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Annual Report 2013 - 2014

WELCOME Message from Chair 2013-14 saw Activate building on some of the considerable successes of 2012 and the Cultural Olympiad. Developing and delivering a legacy for such ‘once in a lifetime’ events is central to our core mission.

Through the work we have delivered in all fields of performing arts, Activate has continued to inspire artists and audiences to try new things, engage with the unfamiliar and generally get out of their comfort zone.

“Activate has continued to inspire artists and audiences to try new things” Of particular note in this respect has been the highly original work with our European partners. Creating opportunities for cultural exchange and experimentation is a key feature of Activate’s role. These types of international exchange can lead to new directions and innovation which can range from high energy new circus on the village green to continuing professional development for artists looking to think outside their particular box.

Encouraging new art, new thought, new beginnings is a vital part of our role and it has been good to see the flowering of many projects over the last year which represent the fruit of our policy. On a personal note, I have been particularly pleased to see a number of key developments in work aimed

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Jolie Vyann - Stateless - Gigi Giannella

at and for young people. In this field, the work of our staff and partners has been outstanding and is helping to grow the artists and audiences of the future. The growth and success of the County Youth Dance company ‘Portrait’ and integrated youth groups ‘The Remix’ and ‘Remix Gold’ cannot be underestimated in the current financial climate so congratulations to all involved.

And congratulations to Kate Wood and the team for yet another fine effort in raising Activate’s profile at all levels and continuing with an ever increasing programme of dizzying variety.

Thanks finally to my hard-working colleagues on the Board of Directors. In 2012 – 13, we were delighted to welcome two highly experienced new Board members, Chris Humphrey and Michael Noonan. Their combined experience of strategic planning and management can only enhance a very dedicated and cohesive Board team committed to maintaining the organisation’s continued success.

Chris Huxley

Message from Executive Director Another year of successes sees Activate expand our work across the South West region with new partners and reaching new audiences.

9 artists from the region were commissioned through a new partnership Activate has with the South Dorset Ridgeway Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). They will make a new trail in this unique landscape for our Inside Out Dorset festival in 2014.

After their highly successful shows at our 2012 festival, we toured Companie Hors Piste from France across rural South West for our first tour outside Dorset. This was part of the anglo-french, ‘PASS Circus Channel’ project. PASS also allowed us to co-commission new work; support artists residencies, training and ‘go see’ opportunities; and help develop a more diverse practice into the work of our lead partner La Breche in Cherbourg.

We played a key role in the new regional infrastructure for outdoor arts: Quest SW creating plans for a new programme to develop the sector.

Our team believes in the transformative nature of the arts and its impact from a young age. This year ‘Portrait County Youth Dance’ Company and ‘The Remix’ integrated groups worked with many inspirational and diverse artists.

returned to teach the current young Portrait members with some setting up new companies.

The scale and vision of our integrated programme expanded in partnership with DiverseCity: we created The Remix ‘Moving On’ focussing on progression routes for disabled young people. ‘Remix Gold’ were the first integrated group selected for the National Youth Circus Event and inspired the creation of La Breche’s ‘French Remix’.

This led to La Breche focussing their annual ‘Spring’ circus Festival on artists who are disabled with our support.

“Another year of success” We were recognised for our dance and health work by Dorset County Council, which granted funds to manage Creative Care Dorset; supporting arts and health professionals and advocating to health bodies.

A busy year and once again we exceeded our targets thanks to the hard work of the Activate team, the artists, our board and the support from our many partners, funders and volunteers – a big thank you to all of them, as always.

Past members of Portrait who are studying dance at a higher level returned for work experience and dance graduates have

Kate Wood

Companie Hors Piste

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VISION To help create a thriving performing arts and outdoor celebrations ecology in Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole.

Aims Activate produces, promotes and develops the performing arts in Dorset with the belief that artists can affect and/or provide positive change in our communities.

Our ambition is to produce, promote and develop more performance in and from Dorset, working in partnership locally, nationally and internationally to reach new audiences in our community.

Activate is the only strategic organisation in Dorset with the sole focus on producing and developing contemporary theatre, community dance and outdoor celebrations/festivals. We work with venues, programmers, the education sector, artists, social services, environment and economic development teams, who all play a part in the ecology; sharing and delivering our aspirations with us.

