Registered Charity Number: 1161120 

## CONWY ARTS TRUST 

## ANNUAL REPORT 

## And 

## FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 

## For the Year Ended 31 March 2021 

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## CONWY ARTS TRUST 

## ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021 

|Contents|Page|
|---|---|
|Trustees’annual report|3 - 10|
|Independent Examiners Report|11|
|Statement of Financial Activity|12|
|Balance Sheet|13|
|Notes forming part of the financial statements|14 - 17|



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## CONWY ARTS TRUST 

## **ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS** 

## **FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021** 

The Trustees are pleased to present their report together with the financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2021. 

The financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011 and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities. 

## **OBJECTIVES and ACTIVITIES** 

The objects of the Trust are to promote, maintain, improve and advance the education and appreciation of the public in the art of drama and the other arts within the County Borough of Conwy by encouraging and fostering cultural activities such as the study, performance, understanding and appreciation of drama productions, music, literature, the visual arts and educational workshops. 

The Charity has had regard to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit. 

2020-21 was a unique and difficult year, with arts organisations and freelance industry professionals struggling to cope with the impact of the Covid pandemic.  The Conwy Arts Trust is extremely grateful to the many people who have donated money to us during this difficult year. 

Despite the national lockdown and ongoing restrictions, the Trust was able to continue a number of projects with adjustments and run some new projects aimed at engaging people in the arts without them having to enter buildings. 

Our Key areas of work in this financial year were: 

- Creu / Create 

- Take pART re-imagined 

- Abergele Art Trail 

## **ACHIEVEMENTS and PERFORMANCE** 

## **Review of the Year** 

The following projects have been delivered by the Trust in the period covered by the financial statements. 

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## **CREU/CREATE** 

After the christmas period we kept to our normal session times, but have operated online. We have provided a range of activities and games to engage and inspire the young people such as: crochet, knitting, the Create Minecraft Realm, Jackbox games, sketching, and designing Pudsey bear! 

Throughout this time the young people have been able to share their anxieties about the virus and the difficulties that socially distancing and lockdown has caused. Many of them have been worried about their own health or the health of close family members who are most at risk. We have been able to support them with these natural concerns. Due to lockdown and social distancing, many of our young people experience extreme isolation and loneliness. Being able to come to a face to face session and then continue attending online during this time has helped them to maintain some social contact with the leaders and their peers. The young people have also been able to discuss feelings of low self-worth, low selfesteem, self harm, negative thinking etc. using the sessions to express themselves and develop coping techniques that work in the current situation. We were able to listen to the young people that find Christmas difficult and use creative activities to help them find ways to cope. Our young people have experienced a lot of pressure from online school, managing large workloads remotely and the unknown of final year grades that could impact them moving forward. Again we were able to listen to them and help them incorporate downtime and necessary support. This was also true for returning to school. We were able to talk through any concerns and help the young people develop skills to manage their experiences, as well as developing self care and self soothing techniques. Sleep difficulties have also been prominent so we have discussed good sleep hygiene routines that work in these current lockdown times. 

Generally, the young who have felt able to attend have benefited most from open discussion and just hanging out in the same online space, feeling less alone. 

The funding has allowed us to purchase creative packs for the young people for art, electronics and music activities and further support their own creative endeavours. 

We have also been able to purchase some easily sanitizable meditative drums for the young people to play during sessions when we meet up in the future or borrow to play at home. 

We have also purchased some microphones to allow better quality transmission of our voices through virtual meetings as well as to enable us to explore recording singing sessions when we are able to meet physically. 

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## **Take pART ‘12** 

Working with our partners at Venue Cymru, we realised in 2020 that the twelfth iteration of take pART would not be able to happen indoors so we worked with the Venue Cymru team to re-imagine and re-invent this festival of creative arts aimed at young people and their families.  The result was a longer festival, starting in January and continuing into 2021/22 that incorporated both online work and installations around Llandudno. 

Live streaming events included dance classes, story telling, art installations.  We also posted a number of events to the Venue Cymru You Tube site that will remain available to access (Venue Cymru - YouTube ) 

In total, 23 events ran online and, to date, we have reached 27,900 people (2,633 views) 


In order to help support freelance artists we commissioned a number of installations aimed at providing interest and engagement for families living in or visiting Llandudno.  A national call-out was posted and work that was subsequently commissioned included live streamed dance classes, story telling, an online Aquarium with fish created by children, families and older people. Art worked was exhibited on the Morris Columns and the promenade shelter opposite Venue Cymru was decorated by the local artist Andy aka Dime One with graffiti of a Goat, Seals, Octopus and Crab.  A recycled art work by Mike badger was commissioned for an empty shop window on Gloddaeth Street Llandudno.  Oriel Colwyn ran 

a wonderful photography trail around the shop windows in Llandudno featuring work submitted by young people.  We also commissioned a number of take pART favourites to run classes oline, including Zoe Ellen Make up specialist, Pearl Shaws Dance spectacular, Martin Daws and YC group Dweud O!, Family Dance, Drama with Jade, and our ever-popular pantomime Dame Nigel Ellacott. 


