festival events.

The Spark would like to say a big thank you to each and every individual who gave up their time, energy and talent to volunteer for us this year.

We really couldn't do what we do without the support of volunteers, and are enormously indebted to them for their enthusiasm, time and contribution.

Volunteers Tanuja Maisuria Jo-Anne Marlow Marina Martins Hannah Moore Carise Murray Supriya Newlay Isabella Nunes do Nascimento Ramos Liga Orlovska Hannah Putnam Fahima Rafik Shazmin Rafik Serahne Rene-Sorhaindo Kellie Rickell Karishka Rupasinghe Maria Scriven Ffion Smith Claire Tebbutt Lucy Tester Ruth Wallis Alex Williams Junchen Yang

Sarah Bellavia George Bensley Jake Bonham Lawrence Brown Lucy-Kay Brownson Jade Carroll Giulia Cipolla Chenelle Costello Aimee Faulkner Rachel Fitzpatrick Megan Ford Luchia Garcia-Perez Richard Goodman Kasim Hussain Sanpreet Janjua Sung Kan Me Emma Kenny Mark Kenny Ashley Lewin Ellie Locke John Mackey Charlotte Mahdoodi

“Constellations was stunning and so is Spark Festival” Jeanne Jenner Rae 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

Design Partner

Paper Partner

mooli

Higher Education Partner

Media Partner

Media Partner

Festival’s Official Hotel

Media Partner

Funders

Festival Partner Equity

Funders The P&C Hickinbotham Charitable Trust, Tesco Charity Trust, Leicestershire and Rutland Community Foundation, The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust Donors Boden, East Midlands Airport, East Midlands Trains, maber architects, Mellor Community Primary School,

Mowmacre Hill Primary School, Next plc, Paul's Fruit & Veg Ltd, Pro Active Resolutions, Rolls-Royce plc

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.