Trustees Annual Report 2023

Trustees’ Annual Report for the Year ended 30 April 2023

Right Up Your Street Photo: Newsline Media

Shaper Caper Limited Scottish Charity Number: SC047014 Company Registration Number: SC502566

Charity Details Address

Bankers

Telephone number: +44 (0) 1382 413 007

Company Secretary

Unit 6, Manhattan Works, Dundonald St, Dundee DD3 7PY

Email address: hello@shapercaper.com Website: www.shapercaper.com Twitter / Facebook / Instagram - @shapercaper

Bank of Scotland, 65-69 Murraygate, Dundee DD1 2EA

Yolanda Aguilar

Accountants

Ashton McGill, 25 Tay Street Lane, Dundee, DD1 4EF

Trustees • • • • • • • • •

Hayley Durward, Chair Allan McIntyre Dr Aleksandra Webb Jenny Rutter Linzi McLagan Victoria Simmons David Wright Thomas Small Yolanda Aguilar

Objectives & Activities The company’s objects are: The promotion and development of the arts and culture, with the focus on dance, as entertainment, a leisure pursuit or career; using creativity as a tool to connect communities and enhance social justice, encouraging appreciation and participation by all sections of society; and to provide and promote education and engagement of the public, both in dance and through dance, with a focus on creative learning.

The main activities of the company are touring dance-theatre productions and facilitating extensive creative participatory opportunities to people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, with a focus on social impact and civic agency.

Our Audiences • • • •

Children and Young People Working Class Families LGBTQ+ people Vulnerable People (those with long-term health conditions, in care/custody, etc).

We nurture and develop long-term partnerships with organisations like NHS Tayside, V&A Dundee, and Dundee City Council, among others. We engage with local and national creative and enterprising networks. We provide free-of-charge class access to people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. We offer employability opportunities to young people, supporting with training, work experience, and paid traineeships; central to this is our Youth Advisory Council, The Body, a group of young, budding artists looking to get in and get on with the creative industries. We have dedicated LGBTQIA+ work that supports and connects people, developing cross-sectoral networks for future professional opportunities.

“

“Tommy is an amazing talent. His skill and dynamism brings a whole new creative dimension to some of Radio 2’s most iconic output.”

Bob Shennan Managing Director, BBC

‘Joy in the Shadows’ film with V&A Dundee Photo: Aiesha Duncan

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Structure, Governance & Management Description of the charity’s trusts:

1. Type of governing document: Constitution 2. How the charity is constituted: Limited Company 3. Trustee selection methods: elected by the Trustees and senior staff members, appointed by the Chair and Chief Executive. Directorship is open to all and no application for directorship will be refused, other than on reasonable grounds. There will be no discrimination on grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, gender, sexual orientation, political or other opinions.

4. Application for directorship: • Any person who wishes to become a director must sign, and lodge with the company, a written application.

• The Board shall consider each application at the first board meeting which is held after receipt of the application and the Board will, within a reasonable time after the meeting, notify the applicant of their decision on the application.

• If an application has been refused, an appeal may be made in writing to the Board, who shall consider the appeal at its next meeting after the appeal is received, and who shall respond in writing to the applicant within 21 days of the meeting. The decision on such appeals is final.

5. The structure of the Company consists of the directors who are also the Company’s only members and comprise the Board.

The Board have important powers under the constitution, take decisions on changes to the constitution itself, hold regular meetings, and generally control the activities of the Company.

Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the Board is responsible for monitoring and controlling the financial position of the Company.

The individuals making up the Board are referred to in these articles as directors. Additional governance issues: • There are policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees; these include the governance of our Youth Advisory Board, The Body.

• At the regular meetings and development days, the trustees consider all major risks and implement the system and procedures to manage them satisfactorily.

• The Company was formed in 2015 and incorporated as a limited company by guarantee, registered in Scotland, having no share capital and is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association. On the 25th of November 2016, we gained charitable status. We are confident in the constitution, relevance, and strength of our governing Board. In line with our strategic planning for the next few years, we will continue to invest in a Board development scheme, providing its members with the skills to cultivate new opportunities that will provide the expertise and knowledge that is invaluable to the future of the charity.

Right Up Your Street Photo: James Murison

Vision, Mission, and Values Our Vision is

To contribute to a more socially just, connected, and empathic world through dance-theatre and creativity.