Oriel Colwyn ran a competition for young people to submit photographs on the subject of ‘Your Environment’. 21 people submitted images, which were then made onto vinyl images that were then displayed on shop windows in Llandudno. The shop window photography created a trail around the town and enabled the young people’s photography to be view outside in a covid safe environment whilst giving them a huge sense of pride in being publicly exhibited. 

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## **ORIEL COLWYN** 

Funding from CAT helped two Oriel Colwyn projects during the lockdown period, the Abergele Art Trail and “Open Windows” a project funded to take place in 2021/22. These projects were able to take place outside in these difficult times and contributed to arts and culture helping with public mental wellbeing. 

Abergele Arts Trail - In November 2020, moving from their usual Australian jungle setting due to the pandemic, ITV filmed the ‘I’m a Celebrity’ TV series at Abergele’s Gwrych Castle. 

The move to the castle and grounds in Abergele showcased North Wales to a wide mainstream TV and press audience. To celebrate the town‘s enthusiasm, Oriel Colwyn’s curator Paul Sampson put together an arts trail which included ghost lady wire sculptures both in and on buildings, projections into empty shop windows, giant bugs climbing on sides of buildings and vinyl art covering disused retail units. 

Conwy Arts Trust funded £1,000 towards the arts trail, which in turn enabled the commissioning and production of the 8 ghost lady wire sculptures, an integral part of the whole trail. 



“Open Windows” – A grant of £400 was given to Oriel Colwyn to run an open call-out for artists to provide work to be projected onto the front windows of Theatr Colwyn.  The project will take place in May 2021 

## **FUND RAISING ACTIVITIES** 

## **Box Office Donations** 

In order to support the charity, Venue Cymru / Theatr Colwyn have included a donate option for all customer booking tickets online.  Clearly in 2020/21 there was very little box office activity but nonetheless those booking tickets still donated a total of £13,185 Customers who were cancelling tickets, or had tickets cancelled, because of the pandemic were given the opportunity to donate the value of their tickets to the Trust.  The Venue Cymru patrons were extremely generous, donationg £9,106 

The money raised through the Box Office donations is split 50/50 between a restricted fund for the theatres & gallery and unrestricted funds. 

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## **Keep A Seat Warm Campaign** 

Following the first shut down in March 2020, Theatr Colwyn remained closed until Late August of 2020.  The Board agreed to run a fundraising campaign to support the theatre during this difficult time.  Customers were asked to donate in return for their picture being displayed on one of the theatre seats whilst the building was closed. 111 customers contributed, raising £1,540.00 to be used for the benefit of Theatr Colwyn. 


## **Acknowledgements** 

The Conwy Arts Trust would like to thank its volunteer Board Members for their ongoing support. In 2020/21 the following people served as Board Members for the Conwy Arts Trust: Dilwyn Price, Cllr Donald Milne, Gail Silver, Michael Tree, Paula Shalloo, Kristen Gallagher, Cllr James Lusted, Sarah Ecob and Joann Rae. 

Thanks are due to our Patron Rhys Meirion for his support of the charity. 

We would like to extend our thanks to Conwy County Borough Council and Venue Cymru for administrative, financial and project support throughout the year and to Arts and Business Cymru for their support through the Board Bank. 

Thanks are also due to our external auditor, Sandra Forrest. 

Finally, huge thanks to everyone who has supported us with financial donations, worked with us on our projects or been one of our many wonderful participants. 

## **Future Developments** 

There are a number of smaller projects that the Board have agreed to support and they welcome contact with organisations that may want to work collaboratively to promote the 

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Arts in the area.  The Board will be looking at other projects to support in the future the success of which will be dependent on sourcing funding. 

- Application forms can be downloaded here https://www.conwyartstrust.org/news/small grants-fund and it is strongly recommended that interested parties discuss their application before submitting by calling Sian on 01492 575572 or e-mailing  art@conwy.gov.uk 

## **FINANCIAL REVIEW** 

In the period under review the income the Charity received was £47k.  The majority of the expenditure was for the CREU/CREATE project which is a restricted fund and is fully funded by the Arts Council of Wales, and Take pART, another restricted fund.  The fund brought forward to this year was £41k.  Expenditure in the year on specific projects amounted to £42k. 

