AMBERSIDE TRUST
ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the year ended 31 March 2021
Charity Number 1160760
The Trustees are pleased to present their annual report together with the financial statements of the charity for the period ended 31 March 2021.
The financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the constitution of AmberSide Trust, and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019).
AMBERSIDE TRUST
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT For the year ended 31 March 2021
1. Objectives and Activities
The Trustees have referred to the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity's objectives and planning its future activities. The trustees have also reviewed the charitable purposes of AmberSide Trust and the external environment, to make sure the Charity is still relevant and needed. This annual report will aim to demonstrate the link between our charitable activity and how this benefits our service users.
AmberSide Trust advances education, in particular film and photography, through the preservation, conservation, interpretation and sharing of the AmberSide Collection; through the promotion, support, assistance and improvement of Side Gallery and Cinema in Newcastle-upon-Tyne; through the commissioning and acquisition of new work; through the programming of exhibitions and screenings; and through educational activities. AmberSide Trust is committed to protecting the integrity of the Collection and to ensuring it remains intact and accessible in the North East of England.
The AmberSide Collection is an extraordinary collection of social documentary photography and film, created, commissioned and acquired, since the late 1960s, by the founders of Amber Films and Side Gallery (known as the Amber Associates, or Partners) and (since 2010) by their successor body, Amber Film & Photography Collective Community Interest Company (CIC). The Collection includes work by photographers and film makers from the North East, elsewhere in the UK and abroad. They include, among many others, Robert Doisneau, Weegee, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Graciela Iturbide, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Russell Lee, Martín Chambi, Eugene Richards and August Sander. The Collection comprises some 20,000 photographs, 10,000 slides and 100 films. These, together with their associated paper files take up 36.19 cubic metres and there are currently approximately 6 Terabytes (TB) of digital assets. As each year passes, the Collection continues to grow.
AmberSide Trust (charitable incorporated organisation no. 1160760) is the sole trustee of the AmberSide Collection Trust (charity no. 1160761), which owns the Collection. These two organisations were established in 2014/15, when the Amber Associates and the CIC concluded that the best way to preserve and protect the Collection in perpetuity was to transfer ownership of the Collection to an independent, charitably constituted, organisation. The existence of two organisations provides extra protection for the Collection. By having a sole trustee (that is an organisation rather than an individual) the Collection Trust does not have to go through the process of regularly recruiting new trustees. AmberSide Collection Trust undertakes no independent financial activit ~~y.~~
The Collection is housed in an environmentally controlled Archive at Side Gallery & Cinema, in Newcastle-uponTyne and is managed, under the terms of a Collections Agreement, by the CIC’s Collections Manager, Laura Laffler. The Collections Agreement provides for the CIC to use items from the Collection in its exhibition, education and community engagement activities. The intellectual property rights remain with the creators of the works and are subject to inheritance instructions from the individuals concerned. These rights are not affected by the Collections Agreement.
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AMBERSIDE TRUST
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT For the year ended 31 March 2021
2. Achievements and Performance
The Collection
In January 2021, the Trust took ownership of a collection of prints known as the Community Development Project Archive. The donors were Judith Green and Robert Davis. The donors worked, respectively, on the Benwell Community Development Project and the North Tyneside Community Development Project in the 1970s. There were 12 such projects nationally. In 1976 all 12 projects commissioned a photographer of their choice to document their work. The Community Development Project Archive comprises 862 prints by 14 photographers, eight of whom also supplied their contact sheets. The photographers represented in this donation are Nick Birch, Jane Bown, Victor Burgin, Byron Cage, Simon Danby, Robert Golden, Nick Hedges, Larry Herman, John Hughes, Derek Massey, Roger Perry, Crighton Pryce, Derek Smith
Side Gallery & Cinema and the Archive were closed to visitors for most of 2020/21, due to the coronavirus, COVID-19. There was no public access to any of these spaces between March and September 2020. The gallery reopened in September for Tom Stoddart’s exhibition, Extraordinary Women , but had to close again on 4 November (on government instructions) and remained closed until May 2021 (when Extraordinary Women could be seen again, for a few weeks).
The support received by Amber Film and Photography Collective CIC, as a National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England, ensured that the Collection remained safely housed in the Archive throughout the year. The Collections Manager remained responsible for the Archive throughout and ensure that it was subject to regular site checks as well as continuous environmental monitoring.
Lockdown was an opportunity to make progress with researching and cataloguing the Collection. Three retiring CIC directors (Peter Roberts, Ellin Hare and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen) undertook a significant amount of cataloguing, while retiring members of Amber Films worked on the cataloguing and arrangement of the Amber Films and Workshop Films in the Collection and wrote a legacy plan. A Respond & Reimagine grant from the Art Fund supported the continuing work on researching and digitising the Collection. Six films were digitised and shown as part of the Offside Cinema Workshop season.
