THE ARTS SOCIETY WREKIN
ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2022
THE ARTS SOCIETY WREKIN
Committee members and other officials
Trustees and members of the committee who served at any time between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022 are:
David Milledge Chairman and Arts Volunteering Terry Lipscombe Secretary Jim Tranter Treasurer and Virtual Communications Val Lupton Programme secretary Anne Marczak Membership secretary Nicky Lipscombe Day Visits and Events Suzy Keeley Longer Visits Liz Allan Days of Special Interest Amanda Zaadstra Communications and Arts Award Phoebe Nattrass Trails of Discovery Sue Dyer Minutes secretary David Franklin Chairman - 1st April – 21 June 2021 Corrie Williams Artistic adviser – 1st April – 21 June
Other officials who are not members of the committee are:
David Cotterell President Paul Joseland Co-ordinator for Heritage Volunteering Tim Roberts Photographic adviser Clive Williams Virtual Communications
Committee members with an *asterisk by their name are also trustees
Cover photograph taken by Tim Roberts.
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Constitution and status
The Society is governed by a constitution adopted on 21st May 2012 as amended on 19 June 2017.
Under that constitution the Officers for the time being (but not the Honorary Officers) together with two other Members of the Committee appointed by the Committee shall be the Trustees of the Society.
The Society is registered with the Charity Commission under registration number 1148456 and is affiliated to The Arts Society.
Governance and management
Appointments to the Committee are made by resolution of the Members of the Society. The Committee appoints the Society’s Officers, manages its affairs and administers its funds.
Objectives
The Society shall have as its objects: the promotion, advancement, study and practice of: history, social history, materials, design, manufacture and collections relating to decorative and fine art, literature, architecture, archaeology, painting, sculpture, the performing arts (including dance, music, theatre, films and photography), textiles, furniture, furnishings, costume, glass and ceramics, enamel, metalwork, garden design and installation art and the lives and influences of the artists, architects, craftsmen and patrons involved and any other subject of creative art or design that may be considered an advancement of these objects.
The main activities carried out during the year in furtherance of these objects are referred to in the Chairman’s Report.
Website
Further details can be obtained from the Society’s own website at www.theartssocietywrekin.org.uk
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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT TO THE MEMBERS
I have the pleasure to present my first Annual Report. I am delighted that we have maintained a full membership throughout the pandemic. Thank you to all our members who have loyally stayed with us. We have done our best in difficult circumstances to provide continuity of our programme and where possible, events.
Reports from the committee members follow my introduction. They show the wideranging activities which have been undertaken by our Society.
The success of our Society is due to the hard work and tenacity of our committee members and helpers. In particular, this year, we are indebted to our ‘Tech Team’ - Jim Tranter and Clive Williams have contrived mastery of Zoom from scratch. They tutored us in the ways of Zoom. Their work enabled us to continue our speaker programme virtually and later to run hybrid meetings with presentations both at Cosford and on Zoom. From April we reverted to normal meetings at Cosford as before the pandemic. Should there be another Covid crisis we are well placed to revert to virtual or hybrid presentations.
We have had an exceptional year of visits and events. Nicky Lipscombe is indomitable in providing fascinating outings. Many of these have had to be repeated to meet the demand.
Val Lupton has continued to provide a varied programme of lectures. In addition to running the programme she quietly and efficiently copes with meeting and looking after our lecturers. This is a great support for the Chairman.
Liz Allan has been able to restart the Days of Special Interest as live events. These have proved to be most interesting and have been well supported.
Suzy Keeley, after much changing of plans due to Covid, brought off a successful longer visit to Cambridge. This was much enjoyed by all who attended. She is planning a visit to York in the Autumn.
In Arts Volunteering we have continued our association with Shropshire Music Service. We were able to sponsor a series of rehearsals for their young orchestra culminating in a concert for parents and friends. Our support was enhanced by a Community Grant of £250 from The Arts Society. We supported the Halls Young Artists’ competition at Weston Park Granary Art Gallery by providing prizes.
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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT continued
We continued our association with The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust and Weston Park Foundation. We supported the restoration of the Coade Stone sundial at Weston where it has now been installed. The restoration of a Coalbrookdale gate made circa 1860 is underway and we helped with that.
