2023-12-31-accounts

Newbiggin Arts Centre (A Charitable Incorporated Organisation)

Annual Report

Report and Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 December 2023

Charity Number 1163002

Newbiggin Arts Centre

(A Charitable Incorporated Organisation)

Financial Statements For the Year Ended 31 January 2023

Contents

Legal and Administrative Information Annual Report of the Management Committee 2023 Financial Report and Accounts

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Newbiggin Arts Centre

Report of the Trustees

for the year ended 31 December 2023

The Trustees presents its annual report and audited financial statements for the year ended 31 January 2023.

Reference and Administrative Information

Charity Name: Newbiggin Arts Centre

Charity registration number: 1163002

Registered Office and operational address :

74B Front Street Newbiggin-by-the-Sea Northumberland NE64 6QD

Trustees

Mr S R Wilkinson Chair & Treasurer Ms S Andrew Deputy Chair

Mrs S Case

Ms V Hearn Ms B Savage

Bankers - Lloyds Bank, 3 Station Road, Ashington, Northumberland, NE63 9UZ

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Structure Governance and Management

Governing Document

The organisation is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registered as a charity on 5[th] August 2015. The charity was established with a constitution whose only voting members are its charity trustees. In the event of the charity being wound up the trustees have no liability to settle its debts and liabilities

Recruitment and Appointment of the Trustees

Under the requirements of the Constitution, at each Annual General Meeting one third of the Trustees, by rotation, shall be offered for re-election. A charity trustee who has served for three consecutive terms may not be reappointed for a fourth consecutive term but may be reappointed after an interval of at least three years.

There shall be a minimum of three and no defined maximum; but we aim to have less than eight Trustees.

Any person retiring as a Trustee is eligible for reappointment.

All Trustees give their time voluntarily and received no benefits from the charity.

Organisational Structure

Newbiggin Arts Centre has up to eight Charity Trustees who are responsible for ensuring all legal requirements of the charity are met. They are supported by a group of approx. twenty volunteers.

Responsibilities of the Trustees

The Trustees prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of the affairs of the charitable company as at the balance sheet date and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including income and expenditure, for the financial year. In preparing those financial statements, the Trustees should follow best practice and:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is not appropriate to assume that the charity will continue on that basis.

The Trustees are responsible for maintaining proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the CIO and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 1985. The Trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the CIO and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Members of the Trustees

Members of the Trustees, who served during the year and up to the date of this report are set out on page 3. As the CIO’s Trustees, we certify that:

• so far as we are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the charity’s auditors are unaware; and

• we have taken all the steps that we ought to have taken in order to make ourselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the charity’s auditors are aware of that information.

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Our Aims and Objectives

Purposes and Aims

Our charity's purposes as set out in the objects contained in the CIO’s constitution: Our objective is to advance education in Arts and Crafts for the local community; in particular, but not exclusively, by providing tuition and art/craft facilities.

Ensuring our work delivers our aims

Each year we review our objects and activities to ensure that what we are doing meets the objects of the charity. In reviewing the year, it helps us focus on what we need to do in the coming year in order to further our aims.

Who are we?

Newbiggin Arts Centre (NAC) are a local community-based charity operating out of two facilities in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland. We are a charity committed to providing a safe, accessible, inclusive (and fun!) environment for the community and visitors alike where they can benefit from, and enjoy art, in all its forms. We strive to create a thriving, vibrant, ‘buzzing’ environment. A place where artists and visitors want to come, not just to paint or buy paintings, but to learn, share, and socialise.

What do we do?

We offer various classes, clubs, and workshops, suitable for every level of skill in painting, drawing and other fine and applied arts. We have watercolour classes for children, various classes for the beginner (and the more advanced wanting a refresher course), workshops for the more experienced who want to expand their skills, and mixed sessions for those who just want to get together to be creative and socialise.

NAC is also proud to be able to provide a venue for displaying (and selling) local and visiting artists’ paintings. We change the displays regularly, so we can keep things fresh and interesting for visitors and artists coming to the Centre.

For anyone needing art supplies, we also have a shop where people can drop by and pick up what they need. We stock a wide range of the materials and equipment as used at the Centres for classes and clubs.

We also put on special events and displays through the year which are promoted through social media, press releases, and printed material.

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How do we do it?

We have a dedicated and committed Board of Trustees and volunteer committee who manage NAC. The committee members organise the workshops, exhibitions, and presentations. They also manage the financial affairs, which includes applying for funding and gaining sponsorships.

As we aim to create an environment that welcomes people, where people can learn and develop and make new friends, it is important that we share common values and beliefs. For us, this means treating everyone with respect , being open and honest in how we operate, and importantly, being flexible and innovative in how we strive to meet the community’s need. These values and beliefs form the basis of how we operate and how we make decisions, both financially and otherwise.