Increased use of digital technology
The CIC significantly increased its use of digital technology during the year, supported in part by a grant to the Trust from the Newcastle Culture Investment Fund. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) was established to give the team remote access to the digital collection. They bought and underwent training in how to use livestreaming equipment and began to use otter.ai, a service that provides real-time speech to text transcription, making films and events accessible to hearing-impaired viewers and participants, and others. They also learned how to become more effective at using social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) to spread the word about the Collection and about the CIC’s activities.
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TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
For the year ended 31 March 2021
AMBERSIDE TRUST
Visitors online
Viewers deprived of access to Side Gallery and Cinema were able to log on to www.amber-online.com/sidegallery/ to see new online exhibitions from the Collection, images from previous exhibitions, short films, and selections from the Trust’s Visual Culture collection, arranged by theme (such as art and illustration and the built environment). They could also search the Collection by type of work (photography or film and video), by artist or organisation, by theme, location and date. There were film screenings and linked discussions and online talks involving photographers and curators. Publications, too, were made available online.
Photographer Liz Hingley ran a seven-week programme called Our Nature Now , in which 11 photographers, each from a different country, responded to a piece of work in the AmberSide Collection or one exhibited at Side Gallery. This programme included three workshops of Masters students and a public talk by Zoom, as well as dialogue via Twitter and Instagram. This is just one illustration of how digital technology was used, during the pandemic, to raise the profile of the Collection to involve more people in using it.
The final project of the year was an open invitation, in March 2021, to anyone to send in a single image that captured, for them, the North East of England during lockdown. The results were posted on the website
Working with schools
For the past five years, Amber Education has been using the Collection as the basis of intergenerational projects involving children, young people and adults from the same community. Adults connected with photographs in the Collection can provide the young people with a unique insight into the history and culture of the place where they go to school, or live. By working regularly with the same communities, the team has been able to establish a level of trust that produces better outcomes for everyone involved.
Unable to visit schools for most of 2020-21, Amber Education turned its attention to developing a digital offer, which it went on to pilot with Carville Primary School in Wallsend. It involved teaching practical photography skills and the use of DSLR cameras, before leading a visit to the former Swan Hunter shipyard near the school, where the pupils would decide what to photograph and how, using their newly acquired skills. This programme was designed to be accredited Arts Award (Discover). This approach, created in response to a crisis, looks likely to become a regular offer, in addition to the resumption of face-to-face activity. It should mean the Collection becomes more widely known to, and used by, schools.
During 2020/21, AmberSide Trust received £10,000 from the Community Foundation to support the CIC’s continuing work in Byker. Most of this work will take place in 2021/22 but, using the model described above, the education team began to prepare the resources for a project for schools and residents using Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen’s photographs of Byker.
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AMBERSIDE TRUST
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT For the year ended 31 March 2021
3. Financial Review
In 2020-21, AmberSide Trust had two types of income: grants (97.4% of total income) and donations (2.6%). The total income for the year was £43,100 (2020: £43,372), a decrease of 0.6% on the previous year. The Statement of Financial Activities for the year ending 31 March 2021 shows a net increase in total funds of £16,314 (2020: £5,492), of which £16,000 was in restricted funds due to a grant being received from the Newcastle Culture Investment Fund during the year not being spent until after the year end.
The Balance Sheet at 31 March 2021 shows total funds carried forward of £23,710 (2020: £7,396) of which £16,000 were restricted funds (2020: £0) and £4584 were funds designated for commissioning work (2020: £4584. As noted above, the £16,000 restricted fund relates to a grant from the Newcastle Culture Investment Fund. The designated funds were raised and earned in 2019-20, but remained unspent in 2020-21. No additional funds have been designated for commissioning, so the figure remains the same.
Government measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19, from March 2020, meant the closure of Side Gallery to visitors for most of the year and a consequent reduction in donations, to the Trust, from visitors to the galler1. AmberSide Trust’s Trustees are optimistic that the organisation’s cash reserves are sufficient to cover its modest running costs in 2021-22.
Reserves policy
AmberSide Trust did not have a formally adopted reserves policy during 2020-21. This is because, having no employees or office overheads, its regular outgoings are few (under £1,000) and there have been sufficient unrestricted funds (from donations) to cover them. As at 31 March 2021, AmberSide Trust had general unrestricted funds of £3,126. Going forward, it is, however, the Trustees’ intention to adopt a reserves policy using the guidance provided by the Charity Commission.
Preparation of the accounts on a going concern basis
The financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis. The Trustees have reviewed and considered relevant information, including the likely outgoings, the pending and planned applications for funding, and the return of visitors to Side Gallery following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, and they have concluded that they can continue to adopt the going concern basis for preparing the annual report and accounts.
