Norfolk & Norwich Festival Snapshot 2020

NORFOLK & NORWICH FESTIVAL 2020 Snapshot

Cover: In Memoriam © Andi Sapey

2020 has undoubtedly been a challenging year for us all. We had hoped to be sharing with you a summary of the first of three years of special Festivals building toward our 250th anniversary in 2022. But this year was not a conventional year, and instead we share a snapshot of how Norfolk & Norwich Festival has responded to the COVID crisis and continues to bring great art to communities across the county.

Let’s Create Packs © Wayne Pilgrim

Welcome

One of the joys of the arts is witnessing the response from audiences. It was no different this year, as our audiences, partners and supporters responded to the cancellation of 2020’s Festival with kind words that fortified us and generous donations, totalling more than £20,000, which helped bridge an uncertain financial landscape.

However, the cancellation saw the Festival lose around £500,000 of income.

Through prudent planning and cost cutting, we made savings while ensuring artists were paid, venue fees met, freelance workers supported. We continued our Festival Bridge role, supporting cultural education for children and young people and quickly implemented a number of projects in response to COVID. We have been able to adapt and remain viable primarily because we are an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and receive regular funding from Norwich City Council. We have a responsibility to support and protect the cultural ecology and communities of this wonderful county and, as with many charities, we adapted quickly, collaborating and overcoming hurdles to provide culture, support and relief where we could. Our immense thanks go to all those supporters, funders, partners and individuals who have worked with us since March in delivering these.

2021 will be another uncertain year for us all, but we will bring a Festival back to the places and spaces of the city and county. It will be something different.

It has to be. But, it will be something that carries the healing power of the arts, culture and community to as many people as possible. We look forward to a brighter future, and to sharing it with you. Thank you!

Daniel Brine Chief Executive and Artistic Director

37,000+ Let’s Create packs delivered across East Anglia

Norfolk & Norwich Festival does Radio Local Scheduled as a 24-hour radio broadcast live from Norwich’s Gentleman’s Walk, Hunt & Darton’s Radio Local was to form part of May’s Festival programme. After cancellation we quickly evolved it into 17 days of Festival radio output throughout May. Interviewing artists and key workers, challenging families and youth groups, and sharing community stories, Radio Local kept the spirit of the Festival burning bright, online and across local radio stations in Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Diss and King’s Lynn.

Amelia Mills

A little help for Sheringham Across the country, arts venues large and small have been forced to close their doors. As part of our efforts to support the region’s arts ecology, our communications team have been working with Sheringham Little Theatre to provide both immediate relief and longer-term strategic support.

We’ve really enjoyed working with the small but passionate team who play such an important role in the North Norfolk community.

2,500+

85,000+ saw Open Studios Online across social media Olivia Jeffreys © Salsabil Morrison

listeners reaching

140,000+

Helen Breach

Virtual Norfolk Open Studios

online and across socials

This year saw the award-winning Norfolk Open Studios move online for the first time. We were able to showcase 50 artists’ studios, works and processes as well as 4 schools’ and young peoples’ art projects, to an audience of over 85,000 on the Norfolk Open Studios website and across our social media platforms.

Deemed a huge success by creators and audiences alike, we’ll be developing our digital output going forward, marrying the best of online and in person for Norfolk Open Studios 2021, which from this year will move to the Autumn.

See some of 2020’s highlights at norfolkstudios.org.uk.

Hunt & Darton

Sheringham Little Theatre

visitors experienced Luke Jerram’s In Memoriam

In Memoriam © Andi Sapey

1,500+

In Memoriam, Luke Jerram As part of Norwich Theatre and Lost in Translation’s INTERLUDE in Chapelfield Gardens, many of the city’s cultural organisations came together to present a much-needed programme of art and performance during the summer. Norfolk & Norwich Festival brought the latest work from renowned installation artist Luke Jerram, whose previous work at the Festival includes 2017’s much loved Museum of the Moon.

In Memoriam comprised a series of imposing red and white flags, made from bedsheets. Forming the red cross of a medical symbol, it was a timely and contemplative artwork created as a temporary memorial to those lost to the COVID pandemic, and a tribute to the NHS health and care workers who have been risking their lives.

‘This art installation reminded me of *why* we were in lockdown to begin with, in a really poignant way that turned my thoughts back to those lost.’

Audience Member

Festival Volunteer © Bernadette McCarthy

Young people flip Lowestoft Museum

100

In October our Festival 250 project, Common Ground, launched Flip The Museum: a digital reimagining of Lowestoft museum created by local young people working with Mutiny Projects. Over a series of workshops with an award-winning playwright, filmmaker, animator and BAFTA winning composer, participants created animations and spoken-word pieces. These are geolocated around the museum grounds, so why not visit Nicholas Everitt park and use your phone to experience the museum while it is closed due to the pandemic?

ways to reverse climate change

View the films and more at nnfcommonground.org.uk, or follow Common Ground on Instagram @NNFCommonGround DRAWDOWN © Ben Sheppee

Lighting up Lynn Although Collusion’s Powers of X was unable to go ahead at 2020’s Festival, we supported the interdisciplinary arts group to produce DRAWDOWN, a new work by artist Ben Sheppee. The project brings a safe outdoor experience to King’s Lynn, with large-scale digital projections presented on four historic buildings in the town centre. Highlighting 100 ways to reverse climate change, the project seeks to provide us all with positive and practical ways to reduce our impact on the world.

