Z-arts 2016 Annual Report

Manchester’s Venue for Children, Families & Friends

Annual Report 2014 - 2015 “You are terrific, what a magical space”

Hello!

As Manchester’s venue for children, families and friends we pride ourselves on creating a welcoming, vibrant and safe environment for the whole family to enjoy.

Our ambition is to provide an artistic programme that reflects and stimulates the twenty-first century contemporary family, embracing all its diversity.

Over the last three years, we have undergone major change right across our beautiful building including: • A rebrand (previously known as Zion Arts Centre) in 2012.

• Footfall has increased by 34% and audience numbers have doubled.

• We’re building a national reputation as a venue specialising in best practice arts delivery for children and families.

Our Mission….

Our portfolio of work continues to grow in ambition and reach as we engage the communities in Manchester and beyond.

To inspire and enable generations of young people from Manchester and beyond to use creativity to maximise their potential.

Liz O’Neill - Artistic Director / Chief Executive Kully Thiarai – Chair

Our Values Welcoming

“It was really lovely to experience the level of professionalism, and genuine desire to make the event as successful as it could be."

"We’ve again had a lot of comments from the audience and artists too about how well the event went, and feel really lucky to have had access to such a nice building, with such supportive staff."

Vibrant

“The staff were so friendly, cafe and kids play area was a life-saver, and my daughter loved the show and the interactive crafting after the show!”

Inclusive

“It embraces all cultures and races helping the community come together as one and regardless of age, colour or culture we all have interest and passions.“

Engaging

“We now come to Z-arts at least twice a week, before it was more like once a term. The building has much greater energy now. It feels like a diverse, creative, accessible space.“

Forward Thinking

“Z-arts is playing a key leadership role in the region as a deliverer and advocate of family arts; a champion of innovative, high quality intergenerational arts engagement.”

www.z-arts.org

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Creative Learning Creative Learning is the beating heart of Z-arts, both inside our building and outside. Our creative energy and passion is shared with schools and communities all over Greater Manchester in order to build confidence and explore the curriculum. We produce innovative and dynamic artistic projects and make them as relevant, accessible, educational and of course, fun as everyone who takes part in them deserves.

2014 was a year of firsts, with the launch of our membership scheme for schools with three different levels: • Spark • Ignite • Glow

“It was all beyond our expectations. This is my second time going to a show at Z-arts and I'm just so blown away by the quality of the performances.”

- Parent

“I now feel more confident around everyone because I have got to know them” - School pupil, Wythenshawe

The three levels of membership offer unique benefits, but all provide links to: • The creative curriculum • Class-time with professional artists across all art forms • Tickets to Big Imaginations Children's Theatre performances • Support for Arts Mark accreditation 112 children gained an Arts Award Discover from seeing and reviewing our Christmas show, 59 Minutes to Save Christmas from Slung Low. “I feel I can trust the quality of the work and the organisation of the venue to ensure an excellent educational visit.”

- Teacher 2

www.z-arts.org

Participation “Such a beautiful place, it is a bonus that it's also so family friendly. The staff clearly put a lot of thought into designing events for all ages, my 3 and 9 year olds absolutely love it.”

– Family Arts Festival Audience Member • In 2014 Z-arts ran fifteen regular after-school and weekend activities from dance, drama and music to visual arts and film, funded by Children in Need for all ages from babies to teenagers.

Our long running Youth Music project Satdy Allsorts went from strength to strength with:

• 47 sessions over 5 projects • 63 11-16’s attended 589 times • 90% said their confidence had improved as a result

• Our holiday programmes with professional artists allowed children and young people to learn all about creating 3D Design, animation and song-writing as well as providing cultural learning through special events for Black History Month and World Book Day. Creativity was celebrated throughout the year with fantastic events such as: • Penguin Fun Day in February • Roald Dahl Day in September • Gigs from professional Mancunian musicians at Shine • ZYP performing an emotive adaptation of Dandelion Clocks • The annual Hulme Is Where the Art Is Festival www.z-arts.org

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Engagement

“Very thoughtful show, the children were very engaged.

Beautiful moving music and great interactions with the actor/actress after the show” - Fae Ford, Parent

Bury Bolton

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www.z-arts.org

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A5

Hulme

Princess Road

“It is a wonderful facility that provides an array of different arts for all ages!

- Nicola McCann Jones, Parent

Serving local communities

Serving Greater Manchester

Z-arts leads the Big Imaginations network of sixteen venues across the North West, all committed to bringing brilliant children’s theatre to the region “Big Imaginations has had a massive impact on children’s theatre in the North West – for Burnley Youth Theatre it has enabled us to engage with local families and offer brilliant children’s theatre on our community’s doorstep at a price they can afford.”

- Karen Barnes, Burnley Youth Theatre

Regional/ National impact

Manchester

Manchester

Liverpool

Stockport

Cardiff

London

Flagship Projects As well as bringing the fantastic companies listed overleaf to Manchester, we also hosted Slung Low for two week-long runs, first with 59 Minutes to Save Xmas and then with Emergency Story Penguin – our biggest audience challenge to date with 15 performances selling 83% of tickets, exceeding our target by nearly 10%!

As the lead organisation for the Manchester Family Arts Network, we have been collaborating with our regional colleagues to create a Trailblaze Cultural Trail around different arts venues in Manchester, with a different trail for teenagers and for families. Venues included: • Manchester Art Gallery • The Whitworth • People’s History Museum • The Bridgewater Hall • Manchester Museum Z-arts brought specialist contemporary storytelling to Manchester, producing Family Matters as part of the Family Arts Festival; sharing stories of diverse family life using artists own autobiographical voices. Family Matters was recommissioned by the Family Arts Campaign to launch the Family Arts Conference in March 2015 and two of the monologues are on their way onto the radio having been commissioned by Radio 4.