## **RESERVES and INVESTMENT POLICY** 

The restricted funds brought forward amounted to £32k which will be released in accordance with the forward work plan and the projects that are still ongoing.  The nonrestricted funds amounted to £14k and as the Charity does not have any fixed assets; accordingly these funds may be regarded as being readily available to meet short to medium term costs and fund future projects.  The fund balances at year end were managed by Conwy County Borough Council and as the funds need to be readily available to cover expenditure plans no interest was earned on balances.  Going forward the Trust may decide to invest balances in an interest bearing account. 

It is the intention of the Trustees to increase the level of unrestricted funds for more general purposes to enable the Charity to respond to applications for projects and provide match funding for other projects the Board may support. 

## **STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE and MANAGEMENT** 

## **GOVERNING DOCUMENT** 

The constitution of the Trust was adopted on 13[th] November 2013.  This is the annual report and covers the period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, a period of 12 months. 

## **TRUSTEES** 

The Trustees have been appointed in accordance with the constitution of the Conwy Arts Trust.  The Trust has been set up for Charitable purposes and no subscriptions are payable to the Trust.  Upon becoming a Member of the Trust a person also becomes a Member of 

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the Board of Management.  Trustees shall remain in post for a period of 5 years but shall be eligible for reappointment.  The member organisation shall have the right to appoint a new representative, informing the Secretary in writing. 

## **REFERENCE and ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS** 

## **Secretary to the Trust** 

Joann Rae 

## **E-mail address** 

conwyartstrust@gmail.com 

## **Correspondence Address** 

Conwy Arts Trust 

c/o Venue Cymru 

The Promenade 

Llandudno 

LL30 1BB 

## **Independent examiner** – Sandra Forrest CPFA 

84 Trinity Avenue 

Llandudno 

LL30 2UQ 

## **Bankers** 

Barclays 84 Mostyn Street 

Llandudno 

LL30 2SH 

The Trustees and Members of the board of Management serving during the year together with any changes are as follows:- 

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|Dilwyn Price|Cllr James Lusted|Gail Silver|
|---|---|---|
|Sarah Ecob|Cllr Donald Milne|Michael Tree|
|Paula Shalloo|Kirsten Gallagher|Joann Rae|



## **Risk Review** 

The Trustees have examined the strategic and operational risks which the Charity faces and confirm that the systems in place are sufficient to safeguard the Charity’s funds. 

## **Responsibilities of the Board of Management in Relation to the Financial Statements** 

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees ’Report and Financial Statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). 

The requirement is to prepare Financial Statements for each financial year which give a view of the state of affairs of the Charitable Trust and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure of the Trust for the financial period.  In preparing these financial statements, the Trustees are required to: 

- Select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently; 

- Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP; 

- State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed in the financial statements; 

- Prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis. 

The Trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy the financial position of the Charitable Trust.  They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charitable Trust and hence take reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. 

Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf by:- 

Dilwyn Price – Trustee Joann Rae – Trustee 


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INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF 

CONWY ARTS TRUST 

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021 

I report on the accounts of the Trust for the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. 

## **Basis of Independent Examiner’s Report** 

My examination was given in accordance with the 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 you as trustees concerning such matters. 

## **Independent Examiner’s Statement** 

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention: 

1. Which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records comply with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities have not been met: or 

2. To which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. 


Sandra Forrest CPFA 84 Trinity Avenue Llandudno LL30 2UQ 

Date:   15 October 2021 

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## CONWY ARTS TRUST 

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES – INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021 

||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Unrestricted**<br>**Funds**|**Restricted**<br>**Funds**|**Endow-**<br>**ment**<br>**Funds**|**Total Funds**|**Prior**<br>**Period**<br>**Total**<br>**Funds**|**Note**<br>**Ref**|
||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**||
|**Income and**<br>**Endowments from:**|||||||
|Donations and Legacies|8,422|31,204|0|39,626|78,192|**2**|
|Charitable Activities|0|0|0|0|0||
|Other Trading Activities|0|7,765|0|7,765|7,474|**3**|
|**Total**|**8,422**|**38,969**|**0**|**47,391**|**85,666**||
|**Expenditure on:**|||||||
|Raising Funds|0|0|0|0|0||
|Charitable Activities|4,488|37,425|0|41,913|67,727|**4**|
|**Total**|**4,487**|**37,425**|**0**|**41,912**|**67,727**||
||||||||
|**Net Income/**<br>**(Expenditure)**|**3,934**|**1,544**|**0**|**5,478**|**17,939**||
|**Transfers between**<br>**funds**|**(300)**|**300**||**0**|**0**||
|**Net Movement in Funds**|**3,634**|**1,844**|**0**|**5,478**|**17,939**||
||||||||
|**Reconciliation of Funds:**|||||||
|Total Funds brought<br>forward|10,881|30,536|0|41,417|23,478||
|**Total Funds carried**<br>**forward**|**14,515**|**32,380**|**0**|**46,895**|**41,417**||