“There’s a lot of change going on at the moment and when change happens you need partner organisations who do what they promise to do and come up with the quality. Activate is one of those organisations.�

Mike Hoskin, Arts Development Manager Dorset County Council

Above: Sadhana Dance - Under My Skin Right: Companie Hors Piste 4

PR O D U C E P R OM OTE PRESENT 5

3,400

Audience attendances

4,000

Attendances to a young people’s exhibition

40

Diverse performances and productions supported

19 Artist’s commissions 9 6

New commissions specifically developed for one of our rural sites taking place at Inside Out Dorset festival in 2014

312

Sessions of one-to-one advice delivered

19,500

People engaged in participatory workshops

13,824

Attendances by young people at workshops

A programme of support and range of opportunities benefited over 150 artists, including 4 artist’s residencies 7

ACHIEVING Our Objectives

Objective #1: Promotion To promote the presentation of a wide range of high quality dance, theatre and outdoor celebrations at existing venues and in other locations, whilst also developing audiences for them.

We supported the presentation of 40 performances, 24 new productions and reached an estimated audience of over 3,400 people during our ‘non festival’ year and another 4,000 people attended an exhibition of work we supported at Lighthouse.

Companies included: Commotion Dance with Small Wonders, Cie Hors Piste (FR), Sadhana Dance, Jolie Vyann, Forest Forge, Valise Noir, Remote Control, as well as community performances by Remix and Remix Gold (Integrated youth groups), A Dance A Day (Over 50s), Doppleganger and Portrait Youth Dance.

We undertook our first tour outside the county through the Southwest Rural Touring Consortium with support by PASS. We co-presented Sadhana Dance, which resulted in their largest audience. We’ve subsequently been asked to write a case study on the specific partnership and ‘warp around’ engagement.

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Objective #2: Inside Out Dorset To establish Inside Out Dorset as a strategically significant event for the region, using this event as the culmination/celebration and mechanism for delivering a year round programme of development activity.

Inside Out Dorset will be a beacon of excellence nationally.

“Inside Out Dorset will be a beacon of excellence nationally.”

Left: Sadhana Dance - Under My Skin Below: Hellstone Sunset on South Dorset Ridgeway- Tony Gill

The organisation created a new framework within the South Dorset Ridgeway Landscape Partnership with the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, to support new work by a number of emerging artists in the field of outdoor arts. This year was a development year for Inside Out Dorset and alongside planning of each festival site with the fundraising and partnerships.

We invested in talent development and the Associate Programme for a range of young people and community groups. We put in place a new team structure. Recruited a dedicated Producer with experience of artist’s development as well as festival management.

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Objective #3: Production To produce and support the production of new work, especially by artists based in the county and wider region.

We co-commissioned the Dorset based Angel Exit Theatre to create a new production, Martha Brown, rooted in local history and supported by the Dorset Theatre Promoters Consortium, which we continue to chair.

Of our 19 commissions, 9 mark a turning point for talent development in outdoor arts for Inside Out Dorset. We recognise the lack of artists making work of scale and in the landscape of the region and have developed an opportunity to creatively produce one of our festival sites to support emerging artists. We offered mentoring, residency opportunities and gave in depth support, as part of a one year process to produce the new commissions that will be presented in the September 2014 festival.

Objective #4: Inform and Advise

Through PASS we have been able to commission Jolie Vyann’s Stateless.

They are a new company that is fusing contemporary circus and dance, making an impact nationally.

To offer and provide information, advice, networking, publicity and advocacy services to the dance, theatre and celebratory arts sector, partners and the general public.

Audiences have enjoyed the accessibility of The Small Wonders Consortium commission, Little Artist Big Painting for early years.

Activate delivered 312 sessions of one-toone advice and guidance; either face to face or over the telephone to artists, producers and the public. Topics ranged from artistic development and funding plans to project planning. We offered information tools through our website and finalised the launch of our new interactive website, which combines the original Activate site with Inside Out Dorset website. TheatreNet and DanceNet offered professional networking opportunities alongside Quest Southwest OCAN, Dorset Theatre Promoters Consortium and the numerous national, regional and local meetings we promote on behalf of other professional bodies for the benefit of the sector.