4. Structure, Governance and Management
AmberSide Trust is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), as defined by the Companies Act 2006 and was registered with the Charity Commission in March 2015.
AmberSide Trust is governed by a Board of Trustees. Nine Trustees served during 2020-21. Amber Associates (the founders of what is now Amber Film & Photography Collective CIC) and the Community Interest Company have the right to nominate two Trustees each. The CIC runs Side Gallery and Cinema, Amber Films, Amber Education, and the Archive (where the AmberSide Collection is stored) from premises leased to it by Amber Associates.
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TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT For the year ended 31 March 2021
AMBERSIDE TRUST
The Board of Trustees meets at least quarterly, and more often when needed. It has no permanent subcommittees but forms task-specific groups as required. The Trust has no employees. Individual Trustees lead and support the Trust’s activities in line with their skills, interests and capacity, e.g. reviewing policies, building and maintaining relationships with donors and funding bodies, and working with Amber Film & Photography Collective CIC to ensure the conservation, sharing and development of the AmberSide Collection.
Trustees receive no remuneration for their trusteeship but may claim expenses they incur in attending Board meetings. Trustees may receive remuneration for roles performed outside of their trusteeship. In 2020-21, no expense claims were made. One Trustee was paid £1,000 from the CIC for providing curatorial advice and another Trustee, a Director of the CIC, was paid £1,100 in production fees.
In 2020-21, three Trustees, including the Chair and Company Secretary/Treasurer, expressed their intention to retire. The Board identified the skills and experience needed by new Trustees before advertising the opportunity and five new trustees were appointed in the spring of 2021.
Risk
The Trustees are mindful of the risks there may be in pursuing their aims. They have examined the principal areas of the Trust’s operation and considered the main risks associated with each area. Procedures are in place to mitigate these risks, including a regular review of risks and procedures at Board meetings. The Collection is stored in an environmentally controlled archive run by Amber Film & Photography Collective CIC’s Collections Manager, Laura Laffler. The Collection is managed under the terms of a Collections Agreement. The Trust has no financial investments.
5. Reference and administrative details of the charity, its trustees and advisors
| Charity Name | AmberSide Trust |
|---|---|
| Registered Charity Number | 1160760 |
| Registered Company Number | CE003639 |
| Operational address | Side Gallery, |
| 5-9 Side, | |
| Newcastle-Upon-Tyne | |
| NE1 3JE | |
| Trustees | Graeme Rigby (Chair) |
| Doug Scott (Treasurer and Company Secretary) | |
| Sirkka-Liisa Roberts (appointed by Amber | |
| Associates and Amber Film & Photography | |
| Collective) | |
| John Michael Chaplin |
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AMBERSIDE TRUST
TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT
For the year ended 31 March 2021
Judy Cowgill Mick Henry Liz Hingley Jennifer Hinves Helen James (resigned 13[th] July 2020) Independent Jim Dodds Examiner Connected Voice Business Services Limited Higham House Higham Place Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8AF Bankers Co-operative Bank Approved by the Trustees on 28/02/22 and signed on their behalf by: NAME: Julie Harrison
POSITION: Chair of AmberSide Trust SIGNATURE ……………………………………………………………
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AMBERSIDE TRUST
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES
For the year ended 31 March 2021
I report on the financial statements of Amberside Trust for the year ended 31 March 2021, which are set out on pages 8 -13.
Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner
The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is needed.
Having satisfied myself that the charity is not subject to audit under company law and is eligible for independent examination, it is my responsibility to:
-
examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act,
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to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act), and
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to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
Basis of independent examiner's statement
My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
Independent examiner's statement
In connection with my examination, no material matters have come to my attention which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
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the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
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the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than if the requirements that the accounts give a "true and fair" view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I 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.
Jim Dodds Connected Voice Business Services Ltd Higham House Higham Place Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8AF Date: 28/02/2022
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Charity Number 1160760
AMBERSIDE TRUST
STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS
For the year ended 31 March 2021
| 6 7 Other trading activities 8 Payments: 8 Net of receipts/(payments) Surplus/(deficit) for the year Charitable activities Total payments Total receipts Donations, gift aid and legacy Receipts: Charitable activities Notes Closing cash at bank and in hand Reconciliation: Opening cash at bank and in hand |
Unrestricted Funds £ 1,100 - - 1,100 216 216 884 |
Restricted Funds £ - 42,000 - 42,000 26,000 26,000 16,000 |
Total 2021 £ 1,100 42,000 - 43,100 26,216 26,216 16,884 7,396 16,884 24,280 |
Total 2020 £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,672 37,000 2,700 |
||||
| 43,372 | ||||
| 37,880 | ||||
| 37,880 | ||||
| 5,492 | ||||
| 1,904 5,492 |
||||
| 7,396 |
The notes on pages 10 - 13 form an integral part of these accounts.