Our Mission

To nurture spaces for innovation and creative thinking through dance-theatre that connects society and reveals the extraordinary in people.

Our Values

Kindness, Respect, Collaboration, Joy.

How we do it

We offer creative opportunities and nurture spaces for innovative, open, and empathic thinking through dance-theatre in three key strands: artistic creation, creative engagement, and professional pathways.

We do this because the arts saved us. Art provides a safe, dynamic, and imagination-sparking world that helps us to understand and respond to the chaotic, unjust, and wonderful world we live in. We have lived experience of this and believe sharing it has the power to make society more connected and empathic.

Achievements & Performance 2022-23 has been a defining year in establishing the positive trajectory of the charity, extending the activity across the Touring & Productions strand to meet the dynamic level of our Creative Experiences & Participation, as intended on our Business Plan.

Still a tentative year with regards to re-establishing all the in-person activities we had paused the year before, the outdoors celebratory performances for Me and My Dug and Right Up Your Street shows commissioned by Dundee City Council and Aberdeen Performing Arts provided free and celebratory community events that were hopeful and joyful: much needed feelings in the communities.

We have been researching and developing works that reflect on social justice matters such as the environment and LGBTQIA+ stories across generations, with these becoming full productions, placing storytelling at the heart of communities by making space for and telling stories that are often not told.

We have engaged in new pivotal training such as Arts in Prisons courses, British Sign Language, and Access in Theatre as a reflection of the wish to continue to serve inclusivity in the community. For another year, we continued to work with counsellor James Alexander, a key person supporting staff through the challenges and changes in the team’s dynamics during the adaptation to new operating practices.

Staff have travelled to Germany to network at Tanzmesse, one of the largest dance gatherings in Europe; and liaised nationally at a third sector conference in Leeds.

In addition, the care provided by funders such as RS MacDonald have consistently

supported staff with access to training, networking, and advice with ACOSVO (Association of Chief Officers of Scottish Voluntary Organisations) and SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations).

Through new employability programmes partnerships such as Graduate Careers Advantage Scotland (GCAS) we have employed 3 recent graduates working as trainee Administration Assistant and Dance Artists, with one of the latter moving to join the company as a member of staff until the present time.

As a learning organisation, this is the year we started a 10-month reflective process guided by Alice McGrath, a creative director, lecturer and researcher in Arts Management and Cultural Policy at Queen Margaret University. The process is leading us to collaboratively drill down, look within and around, and engage with others to redefine purpose through activities in a changed world. It has resulted in the creation of our new Strategy, leading to the future Business Plan.

The charity continues to work collaboratively in cross-sectoral partnerships and show a commitment with its objects, a determination to serve its communities through creativity as a transformational tool, and a solid advancement on its considered direction to contribute to improving communities.

Dance for Parkinson’s class in ‘Tulips & Tea film

‘Tea for Two’ film with V&A Dundee Photo: Aiesha Duncan

Touring & Productions We successfully toured and performed: Right Up Your Street, a new commission by Aberdeen Performing Arts showcasing the music and dance styles across the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s decades. Performed over a week in Aberdeen and at Dundee’s WinterFest. Direct reach: 450 people Queer Stories, an oral history research project funded by Museums and Galleries Scotland aiming to collate LGBTQIA+ stories across different generations to exchange experiences of the collective’s rights through the years. Performed in Inverness, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, West Lothian. Direct reach: 208 people Me and My Dug, performed at Summer Bash Street Festival, Dundee; a homage to Denice the Menace performed in the hometown of the pesky character. The show included a mixed participation of 5 professional dancers and 10 children from our Summer Capers Camp. Reach: 250 people We started the research and development of The World Is My…a new production aimed to young audiences aged 8-12 that reflects on current environmental issues and explores feasible actions to contribute to a cleaner, kinder, and holistically aware world. This project benefits from academic expertise provided by The James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen.

The research of Queer Stories and previous LGBTQIA+ work over the past ten years contributed to the successful support by Creative Scotland of a new production and pilot tour of Small Town Boys, a work exploring the AIDS crisis of the 80s, drawing parallels with the current trans rights challenges. With planning and auditions taking place this year, the work will take place the following year.