We co-commissioned the young and ambitious male company, Zoielogic to make Echo and take the company from semi-professional male youth dancers to professional.

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We worked with 3 companies to produce artist led, diverse work in the region, including Extraordinary Bodies (Cirque Bijou and Diverse City), Sadhana Dance and a programme for Black History Month in Bournemouth.

Photo: Remix Gold - Jude Allen

The REMIX and REMIX Gold, Balansera

Martha Brown - Angel Exit Theatre

Commotion Dance; Little Artist Big Painting

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Objective #5: Engagement To increase participation and engagement in theatre, dance and outdoor arts, especially for young people.

Activate is committed to challenging perceptions that the arts are elitist and not for everyone. We seek to remove barriers to participation, particularly for under-represented groups and individuals.

Audience Development We have taken work to particular places that do not have as much engagement in the arts in the county and to people in our community who may not able to participate or attend the arts, such as young people who are not currently in education or not employed or in training.

We have worked with community groups, youth groups and a diverse range of schools and also supported artists to work in the community.

Participation Our participatory engagement has increased from 12,500 to just under 19,500 attendances. An increase of 57% on the year before.

We have consistently reached new audiences who do not see themselves as arts attendees and our aim is to develop a more long term engagement with them.

We are working with Diverse City on a ground-breaking programme - Moving On, designed to support young people who are disabled to progress to a career in the performing arts.

Our work with older people has ranged from regular creative classes that sustain a healthy body and mind, to performance opportunities at venues across the county.

Associate Programme The Inside Out Dorset ‘Associate Schools Programme’ has sustained a three year progression plan with the same group of young people; offering theatre trips, workshops and Arts Award achievement with the additional benefit of greater academic learning outcomes.

Alongside the commissioning of the nine artists and curation of the programme for Inside Out Dorset, a broad and far reaching learning and participation programme has been created. It ranges from working with schools, community groups and students to talent development and initiatives that extend beyond the immediate delivery of the festival.

There have been 13,824 attendances by young people in high quality performing arts across our programme.

Residencies, workshops and theatre visits throughout the year with companies including StopGap, CirkVOST, Kneehigh and Hors Piste ensure young people have access to the highest quality artists.

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Portrait Dance

Associate Programme participants have the opportunity to both experience, take part and lead in contemporary performing arts.

We are supporting the new Creative Employment Programme, the benefit of which we will see in the next year with two paid internships for the Inside Out Dorset festival.

Young People We have trained teachers and artists in delivering the Arts Awards and have taken 75 young people through the process, 48 of whom have achieved an Award to date.

We have supported young male dancers through both Whitewash and Zoielogic and plan to continue with this target area.

We are a member of the Dorset Arts Trust Children and Young People’s Hub and are also members of the Cultural Hub in Bournemouth and Poole. We supported the Poppy Fields project led by Valise Noir for the Hub and are working with DepARTure and Synergy Housing/RIO, offering intern opportunities, careers advice and workshops with Prodigal Theatre.

New partnership agreements are being drawn up with the further and higher education institutions, (Weymouth College and Arts University Bournemouth) supporting specific progression route programmes and knowledge transfer, through working with partner institutions, arts organisations and agencies, such as Diverse City, Wave and DepARTure.

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Objective #6: Support To support dance, theatre and outdoor arts professionals and our own staff through training and continued professional development initiatives and enable them to reach their full potential.

Nurturing Talent Talent development has been fostered through offering opportunities to artists, including peer to peer network, advice sessions and ‘go see’ to over 65 performances. We offered support for platforms such as Practice, R&D by the Sea and Circus Next. We delivered a 3 day directing course in new circus with

Zoielogic - Echo

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Angela Laurier for emerging and mid career contemporary circus directors, in partnership with Theatre Bristol and Crying Out Loud.

PASS - The Anglo-French Circus Channel Inside Out Dorset Associate Programme, along with the PASS Anglo-French programme and co-commissioning emerging artists helped deliver this objective and as with much of our work, there were crossovers: our commissioning for Inside Out Dorset also offered us an opportunity to create a framework to support a number of artists new to making outdoor art, including a weekend residency.

Slap & Tickle - Liz Aggiss

Objective #7: Collaboration To work collaboratively to define the short, medium and long term focus for development within the sector for the organisation.