We have supported The Albrighton Trust (Moat) in their woodcraft activities for disadvantaged young people.
We are providing sponsorship for Primary School children from Telford to attend the ‘Creative Arts Days’ run at Weston Park by Educating Kids Outdoors (EKO).
We contributed to the Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire’s Appeal for a Covid Memorial Sculpture and were honoured by the presence of Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire, Mrs Anna Turner JP, at our December Talk and Tea meeting to receive our contribution.
Culture has not been left out. We sponsored a lecture at Codsall Arts Festival, The English Haydn Festival in Bridgnorth and, by contrast, Telford Music Service’s Pop Showcase at Oakengates Theatre in November 2022.
We have supported The Arts Society West Midlands Area Appeal for a pilot mentoring project run by The Koestler Trust. This is to promote Art in prisons and other custodial settings.
The Arts Award has been launched, and we plan to award a £2000 prize in the Autumn of 2022. Applications are now being accepted with a closing date of 15th July. Amanda Zaadstra is heading the sub-committee to oversee the Award.
It is now ten years since we became a charity during which time we have raised and given in excess of £60,000 of charitable funds. 2024 also sees the 50th Anniversary of the founding of our Society and we plan to produce a book of 50 Treasures of the Wrekin Area in time for the Anniversary.Tim Roberts is already at work photographing these for this publication. In addition, we have appointed Susan Hanley as our Archivist. She will be sorting our archive material to provide a record of our first 50 years.
Amanda Zaadstra has been outstanding with her grasp of MailChimp and has been able to keep us all linked up and well informed throughout the year.
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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT continued
Phoebe Natrass is retiring from the committee after several years of organising Trails of Discovery very successfully. We are very grateful for all her hard work during this time. A new co-ordinator is sought to build a team for the future.
Many thanks also to Sue Dyer who is leaving the committee and giving up her role as Minutes Secretary. Sue has been a patient and accurate recorder of our proceedings. We will miss her competent contribution to our work.
The reports below clearly show that our Society is in fine shape. Our membership has been well maintained through a challenging year. We are delighted to have resumed our usual meetings, providing a wide range of interesting activities for our members and encouraging local arts and heritage activity.
We can progress with optimism and confidence to celebrating 50 years of The Arts Society Wrekin in 2024.
DAVID MILLEDGE
Chairman
Lecture Programme
The programme was able to go ahead largely as planned, though unfortunately Shirley Smith’s lecture on Leonardo’s Women had to be cancelled due to illness. Simon Whitehouse, stepped in with an entertaining look at “The Importance of The Importance of Being Earnest.”
Fenella Billington’s April lecture on the Livery Companies of London was not available via Zoom, but the ever-popular Val Woodgate intrigued us with a fascinating insight into the work of Hieronymus Bosch.
We welcomed back other familiar speakers. Julia Musgrave challenged us to decide whether Caravaggio was murderer or genius, while Nicola Moorby led us in an examination of the differences and battles between those two great exponents of Romanticism, Turner and Constable. Both speakers challenged us to form our own opinions.
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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT continued
Dr Tobias Capwell gave a fascinating insight into battle at the time of the Conquest, as revealed in the Bayeux Tapestry. Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe stepped in at very short notice to give her talk scheduled for July, on historical materials and techniques of 15-18th century painting to replace Louise Schofield who was unwell. She will give her lecture in July.
Lecturers new to Wrekin included Shauna Isaac, who showed us the extent of artworks lost through Nazi looting in WWII, and Sian Walters who took us behind the scenes at the National Gallery, while Timothy Walker’s examination of the use of colour in gardens, delivered in such a lively and entertaining manner, ensured that we will all look at the gardens we visit with a more informed and appreciative eye.
VAL LUPTON
Days of Special Interest
A return to normality in November 2021 with a live day at the Red House. Ian Swankie was a very entertaining lecturer who brought the “Treasures of the Square Mile of London” to life. We had 48 attendees who enjoyed the day with a lovely lunch. It all went smoothly apart from the IT glitches! Hopefully the day is going to be backed up by a visit to London.