Creative Experiences & Participation Our participation work is extensive, reaching 115 schools and over 7,000 school children each year with the NHS Tayside Well Good project alone, sharing smoking awareness through dance theatre. This was the 8th year of the rolling engagement for the Well Good project, performed full time across Tayside in Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross over the curriculum year. Our NHS Tayside partnership with schools expanded to include other test of change projects exploring holistic and family inclusive projects to promote healthy eating and weight management.

We continued to nurture and develop emerging artists through Professional Pathways projects such as The Body, our Youth Advisory Board, BRAW for LGBTQIA+ artists, and Queer to Stay, developing from the needs arising at BRAW. Offering bursaries to selected artists, participants have reported increased benefits in wellbeing, increased knowledge, sector awareness through networking opportunities, and employment opportunities arising from these, such as our Marketing Officer Levi, who joined Queer to Stay and applied to our job opportunity thereafter.

We reached out to HMP Bella Unit Female Custody Suite in Dundee to offer them a Christmas show and establish a relationship pending on successful fundraising, which materialised the following year.

Supported by RS Macdonald, we continued our Dance for Parkinson’s classes in Dundee, with the Fife hub engaging digitally.

Our NHS Tayside partnership with schools expanded to include other test of change projects exploring holistic and family inclusive projects to promote healthy eating and weight management.

We continued to learn from and support the Dance Health work of Scottish Ballet by training staff and delivering some of their programme regarding people with Parkinson’s and MS. We deepened our partnership with V&A Dundee, exploring participatory offers to crossfertilise audiences, a successful venture that continues to expand knowledge and expertise across organisations, enriching the experience of the attendees. V&A Dundee commissioned a series of films to promote the museum’s programme digitally, an emerging area of work for us that contributes to the sustainability of the charity.

The Body: Youth Advisory Council Our commitment to young people’s equity is such that, for the first 5 years since 2015, we have run this free-of-charge employability programme pro-bono. We are committed to emergent artists and young people’s right to “Get In and Get On” with work in the creative industries, to facilitate their entering the professional field, supporting them with practical advice and training, as well as with 1:1 mentoring to address any specific needs. Accessing arts is most challenging for people from working-class backgrounds, migrants, refugees, LGBTQIA+, non-Caucasian, and those from other marginalised communities.

Past and current members of The Body have developed into great cultural leaders and young entrepreneurs, showcasing the skills needed to affect social change through culture. We run year-long programmes for members, who are re-elected yearly. The group is self-governing, and provides suggestions to improve the direction of Shaper/ Caper.

Engagement The Body: 10 BRAW: 160 Queer to Stay: 172 Best Foot Forward: 50 Shake, Rattle and Stroll, with V&A Dundee: 150 Dance for Parkinson’s: 16 Elevate, with Scottish Ballet: 20 Shift, with Bella Centre Unit: 15 Well Good: 7,000

7,593

direct participation

8,501

grand total direct reach across programmes

‘Joy in the Shadows’ film with V&A Dundee Photo: Aiesha Duncan

Marketing & Communications Our consistent increase in social media engagement, as well as the wide scope of our projects across productions, creative experiences, and professional pathways, compounds the previous year’s impact of having a dedicated marketing and content creation role. The diversity of our target audiences, from children and young artists to pro-dancers and the LGBTQ+ community, contribute to this continued growth.

Trends show Instagram as our most successful platform, particularly where we have leaned into the platform’s increasing prioritisation of reels/video with rehearsal clips and Memories from the Dancefloor. Many best performing posts also focus on LGBTQ+ issues (e.g. Trans Day of Visibility, Bi Visibility Day, Trans Day of Remembrance, queer issues through Not in my Dundee film), showing the value of engaging with key dates, and the way our audience values our political engagement.

Our website and Twitter analytics can be tied to the amount of recruiting we did last year, including bursaries, productions teams, dancers, and core team roles, with our “Work With Us” site page and recruitment posts performing best (particularly on Twitter, where users may be more inclined to share opportunities).

Social Media Reach

45,015 facebook (4.4% increase) 108,312 instagram (404.4% increase)

Top Moments Memories of the Dancefloor Small Town Boys

Social Media Profile Visits

2,967 facebook (273.2% increase) 4,048 instagram (181.9% increase) Website

12,000 visits (9.1% increase) 9,400 unique visitors (10.6% increase) 21,000 page visits

Recruitment Not in My Dundee Crowdfunder

Financial Performance With no core or regular funding, our financial strategy is based on a diversified portfolio income, gathering support through a combination of funding and earned income. The extent of our supporters reflects both a staff team that is dedicated to sustaining the operations of the Charity, and an increasing trust by investors on the quality and impact of our work.