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Charity Number 1160760
AMBERSIDE TRUST
STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES
As at 31 March 2021
| Assets: Cash at bank 10 Liabilities: Accountancy fees 11 Notes |
Total 2021 £ 24,280 ( 570 ) |
Total 2020 £ |
|---|---|---|
| 7,396 | ||
| - |
| These financial statements were approved by the Board on: | These financial statements were approved by the Board on: | 28/02/2022 |
|---|---|---|
| and are signed on its behalf by: | Julie Harrison | |
| Chair |
The notes on pages 10 - 13 form an integral part of these accounts.
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AMBERSIDE TRUST
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
For the year ended 31 March 2021
1 Accounting Policies
The principle accounting policies adopted, judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows:
2 Basis of accounting
2.1 Basis of preparation
The accounts have been prepared using the receipts and payments basis. An audit is not required by the Charity's constitution and has not been requested by the Trustees.
3 Guarantee
There have been no guarantees given by the charity at 31 March 2021.
4 Debt
There is no debt outstanding which is owed by the charity and which is secured by an excess charge on any of the assets of the charity at 31 March 2021
5 Governing document
The organisation is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation – Foundation Registered on 05 March 2015 as a body corporate under part 11 of the Charities Act 2011.
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AMBERSIDE TRUST
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
For the year ended 31 March 2021
Analysis of income
| Unrestricted Funds £ 6 Donations, gift aid and legacy 1,100 1,100 7 Charitable activities Grant income - - - 8 Other trading activities - - - Analysis of expenditure on charitable activities Unrestricted Funds £ 8 Charitable activities Direct costs - Support costs - 216 216 9 Other accountancy services paid to the examiner Independent examiner's fees for reporting on the accounts Fees for examination of the accounts Museums Association Membership Just Giving Fees Community Foundation Donations Transfers to Amber Film & Photography Collective Newcastle Culture Investment Fund Poster sales Collection hire |
Restricted Funds £ - - 10,000 32,000 42,000 - - - Restricted Funds £ 26,000 - - 26,000 |
Total 2021 £ 1,100 1,100 10,000 32,000 42,000 - - - Total 2021 £ 26,000 - 216 26,216 2021 £ 468 102 570 |
Total 2020 £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3,672 | |||
| 3,672 | |||
| 5,000 32,000 |
|||
| 37,000 | |||
| 1,500 1,200 |
|||
| 2,700 | |||
| Total 2020 £ |
|||
| 37,500 200 180 |
|||
| 37,880 | |||
| 2020 £ |
|||
| - - |
|||
| - |
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AMBERSIDE TRUST
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
For the year ended 31 March 2021
10 Cash at bank and in hand
| Cash at bank 11 Liabilities Independent examiners fee Other accountancy fees |
2021 £ 24,280 24,280 2021 £ 468 102 570 |
2020 £ |
|---|---|---|
| 7,396 | ||
| 7,396 | ||
| 2020 £ |
||
| - - |
||
| - |
12 Events after the end of the reporting period
No events (not requiring adjustment to the accounts) have occurred after the end of the reporting period but before the accounts are authorised which relate to conditions that arose after the end of the reporting period.
13 Analysis of charitable funds
Analysis of movements in unrestricted funds
| Unrestricted funds General unrestricted fund Designated fund Totals |
Fund balances brought forward £ 2,812 4,584 7,396 |
Incoming resources £ 1,100 - 1,100 |
Resources expended £ ( 786 ) - (786) |
Transfers £ - - - |
Fund balances carried forward £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,126 4,584 |
|||||
| 7,710 |
Purpose of unrestricted funds
General unrestricted fund Designated fund
The free reserves of the charity. For commissioning new photography work.
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AMBERSIDE TRUST
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
For the year ended 31 March 2021
Analysis of movement in restricted funds
| Restricted funds Community Foundation Newcastle Culture Investment Fund Totals |
Fund balances brought forward £ - - - |
Incoming resources £ 10,000 32,000 42,000 |
Resources expended £ ( 10,000 ) ( 16,000 ) (26,000) |
Transfers £ - - - |
Fund balances carried forward £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - 16,000 |
|||||
| 16,000 |
Purpose of restricted funds
Restricted funds represent income resources used for a specific purpose within the charity as identified by the donor.
Community Foundation
Newcastle Culture Investment Fund
To expand a 50 year engagement with Byker by working with the community to explore, create and exhibit both new and archival work.
To fund the Outreach and Public programme.
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