On March 30th we had a supremely enjoyable day with Mark Hill who appears on The Antiques Road Show. He entertained us with two informative and insightful talks entitled ‘Cracking Glass’. In the afternoon he gave an appraisal and valuation of some fascinating glass and ceramic items belonging to members. We hope to follow up this day with a visit to the Stourbridge Glass Museum.
LIZ ALLAN
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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT continued
Day Visits and Events
It has been another challenging year for Visits and Events. Zoom enabled us to see and learn more about the ‘Top 12 Livery Companies’ in an hour with Simon Whitehouse than we could have visited in an afternoon. Katie Alcock, a Cambridge alumnus, guided us around Cambridge and shared some of her favourite places, explained about undergraduate life and the traditions of graduation. This was very timely just before the Society’s postponed visit to the city.
The summer picnic, a first for Wrekin, was very well supported despite the inclement weather. The Ironbridge Gorge Museum kindly hosted us and made the Engine Shed available so that we could meet ‘in person’ for the first time in many months. New member, Bob Watson and the Albric Folk kindly provided some musical entertainment.
One of this year’s highlights was undoubtedly our small group visits to Wenlock Abbey, home of the late artist Louis de Wet and his wife Gabrielle. Each group were treated to a very personal tour with Gabrielle and local historian, Vivien Bellamy. We marvelled at Andrew Pearson’s amazingly detailed carved screen in the chapel which reflected de Wet’s life and travels.
Justin Reay’s Zoom presentation on Grinling Gibbons whetted our appetite for the excellent tercentenary exhibition at Compton Verney. What an extraordinarily talented woodcarver.
Dr Jonathan Berg led several different walks for Wrekin members to focus on Birmingham’s public art and architecture as well as its many trades and industrial history.
Many of the newer Wrekin members joined the committee for a special tour of the house and grounds at Chillington Hall followed by lunch in the Grand Saloon in October.
One of Wrekin’s favourite lecturers, Bertie Pearce, entertained us for the last event of 2021. We were delighted to be joined by the Lord Lieutenant, Mrs Anna Turner JP. Bertie reminded us how the Victorians entertained and amused themselves and treated us all to some of his clever tricks. The timing was very lucky, just before Omicron disrupted our lives again.
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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT continued
50 members enjoyed a fabulous ‘study day’ at Weston Park with Gareth Williams, Curator and head of Learning to the Weston Park Foundation on Coade stone, current conservation projects and the impact of the pandemic on the house and its educational activities. We were delighted to see the restored Coade stone plinth in situ – the sun shone briefly!
This year, the event surplus total including Days of Special Interest is £4,967 from which donations totalling £2,655 have been given to Ironbridge Gorge Museum, the Albrighton Trust (Moat), the Louis de
Wet Foundation, Weston Park Foundation, Koestler Trust and charities associated with the Cambridge visit. We are very grateful that some of our speakers and venue providers have accepted
donations in lieu of fees. The remaining surplus will help to fund 10 days of Creative activities for groups of up to 35 children from Telford schools run by EKO - Educating Kids Outdoors at Weston Park.
NICKY LIPSCOMBE
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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT continued
Longer Visits
The visit to Cambridge previously postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic finally went ahead in October 2021 with a group of eighteen members.
The first event, a fascinating walking tour of the City took place in the afternoon of the first day. Members learnt about the Richardson Candle lamps, unique to Cambridge and the Ashlar stone which is used on many Cambridge buildings. Then on to St Edward’s Church where the first midnight mass was held on Christmas Eve 1525, this was the first evangelical sermon of the English Reformation to take place. We also heard about the Cambridge Spies, Cambridge Nobel Prize winners.
Visits to the Parker Library, King’s College chapel and the wonderful Fitzwilliam Museum where our guides pointed out some of the most interesting exhibits. A visit to all Saints Church built in 1860 and decorated by Arts and Crafts artists William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown. This was followed by a final visit to Emmanuel College, its chapel, gardens and friars’ bathing pool, one of the oldest outdoor pools in the Country.