Oh Lowestoft museum you world tour You sweet shop you history lesson, you time machine, Come to Lowestoft museum to see the slave the sailor the farmer, To smell the mud the blood the sea salt, To feel the rub of prehistoric shoulders

Unfortunately the third national lockdown cut short the project, but we are hoping it will be able to return when it’s safe to do so.

The Two Fifty As part of our 250th celebrations, we have been developing a number of special projects. One, The Two Fifty, aims to bring together 250 volunteers into a Guild that would bring good deeds and cultural happenings to communities across Norfolk.

While our planning and fundraising for this project has been impacted by the pandemic, the project has still greater resonance in COVID times. Working with Lone Twin, artistic leads of the project, an initial cohort of six members have been working to shape how The Two Fifty develops and responds in light of COVID. We will have more news for you soon…

Words and Images © Lily Smith, Sophie Siu & Sameera Bhalotra Bowers with MUTINY Projects

Creative Individuals Norfolk Freelance artists and arts workers are a vital part of the supply chain, and one of the hardest hit by the COVID crisis. Venues, festivals and arts organisations rely upon these people for so much of their output. In response to the pandemic, we launched the Creative Individuals Norfolk programme, designed to support freelance practitioners and bring vital cultural activities to various communities across Norfolk. We have supported six individuals with commissions of £3,000 each to develop and deliver projects over the next nine months. These are:

Bill Vine A Sonic Exploration of the Green Spaces of NR3, Norwich Laura Hopkins

Emma Bernard Act Now @ The Corn Hall, Diss Genevieve Rudd Yarmouth Spring Eternal Laura Hopkins Brutal Arithmetic, Dereham

Sasha Goslin

Emma Bernard © Elaine Duigenan

£18,000 to kickstart projects for Norfolk freelancers and audiences

Lewis Buxton Bo(d)y Talk, Norfolk Sascha Goslin Norfolk Black and POC Creatives Network Find out more about the projects on our website, at nnfestival.org.uk/creative-individuals-norfolk

Lewis Buxton © Max Hilton

Genevieve Rudd

Bill Vine © Helen Vine

‘I didn’t used to like art, but I love it now!’ 2020 Workshop Participant

110 community organisations collaborated with us on Let’s Create packs

Let’s Create Packs

Lost & Found Films Workshop

Keeping Norfolk Creative

Take Part: Schools

Arts and culture are a lifeline for all of us during lockdown. However, many families in Norfolk lack the physical or digital resources to explore, play and express themselves through creativity. To help combat this, our Festival Bridge team have been working alongside Local Cultural Education Partnerships and 110 community groups, arts organisations, food banks and schools nationally to create and distribute creative packs to families across the region. Offering art supplies and a creativity booklet with contributions from 25 local artists, we were able to deliver 18,000 packs over the summer lockdown.

Our Take Part: Schools programme delivers creative projects and workshops across the county to around 1,500 young people each year. The closure of schools led to a radical reshape of our programme.

Festival Bridge went on to distribute another 9,000 activity booklets created especially for partner organisations and their localities, as well as forming part of the Norfolk Creativity Collective’s #MakeItMerry campaign to deliver an additional 10,000 art packs over the winter months.

We are working over the winter in a pilot programme with four partner schools in West Earlham, one of Norwich City Council’s priority wards. Each of those four schools, from Primary through to High Schools, will receive a bespoke, indepth creative learning programme that responds to their specific educational needs, accommodates COVID restrictions, and provides a test-model for future Festival creative learning projects.

We look forward to sharing results with you soon.

Our Take Part programme is kindly supported by The Ellerdale Trust and The Red Socks Charitable Trust.

We are incredibly grateful for the generosity shown by Festival audiences and supporters during this difficult time. To our Supporters and Festival Friends, we thank you for your continued support in 2020. To our Corporate Partners, we thank you for your understanding and words of encouragement, following cancellation of the Festival in March, and we look forward to working with you in 2021.

Despite the challenges of multiple lockdowns and changing social distancing regulations, we have continued to connect with our supporters in new and different ways.

World Music Workshop © Paul harrison

Your Support

We have established bi-monthly 250 Talks, an exclusive opportunity for Supporters and Friends to hear from Festival artists about their work and inspiration, providing a behind-the-scenes look at what goes in to putting on a Festival production or project. These virtual events, as well as being adaptable for current times, also provide the opportunity for those who may not be able to easily access in-person events to feel part of the Festival family. We look forward to continuing these regular events during 2021.

We were fortunate to meet with a small group of our Director’s Circle and Producer Supporters for a curated tour of Anish Kapoor at Houghton Hall in October.

Through our regular supporter updates, we have been able to share news of our work in the community, including those projects outlined in this snapshot, as well as to keep you fully informed of what’s to come in the future. We cannot wait to see you at this year’s Festival!

Anish Kapoor at Houghton Hall

Help us continue our work 2021 offers hope for the creative sector, and as an arts charity, we are redoubling our efforts to share meaningful art and cultural experiences with people across Norfolk. We rely on support from our audiences, partners and supporters to continue to bring innovative and inspirational programming and commissioning to the region, and to empower those who might not otherwise have access to the lifechanging power of the arts. If you’re interested in how you can support us, as an individual or as an organisation, you can find out how to do so at nnfestival.org.uk/support-us, or by calling us on 01603 877750 and asking to speak to a member of our development team.

Principal Funders

Norfolk & Norwich Festival Trust is a registered charity (number 1164424)