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## CONWY ARTS TRUST 

## BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 MARCH 2021 

|||||
|---|---|---|---|
|**Note**<br>**Ref.**||**Total Funds**|**Prior Year**<br>**Funds**|
||**Current Assets**|**£**|**£**|
|**5**|Debtors|14,082|2,669|
||Cash at Bank and in Hand|36,367|43,261|
||Total Current Assets|50,449|45,930|
||**Liabilities:**|||
|**6**|Creditors: Amounts falling due<br>within one year|3,554|4,513|
||Net Assets or (Liabilities)|46,895|41,417|
||Total Assets less Current Liabilities|46,895|41,417|
|||||
||**Total Net Assets or Liabilities**|**46,895**|**41,417**|
|**7**|**The Fund of the Charity:**|||
||Restricted Income Funds|32,380|30,536|
||Unrestricted Funds|14,515|10,881|
|||||
||**Total Charity Funds**|**46,895**|**41,417**|



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## **1. Accounting Policies** 

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (2015).  The principal accounting policies adopted in the preparation of the financial statements are as follows:- 

## **Incoming Resources** 

Incoming resources includes the amounts given by individuals and businesses and other organizations during the year. Income is recognised when it is received by the Trust. 

## **Resources Expended** 

Expenditure is included on an accruals basis and includes the costs of irrecoverable VAT. 

Grants are charged in the year when the grant is paid to the recipients. 

## **Fund Accounting** 

Funds held by the Charity are either: 

_Unrestricted general funds_ – these are funds which can be used in accordance with the charitable objects at the discretion of the Board of Trustees. 

_Restricted funds_ – these are funds that can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the Charity.  Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes. 

## **2. Donations and Legacies** 

|**Donations and Legacies**||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Total 2021**||**Total 2020**|
||£|£|£||£|
|Children in Need|0|20,328|20,328||32,648.00|
|STFC|0|8,982|8,982||2,994.00|
|Baring Foundation|0|500|500||0|
|Winter Lights|0|0|0||31,500.00|
|Other Donations|8,422|1,394|9,816||11,050.17|
||**8,422**|**31,204**|**39,626**||**78,192.17**|



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## **3. Other Trading Activities** 

|**Other Trading Activities**||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Total**<br>**2021**||**Total 2020**|
||£|£|£||£|
|Creu|0|7,765|7,765||7,474|
||**0**|**7,765**|**7,765**||**7,474**|



## **4. Cost of Charitable Activities - Restricted Funds** 

||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Activity**|**Activities**<br>**Undertaken**<br>**Directly**|**Grant Funding**<br>**of Activities**|**In Kind**<br>**Costs**|**Total**|
||**£**||||
|take pART|0|8,400|0|8,400|
|CREU/CREATE project<br>from restricted funds|0|17,960|7,765|25,725|
||**0**|**26,360**|**7,765**|**34,125**|



## **5. Debtor** 

Amounts falling due within one year: - 

||||
|---|---|---|
||**2021**|**2020**|
||£|£|
|Other Debtors|14,081|2,669|
||||
|**Total**|**14,081**|**2,669**|



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## **6. Creditors** 

Amounts falling due within one year: - 

||||
|---|---|---|
||**2021**|**2020**|
||£|£|
|Other Creditors|3,554|4,513|
||||
|**Total**|**3,554**|**4,513**|



## **7. Statement of Funds** 

||**01/04/2020**|**Income**|**Expenditure**|**Transfer**<br>**between**<br>**funds**|**31/03/2021**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||£|£|£|£|£|
|**Unrestricted**<br>**Funds**||||||
|General Fund|10,881|8,422|-4,487|-300|14,515|
|||||||
|**Restricted Funds**||||||
|Theatr Colwyn<br>Project|2,057|1,540|0|0|3,597|
|Creu|7,933|20,828|-25,725|0|3,036|
|Textile Project|262|0|0|0|262|
|Space Explorer|1,588|8,982|0|0|10,570|
|Small Arts Grant|1,000||-1,300|300|0|
|VC/TC Restricted|3,643|7,312|-2,000|0|8,956|
|Ty Cerdd|1,725|0|0|0|1,725|
|Take pART|12,328|306|-8,400|0|4,234|
|||||||
|**Totals**|**41,417**|**47,390**|**41,912**|**0**|**46,895**|



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Restricted fund balances will be utilised to support the projects in the areas indicated in 2020/21 for subsequent years. 

## **8. Capital Commitments and Contingent Liabilities** 

There were no capital commitments at the balance sheet date nor any contingent liabilities. 

## **9. Contingent Assets** 

There were no contingent assets at the balance sheet date. 

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