SUZY KEELEY
The Arts Society Wrekin Award
In 2020 the Society awarded its first bursary, the Frank Hartill Arts Award to joint winners Jacob Chandler (sculptor) and Kate Woodman (actress/singer). Both winners have now sent statements and videos explaining how the prize money was spent and helped with their respective careers. We are now promoting ‘The Arts Society Wrekin Award 2022’ based on the success of the Frank Hartill Arts Award. The award is open to all branches of the arts with a prize of £2000 for the winner. Last time we attracted applications from a wide range of artistic fields. It will be interesting to see the range of arts that make the shortlist this year and it is immensely satisfying to think we will be able to help a local artist in such difficult times.
AMANDA ZAADSTRA
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THE ARTS SOCIETY WREKIN
THE ARTS AWARD 2022 £2000
Open to all branches of the arts and crafts with a connection to the Wrekin area.
Closing date 15th July 2022
‘Poise and Elegance’, a bronze sculpture by Jacob Chandler, joint winner of The Arts Society Wrekin Award in 2020
www.theartssocietywrekin.org.uk
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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT continued
Heritage Volunteering
During the year, when circumstances permitted, a small team (including one member from the Shrewsbury Society) has been working on the final task of the AGA Project which is to continue into early summer. In the autumn, a team was assembled at short notice to check and clean books in the Library at Weston Park. A new head curator has been appointed at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum and we now have a new project this summer.
PAUL JOSELAND
Fifty Treasures
The West Midlands Fifty Treasures book has proved to be a great success - it includes four entries from the Wrekin area. Encouraged by the number of suggestions from the membership and the success of the West Midlands book, it has been decided to celebrate ‘50 Years’ of The Arts Society Wrekin with our own 50 Treasures Book in 2024. We welcome further suggestions from the membership. We have had quite a number already and they are wide ranging both in geography and subject matter.
TIM ROBERTS
Communications
Email has continued to be the primary method of communication regarding both lectures and the events programme. This has linked with the Society accepting more payments through BACS making booking extra events easier for members. Printed copies are circulated to the few members without email addresses. Using email enables the committee to engage more regularly with members and is not limited by prohibitive postal charges.
Member engagement with emails remains high with 70 – 80% opening them and a very good representative sample ‘clicking’ through to our website to rate the lectures they have either watched on Zoom or attended at Cosford.
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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT continued
We have also been successful in getting local press coverage of our charitable work. Beneficiaries of donations have also been very good at advertising the support received from the Society on their websites and Facebook platforms, helping to raise our profile.
AMANDA ZAADSTRA
Financial Review and Reserves Policy
The first mention of Covid-19 in our Annual Reports was two years ago in 2020. Let’s hope that this year is the last time. Our finances are still in remarkably good shape, despite having given our returning members substantial reductions in subscriptions for two years. My thanks to them for their continuing support, and to our newer members for joining us at this difficult time.
Our policy has always been to hold a reserve to cover the expenses of a full year’s programme of lectures. In normal times we like to ensure that the costs of running the lecture programme, our administration costs and the affiliation fees to The Arts Society are met by our subscription income, augmented by income from visitors and raffles.
The full details of our financial activities are shown in the accounts later in this report. My thanks are also due to David Cotterell, who has now been promoted from his post as Independent Examiner to be our President, and to Philip Sims, who has replaced David as Independent Examiner.
Our financial support for arts and heritage continues. The accounts show the extent of this support and full details are on the back cover. We still have the potential to make an important difference to a variety of individuals and organisations in those areas which we support. Members are also reminded that the committee welcomes suggestions for financial support for arts-related projects.