We continue to focus on the strategic development of dance, theatre and outdoor events. We chair the Dorset Theatre Promoters Consortium and are members of the following partnerships: Pavilion Dance South West, Theatre South West, PASS Circus Channel, Arts and Health South West, Cultural Hub, Creative Dorset, Dorset Culture Partnership, Quest South

West, Outdoor Celebratory Arts Network, Arts and Health Network, Bournemouth Arts and Culture Board, Cultural Hub. Dorset Arts Trust Dorset Ridgeway AONB Landscape Partnership, HOUSE. We continue to be a partner in the Dorsetwide collaborative work to strengthen the arts sector and raise the profile of our work for audiences and to increase the awareness of Dorset’s cultural offering.

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Objective #8: Distinction To create a distinctive sense of place and build on the unique attributes of the geographic location in which Activate is based – a World Heritage Site in the Jurassic Coast and the legacy of the sailing event location in Weymouth and Portland 2012 along with the development of the performing arts at major venues in the conurbation of Bournemouth and Poole.

We saw an appetite for new circus by touring Hors Piste and an increase in outdoor work programmed at Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival, the Unusual Dance in Unusual Spaces presented by Pavilion Dance South West and the development of the regional infrastructure for outdoor arts: in which we take a significant role.

Our work with the South Dorset Ridgeway (SDR) Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Landscape Partnership offers a unique insight into the heritage of the county landscape that is the basis for the commissions that will then be presented as part of the festival in 2014. The SDR is as important in heritage and archaeological terms as Avebury and Stonehenge and as yet does not have the same wider recognition.

It was thus appropriate for the partnership to work with us to welcome more people to this landscape and ‘celebrate’ its heritage.

“The children were truly in awe! The organisation, information and event was superb. - Thank you” Participant

A Dance a Day at ‘Dance In Time’ at Dartington 16

FINANCES Income and Expenditure For year ended 31st March 2014 Balance Sheet at 31/3/14 Incoming Resources Income

£472,979

Resources Expended Expenditure

£456,260

Net incoming resources

£16,719

Balance brought forward

£187,771

Balance carried forward

£204,490

Fixed assets Tangible assets

£2,453

Current assets Debtors Cash at bank and in hand

£93,900 £161,235

Total current assets

£255,135

Creditors Amounts falling due within one year

£53,098

Net current assets

£204,490

The funds of the charity Restricted funds Unrestricted funds (Reserves)* Total charity funds

£44,074 £160,416 £204,490

*Reserves are made up of 116,000 designated to reserves, 12,174 designated to supporting artists in the following year and 32,241 identified for the PASS Channel Circus Project.

Policies Diversity Policy, Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable People Policy, Environmental Policy, Reserves Policy, Health and Safety Policy and Risk Management, Special Needs Policy, Training and Development Policy.

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THE TEAM Board: Chris Huxley

Jane Rigler

Adele Keeley

Martin Kimberly

Chris Humphrey

Michael Noonan

Kate Wood

Irene Archibald

Rosalind Conlon

Natalie Gowing

Wendy Petitdemange

Aurore Parkin

(Chair)

Katherina Radva

(Board Observer)

Core Staff: Executive Director

Marketing Manager

Jen Walke

Inside Out Dorset Producer

Senior Administrator

Theatre Producer

Dance Producer

Dance Producer

Libby Battaglia

Dance Producer (Maternity Cover)

Freelance Contractors: Sarah Colwell – PASS Project Manager • Jude Allen – The Remix Project Manger • Bill Gee – Inside Out Dorset Co-Artistic Director • Simon Chatterton – Inside Out Dorset Co-Artistic Director • Claire Hodgson – The Remix East Artistic Director and founding AD for The Remix • Anna Golding – The Remix West Artistic Director • Aimee Smith – A Dance A Day Project Co-ordinator • Carly Reader – Portrait Artistic Director 18

Project Funders and Supporters

We are members of the following

Contact Us Activate Performing Arts The Little Keep Barrack Road Dorchester DT1 1SQ

Telephone: 01305 260 954 Email: info@activateperformingarts.org.uk Visit: www.activateperformingarts.org.uk

Company Number: 3439777 Charity Number: 1069622

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