My Europe was our flagship participatory project for 2014, bringing ten artists of European Heritage to work with ten primary schools to explore what it means to be ‘European’, resulting in a European-style Fiesta Day at Z-arts with each school taking over a room in our magnificent building to present what they’d learned. www.z-arts.org

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Big Imaginations Z-arts leads the Big Imaginations network of 16 venues committed to bringing brilliant children’s theatre to the North West. In 2014/15 we programmed 38 performances of 23 shows.

From 2012 – 2014 the whole Big Imaginations network programmed:

• 53 companies • 71 different shows • 490 performances • 32,607 audience members

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www.z-arts.org

Our highlights include having performances from these brilliant companies featured in our programme: Theatre Rites Peaceful Lion Oldsaw Half Moon Handmade Theatre Unicorn Theatre Norwich Puppet Theatre Breaking Cycles at Z-arts Long Nose Puppets Tell Tale Hearts Ailie Cohen & Unicorn Wriggle Dance Theatre Hullabaloo David Gibb New Old Friends A Little Commitment

“The show was fantastic. So exciting.

The sound was great. The actors were very professional and able to cope with the random interaction of the children. I can't praise the show enough!”

– Susan Moore, Parent

Record Attendance 2014 / 15

Participants in Arts Projects

9,641

11,723

17,631

2012 / 2013

2013 / 2014

2014 / 2015

Bright Sparks Family Members 2015

20% increase from 2013

432

51,000 146,000 Online

Number of Visitors

50,000

2013 40,000

Schools Engagement Projects

38,000 89,000 Online

79

Partnership Projects

41

31,000 30,000

62,000 Online

2012 / 2013

2013 / 2014

2014 / 2015

www.z-arts.org

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Financial Report

Who We Are

900,000 800,000 700,000

Income Sources

600,000 500,000 400,000

2009 / 10

300,000

2013 / 14

200,000 100,000 MCC grants

Restricted Donations Earned funds income

Total

1000,000 900,000

Income Vs Overheads

800,000 700,000

Income

600,000 500,000

Overheads 09/10 10/11 11/12 12/13 13/14 14/15

Year

*More detailed financial info available on request

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www.z-arts.org

Bookings and Administration Officer - Holly Sharp Café Assistant - Beckie Stewart, Josh Cotterill, Casey Birks Chief Executive / Artistic Director – Liz O’Neill Children in Need Programme Coordinator - Gill Balfour Children’s Programme Manager - Zoe Pickering Creative Development Manager - Saskia Metcalf Deputy House Manager - Lowri Evans Domestic Services - Tricia Fay, Tomasz Pretko Education and Engagement Officer – Hannah Gaunt Finance Assistant - Sabiya Ali Front of House Assistant - Julie Ridley, Alice Proctor, Tilda O’Grady General Manager - Gary Padden House Manager - Emma Hardman Marketing & Audience Development Manager - Laura Stevens Site Technician - Chris Machin Technical / Box Office Assistant - Ellie Whitfield Technical Manager - Lawrence Reekie Tickets and Information Supervisor - Paul Roberts Youth Music Allsorts coordinator - Tosin Akindale

The Future – Generation Z Our ambition for the next three years is to continue to build on our success and to share our creative vision for Z-arts with local communities and a wider audience through investments in marketing and audience development projects.

Our vision is to: • Create a revolution in theatre for families, improving the quality and reflecting our wonderful diverse communities; and to find and develop work with artists who can identify with that vision.

• Continue to lead the Big Imaginations North West network of children’s theatre programmers including commissioning three new pieces of work for children, both early years and for audiences aged 8-13.

• Continue to provide high quality creative activities for all ages of young people to help them reach their potential.

• Continue to put diversity at the core of what we do, including the artists and facilitators we work with, commissioning new work for families, nurturing partnerships with diverse companies and programming diverse work where available.

• Focus on regional and national sharing of good practice for this specialist work.

• Be at the forefront of digital technology both operationally and creatively.

• Improve our facilities to be even more family-friendly, including designing a new digital interactive play space.

www.z-arts.org

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Thank you to our supporters “MCC has invested in Z-arts for a number of years and the organisation continues to be of strategic thematic importance to MCC due to its unique position as a Manchester wide cultural facility for young people.”

- Jo Johnston, Culture Team Manchester City Council “Z-arts is a respected venue and ACE North West supports Z-arts goal to become Manchester’s dedicated venue for Children (under 13) and Families. “ - Leroy Philbrook, Senior Relationship Manager, Arts Council England “Over the past four years, Liz has refocused, renewed and greatly strengthened the organisation, rebranding it as Z-arts, and establishing its new focus on creative arts activity and programmes for children, teenagers and families..”

- Ushi Bagga, Paul Hamlyn Foundation “Children in Need were delighted to make a new grant to Z-arts at the beginning of 2014. In the yearly report to Children in Need at the beginning of 2015 it was wonderful to hear about the range of arts activities offered including weekly art, dance, film and drama and exciting holiday clubs too.“ - Children In Need “We’re delighted to support the Allsorts free musical weekend club run by Z-arts. It’s great that this project is encouraging young people in Manchester to get creative about all aspects of music-making.

I’m sure this exploration will be stimulating and inspirational for the young participants involved and hope that they discover new talents standing them in good stead for the years ahead.”

- Matt Griffiths, Youth Music

“Z arts provides a wealth of content for children and their families in inner city Manchester, inspiring, educating and entertaining its’ audiences.

I can’t think of anyone else who’s doing it quite like them.”

Ben Faulks Z-arts Patron