JIM TRANTER
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THE ARTS SOCIETY WREKIN
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2022
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT
Lecture Programme
| Lecture Programme | ||
|---|---|---|
| Incoming Resources Members’ Subscriptions Waiting list Visitors’ Donations Interest received Total Incoming resources Resources Expended Meetings (note 3) Affiliation fees (note 1(a)) Administration costs Depreciation Total Resources expended Deficit (2021 Surplus) on lecture programme Gift Aid received (Continued on page 12) |
2022 £ 9,782 5 125 235 10,147 £ 7,368 4,363 1,759 13,490 -3,343 1,732 |
2021 £ 10,616 45 45 311 |
| 11,017 | ||
| £ 2,911 4,643 1,356 25 |
||
| 8,935 | ||
| 2,082 | ||
| 2,794 |
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THE ARTS SOCIETY WREKIN
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT - continued
Other activities
| Incoming Resources Events - total income Events - total expenditure Surplus on events Sales of publications (net) Other donations Arts Society grant Donation - Mrs A Hartill Resources expended Charitable and other donations: - Directly related to events - Young Arts - Other Church recording Frank Hartill Arts award Total resources expended Surplus/deficit on other activities Overall deficit for the year |
2022 £ 18,298 12,897 5,401 350 5 250 250 6,256 2,655 900 1635 5,190 1,066 -545 |
2021 £ 5,362 2,290 |
|---|---|---|
| 3,072 41 |
||
| 3,113 | ||
| 2,370 362 2793 192 3,600 |
||
| 9,317 | ||
| -6,204 | ||
| -1,328 |
(Continued on page 13)
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THE ARTS SOCIETY WREKIN
BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 MARCH 2022
| Tangible fixed assets IT and other equipment (notes 1(b), 4) Current Assets Cash at bank Cash on deposit Cash in hand Prepayments Debtors Current Liabilities Income received in advance Net Assets Accumulated Funds Unrestricted funds at beginning of year Deficit for the year Unrestricted funds at end of year |
2022 £ 0 12,723 20,445 50 3,186 187 36,591 8,872 8,872 27,719 28,264 -545 27,719 |
2021 £ 0 2,528 27,397 50 3,152 253 33,380 5,116 5,116 28,264 29,592 -1,328 28,264 |
|---|---|---|
JIM TRANTER
Treasurer
19 April 2022
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THE ARTS SOCIETY WREKIN
NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2022
1. Accounting policies
(a) Basis of accounting.
The accounts have been prepared on the accruals basis.
(b) Depreciation.
Fixed assets (IT and other equipment) were written down
to a nil vaue in March 2021
2. Gross income and expenditure
The gross income for the year was £31,032 (2021 £19,214) and the gross expenditure was £31,577 (2021 £20,542).
| 3. Cost of Meetings Lecturers’ Fees Lecturers’ Expenses Hire of Lecture Theatre (Continued on page 15) |
2022 £ 3,882 192 3,294 7,368 |
2021 £ 2,826 85 |
|---|---|---|
| 2,911 | ||
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THE ARTS SOCIETY WREKIN
NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2022 - continued
| 4. Tangible Fixed Assets IT and other equipment Cost brought forward Additions Depreciation charge brought forward Depreciation charge for the year |
2022 £ 0 0 0 0 0 |
2021 £ 1,145 0 -1,120 -25 |
|---|---|---|
| 0 |
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INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE ARTS SOCIETY WREKIN
I report to the charity’s trustees on my examination of the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2022 which are set out on pages 11 to 16.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity’s trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).
I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent Examiner’s statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
-
accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
-
the accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
PHILIP SIMS, A.C.I.B.
2nd May 2022
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THE ARTS SOCIETY WREKIN
Accounts year ended 31 March 2022
The Society has given financial support to the following organisations:
| CHARITABLE EXPENDITURE | |
|---|---|
| DIRECTLY RELATED TO EVENTS | |
| Ironbridge Gorge Museum | 380 |
| Louis de Wet Foundation | 225 |
| Fitzwilliam Museum | 180 |
| Churches Conservation Trust | 100 |
| Jimmy’s (a charity for the homeless, Cambridge) | 120 |
| Koestler Arts - via TAS West Midlands Area | 150 |
| The Albrighton Trust | 500 |
| Weston Park Enterprises | 1,000 |
| 2,655 | |
| YOUNG ARTS PAYMENTS | |
| SYMPHO (Shropshire Young Musicians) | 750 |
| Prizes for Halls Young Artists competition | 150 |
| 900 | |
| CHARITABLE EXPENDITURE - OTHER | |
| Koestler Arts - via TAS West Midlands Area | 250 |
| The Country Houses of Shropshire - copies to local libraries | 285 |
| Shropshire Lieutenancy - re Covid Memorial Sculpture | 500 |
| Codsall Arts Festival | 600 |
| 1,635 |
THE ARTS SOCIETY WREKIN