How did we do?

The year of 2023 was one of building our infrastructure by:

• making improvements to our physical environments

• offering more options for classes and workshops

• developing people strategies, policies, and processes

• building our brand and developing new partnerships and networks, and

• improving and diversifying our gallery exhibitions

We made significant improvements to our studios

From February through to July, we completed the refurbishment of our Gibson Street Centre. This included building a new storage area and kitchen, replacing the flooring, and installing a dishwasher and new coffee machine. We also installed new metal security shutters and bollards outside the shop windows.

We also created a fully equipped electronic classroom equipped with 16 laptops generously donated by Novatech.

We installed a new picture hanging system in our Front Street studio that provides a professional and enticing display of art for our visitors.

We expanded on our choice of classes and workshops

We introduced a new digital art class in April. It was well-attended and was made possible by a 2022 grant from Northumberland Community Hub Investment Fund, which bought us 16 iPads in lieu of the laptops donated by Novatech.

In June, our resident artist, Ted Taylor. introduced a new figure-drawing class. Due to its success, this class is now a core offer with high attendance ratings.

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In response to our members’ input, and our aim of being a flexible and innovative organisation, we made some changes to how we provide our classes and clubs. For example, we added a dedicated watercolour class, and opened up our fixed media classes and clubs to allow people to paint what they want and how they want to do it.

We held our first public fund-raising painting event, a ‘Paint and Sip’ evening, which was led by a Trustee. It served as an introduction to art for several of the attendees, with all participants ending the evening with a finished painting. It was deemed a huge success by all with the request that more such events be held in the future.

The Children’s Art Group plays a staple and key role in helping us meet the community’s needs. Not only do the children learn new skills, the classes help them in their personal development and to form new friendships. Several events through the year, such as the mosaic workshop and the lantern making classes and parade provided them with additional opportunities to enjoy NAC’s offer.

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In addition to our painting and drawing classes and clubs, we introduced a jewellery class in August and a creative writing class in September.

We wouldn’t exist without our volunteers

As we continued to grow and evolve as an organisation throughout 2023, it became obvious that we needed to develop and implement a ‘People Strategy’ to ensure that we had the right people and skills to run the charity effectively and efficiently. Thereby, we created a role specifically dedicated to creating the required ‘people’ policies and recruitment and retention plans to support our business plans, both short and long term.

The People Trustee worked with the Board of Trustees to identify the key roles required to run NAC and drafted role profiles and processes covering Chair, finance, administration, people, marketing, IT and volunteers.

We also drafted several other policies and procedures (and reviewed and updated existing) to ensure a safe, healthy, and inclusive environment.

As a charity that is run solely by our volunteers, it is important that they are recognised and rewarded for their contribution. As such, our first volunteer social event took place in November. Current and prospective volunteers were invited. It served as an opportunity for the volunteers to meet each other, for potential volunteers to ask questions and join the team, and to get feedback regarding future events.

In addition to our growing team of volunteers, we are very fortunate with the generosity of our supporters. For example, one of our members painted a picture of the Newbiggin Wave which she then had printed into postcards. These are sold in the shop with all proceeds donated to NAC. We have also been the recipient of many generous donations of art books and art and craft materials, all of which are put to good use by our members.

Getting our message out there

In 2023 we were fortunate to gain a Marketing and Communications Trustee as a new member to the Board. This enabled us to develop our ‘brand’. A guide, along with tools, and a social media policy were developed to be used for all of our written communications, both within and outside our organisation.

This has made a significant impact and difference in how we are able to develop our newsletters, increase our Facebook and social media presence, and to build new

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partnerships and network with our community—all with the aim of attracting new members to our charity and providing a more diversified offer for the community.

Building our partnerships and networks with the local community

In August, we began work on ‘one-off’ and exciting new project in partnership with the Newbiggin Family History Centre (NFHC). The NFHC was working on a genealogy project that portrays the history of Newbiggin through photographs and stories. We took the opportunity to contribute to this through providing an artistic view. Using the old black and white photographs provided by the genealogy project, our classes painted or drew their renditions of their chosen photographs – some monochrome and other full colour. The output of these classes will be exhibited by NAC in 2024, with the best forming a part of joint future exhibitions with NFHC.

We continued to build our networks with the local community organisations. These included the Newbiggin Boxing Club; the Learning Hive where we agreed to create an external mural for their building; and the Northumberland CVA. In October, the Chair, Steve Wilkinson, joined the Northumberland Inclusive Economic Partnership grant panel as a representative. We also hosted meetings for the Newbiggin Traders Association and Reading for Wellbeing.