£325,994

income

£317,323 expenditure

Paper Moon Photo: Laura Mumby

Total Income: £325,994

Classes & Workshops £13,502

Other Funders £125,927

Touring £22,380

Other revenue £28,405

Project Income £55,000

Creative Scotland £80,573

Total Expenditure: £317,323

Accountancy Marketing Materials £2,362 £3,605 Telephone Other & Internet Materials £3,483 £1,258 £4,620

Insurance £1,097

Wages and related costs £213,673

Depreciation £5,273

Development costs £5,785 Equipment and IT consumables £6,459 Rent and hires £14,680

Travel and subsistence £21,334 Professional fees £33,694

Statement of the charity’s policy on reserves It is the aim and duty of the Board to comply with OSCR recommendations and sector’s best practice, ensuring that the charity has at least 3 months of reserves to cover the costs of staff and overheads. This is currently observed, aiming to increase this level to provide a robust economic security.

Details of any deficit: N/A

Donated facilities and services We operate according to the Scottish Government Place Principle and establish numerous mutually beneficial partnerships with local and regional organisations resulting in various in-kind exchanges of services.

We offer our assets to members of the community in need of accessing them.

BRAW

Funders and Partners Funders and partners throughout the year were: •

Creative Scotland

•

Aberdeen Performing Arts

•

NHS Tayside

•

Dundee City Council

•

RS MacDonald

•

Arnold Clark Community Fund

•

National Lottery Community Fund

•

Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

•

National Lottery People’s Project

•

Foundation Scotland

•

Scottish Government

•

Graduate Careers Advance Scotland (GCAS)

•

Shared Care Scotland

•

Braeview academy

•

The Rank Foundation

•

University of Dundee

•

V&A Dundee

•

Parkinson’s UK

•

Parkinson’s UK

•

Leisure and Culture Dundee

•

Rossie, Young People’s Trust

•

Dundee Rep and Scottish Dance Theatre

•

Essentia Foundation

•

Museums and Galleries Scotland

•

George and Grace Thomson Fund

•

Dumfries and Galloway Festival

•

Scottish Ballet

•

City Moves

‘There is such a broad scope to his work - it can span from mass participation events to high end performance at a major Arts festival. I was excited about spending time with Tommy on his amazing artistic journey throughout the year of events on BBC Radio 2.’

Claudia Winkleman, BBC Radio 2 Presenter

Photo: Maria Falconer

Future Plans Our aim is to increase the scope of our Touring and Productions activity to include UKwide and international activity. This can bring several benefits by financially stabilising the organisation, providing unrestricted income to explore test of change projects, and by increasing expertise, which will be shared with our participants and across the sector.

We will deepen our current engagement with our project partners and develop opportunities in cross-sectoral collaborations to ensure an equitable access to the arts.

Shake, Rattle, and Stroll at V&A Dundee Photo: Aiesha Duncan

The Snow Qween film

Additional Information Lessons Learnt: Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration.

Not coincidentally one of our values, collaboration appeals to the need to share resources for equitable access in an environmentally and economically challenged world, as well as the need to include all voices towards more efficient means of knowledge.

Our young volunteers from The Body have grown into becoming assertive performers, dance facilitators, and novel entrepreneurs, with many currently opening their own businesses and creative adventures. We support our participants and in turn, receive support from many partner and supporter organisations, learning and developing our practice along the way.

We would like to thank all our staff, stakeholders, volunteers, participants, and audiences, as none of this would have been able for a small charity with no core support without their continuous encouragement and assistance.

The trustees support the charity’s growth and continues to nurture, challenge, and direct the company to achieve excellence and a curated portfolio of services offering through dance and creativity.

Declaration Signed on behalf of the charity trustees:

Print name: Yolanda Aguilar Designation: Executive Director Date: 05/12/2023

/ Cover: Right Up Your Street Photo: James Murison

Back Cover: Shake, Rattle, and Stroll at V&A Dundee Photo: Aiesha Duncan