The importance of exhibitions

Providing opportunities for our participants and visiting artists to exhibit their work is an important part of what and who we are. Thereby, in 2023, we focused on improving our ability to provide exhibitions. For example, we installed a professional hanging system and developed a marketing and hanging strategy to ensure that we utilise our studios to their fullest potential.

We provided the opportunity to our members to exhibit their work produced through their attendance at classes. This served as a valuable method of recognising their achievements and providing incentive and inspiration to their fellow artists.

Overall, our exhibitions were also well-received by our visitors, with many commenting on how impressed they were with the talent in our local community.

The new system resulted in our ability to attract visiting artists which allowed us to display different styles of art to the community. It helped to promote NAC further afield and served as a financial benefit for us through commissions.

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Some of our members’ accomplishments outside of NAC

We have identified some great talent amongst our participants and while we do our best to recognise it internally, it is great to see when it is recognised by others. Ten of our members had their work exhibited at Woodhorn Museum. This was a good follow up to our resident artist, Ted, winning ‘best in show’ in 2022.

We have an exceptional ambassador for NAC with Ted Taylor, our resident artist. His accomplishments with NAC as well as outside are many. For example, he won ‘best in show’ in the 2022 Woodhorn Museum, and as further recognition of his art, in 2023 Woodhorn asked to use his painting for a poster advertising their forthcoming exhibition in early 2024. He was also one of 50 artists selected to exhibit at Dovecote in Amble.

What comes next?

Through 2023 our focus was on building our infrastructure - improving our physical environment, developing our people policies and processes, and expanding on what we can provide to the community in terms of the arts.

Going forward into 2024, we plan on doing more of what we do best: offering more classes, clubs and workshops and expanding on the arts. A major project we plan to begin work on is to develop and implement a membership scheme, with various options for payment, prepayment and facilities utilisation.

We will be applying to the National Lottery Community Fund to support the employment of a part-time Administration Officer, who, as well as taking significant workload from the Trustees, will be instrumental in supporting the volunteers.

The Community Fund grant will also facilitate us to expand our offering into other areas of fine and applied art, as well as other literary and performing arts. Likewise, we will be applying for a grant to NIECP further to support this expansion programme.

We need to invest in IT and will be looking towards an IT internee or volunteer. Likewise, we need to recruit more Trustees – in particular a Treasurer.

Financial review

Overview

At 31[st] December 2022, NAC had £10,636 to its name (of which £8,786 was restricted funds) and at 31[st] December 2023, NAC had £3,836 (of which £500 was restricted funds), a decrease in available funds of £7,300. This net negative cashflow is, in the main, due to delayed spend of 2022 grants until the 2023 financial period. The unrestricted funds over this period reduced from £3,238 to £3,135 – a reduction of only £103.

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Our income was from grants, donations, shop sales, painting commissions and session fees. Whereas our expenditure included rent (for the two premises), electricity, telephonics and Internet, tutor fees, art supplies, office supplies and miscellaneous purchases (including independent examiners’ fees).

Reserves Policy

The Trustees have examined the charity’s requirements for reserves in light of the main risks to the organisation. It has established a policy whereby the funds held by the charity should be at least three months of the expenditure, but we are aiming to have six months reserves. We recognise as a new charity this will take time to achieve.

Budgeted expenditure for 2024 is £110,188 and therefore the target for three months reserves is £27,797 * in the general funds. The target for six months reserves is £55,594. The reserves are needed to meet the day-to-day expenditure requirements of the charity and the Trustees are confident that at this level they would be able to continue the current activities of the charity in the event of a significant drop in external funding.

• At 31[st] December 2023 the funds available fall a long way short of this target. However, the major elements of expenditure in 2024 will be associated with the Phase 2 expansion of our operations which we hope to have funded under grants from the National Lottery Community Fund and NIECP. Should these grants (or similar grants) not be forthcoming, then the timings of Phase 2 development will be slowed down, reducing expenditure accordingly.

Nevertheless, even with this matched funding, we will seek further grants to help meet our obligations and further improve our reserves.

The strategy is therefore to continue to build reserves through normal revenue surpluses, to enable us to consider future plans for NAC, including an increase in session provision, and build reserves for any future expenditure that may arise.

Independent Check of the accounts

We didn’t need an independent examination of the accounts due to our income level this year. When we reach the threshold for Independent Checks the Trustees have agreed to ask The Finance Officer of Northumberland CVA, 107 & 109 Station Road, Ashington, Northumberland, NE63 8RS to independently check the accounts.

This report has been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities (issued in March 2005) and in accordance with the special provisions of Part VII of the Companies Act 1985 relating to small entities.

Approved by the Trustees on 12[th] August 2024 and signed on its behalf by

Mr Steve R Wilkinson (Chair & Treasurer)

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2023

2023	Charity Name	Charity Name	Charity Name	Charity Name	Charity Name	No (if any)	No (if any)		CC16a
	Newbiggin Arts Centre					1163002
	Receipts andpayments accounts
	For the period from		Period start date		To	Period end date
			01/01/2023			31/12/2023

Section A Receipts and payments

	Unrestricted funds		Restricted funds		Endowment funds		Total funds		Last year
	to the nearest £		to the nearest £		to the nearest £		to the nearest £		to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Grants	0		8500		0		8500		46542
Donations	1784		0		0		1784		0
ShopSales	1600		0		0		1600		0
Paintings Commission	276		0		0		276		0
Session Fees	24526		0		0		24526		0
Unspentgrants from 2022			8786		0		8786		0
	0		0		0		0		0
	0		0		0		0		0
Sub total(Gross income for AR)	28186		17286		0		45472		46542
A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	0		0		0		0
	0		0		0		0		0
Sub total	0		0		0		0		0
Total receipts	28186		17286		0		45472		46542
A3 Payments
Rent(both facilities)	9851		3000		0		12851		53818
Electricity (heat and light)	2570		0		0		2570		0
Telephonics and internet	1276		0		0		1276		0
Zettle Fees	93		0		0		93		0
Tutor Fees	16090		0		0		16090		0
Cleaners	524		0		0		524		0
Art Supplies	1848		1604		0		3452		0
Office Supplies, inc. insurance & s'ware	2370		0		0		2370		0
Misc. Purchases inc. independent examiner's fees	864		12182		0		13046		0
Sub total	35486		16786		0		52272		53818
A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
	0		0		0		0
	0		0		0		0
Sub total	0		0		0		0		0
Totalpayments	35486		16786		0		52272		53818
Net of receipts/(payments)	-7300		500		0		-6800		-7276
A5 Transfers between funds			0		0		0		0
A6 Cash funds lastyear end	10636		0		0		10636		0
Cash funds thisyear end	3336		500		0		3836		-7276

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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories	Details	Details	Details		Unrestricted funds		Restricted funds		Endowment funds
					to nearest £		to nearest £		to nearest £
B1 Cash funds	Bank Account				2,369		500		-
	Cash in hand				967				-
							-		-
	Total cash funds				3,336		500		-
	(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))				OK				OK
					Unrestricted funds		Restricted funds		Endowment funds
	Details				to nearest £		to nearest £		to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets	Art materials stock				2,500		-		-
					-		-		-
					-		-		-
					-		-		-
					-		-		-
					-		-		-
	Details				Fund to which asset belongs		Cost (optional)		Current value (optional)
B3 Investment assets							-		-
							-		-
							-		-
							-		-
							-		-
	Details				Fund to which asset belongs		Cost (optional)		Current value (optional)
B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use							-		-
							-		-
							-		-
							-		-
							-		-
	Details				Fund to which liability relates		Amount due (optional)		When due (optional)
B5 Liabilities	Sale revenue due to artists				Painting Sales		201		ASAP
	Mercy Grant for Murals				Grants		500		Spring (weather dependent)
							-
							-
							-
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees	Signature				Print Name				Date of approval
					Steve R Wilkinson				12/08/2024
					Sue Andrew				12/08/2024

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Notes to the Unaudited Financial Statements

Basis of Preparation

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention with items recognized at cost of transaction values unless otherwise stated in the relevant notes to these accounts.

The Charity constitutes a public benefit entity as defined by FRS 102. The financial statements have been prepared on the going concern basis, which assumes that the charity will continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future.

1. Accounting Policies

Income

All Incoming resources are included in the Statement of Financial Activities once the Charity has entitlement to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy.

Expenditure

All income is accounted for as soon as there is a legal constructive obligation committing the Charity to that expenditure.

Depreciation

No depreciation is charged in these accounts because any and all Capital Equipment or new fixtures or fittings will be written off in the year of purchase.

Fixtures and Equipment

No value has been included in these Financial Statements for the market value of Fixtures and Equipment that may have been written off in the Financial Statements.

Taxation

As a Charity, Newbiggin Arts Centre is exempt from tax on income and gains falling within section 505 of the Taxes Act 1988 or section 256 of the Taxable of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to the extent that these are applied to charitable objects, no tax charges have arisen on the charity.

Fund Accounting

Unrestricted funds can be used in accordance with the charitable objectives of the charity at the direction of the trustees.

Restricted funds can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objectives of the charity, and/or as specified by the donor or when funds are raised for a specific purpose.

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