Stuart Croft Foundation
Charity number 1163676
Annual Report and Financial Statements
for the year ended 30 September 2025
Stuart Croft Foundation
Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 30 September 2025
| Contents | Page |
|---|---|
| Trustees' report | 2 to 6 |
| Receipts and payments account | 7 |
| Statement of assets and liabilities | 8 |
| Notes to the accounts | 9 to 10 |
Prepared by West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO
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Stuart Croft Foundation
Trustees' report for the year ended 30 September 2025
Reference and administrative details of the charity, its trustees and advisors
The trustees during the financial year and up to and including the date the report was approved were: Name Position Dates Gary Thomas Co Chair Emma Bennett Co Chair Susan Jones Treasurer Steven Eastwood Gillian Fox Sarah Jones Gilane Tawadros
Charity number
Charity number 1163676 Registered in England and Wales Registered and principal address Bankers 45 Empress Road Barclays Bank Market Harborough Building Society Derby 69 Albion Street Welland House DE23 6TD Leeds The Square LS1 5AA Market Harborough. LE16 7PD
Accountants West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO
Stringer House 34 Lupton Street Leeds LS10 2QW
Structure, governance and management
The charity is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) foundation formed on 21 September 2015.
Method of recruitment and appointment of trustees
The trustees of the charity are appointed by a resolution at a meeting of the trustees.
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Stuart Croft Foundation
Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 30 September 2025
Objectives and activities
The charity's objects
To build on the legacy of artist-filmmaker Stuart Croft (1970-2015), to increase public understanding and knowledge of contemporary moving-image practice.
Mission
To make accessible Stuart’s legacy and archive, to exhibit his moving-image works and to provide grants for new moving-image productions, research, publications and exhibitions.
Introduction
This is the eighth annual report of the Stuart Croft Foundation. The Foundation was formed in 2015 by friends and family of artist filmmaker Stuart Croft, following his death in that year. Stuart was an internationally recognised and award-winning artist who exhibited widely and whose significance is far-reaching. He was an innovative artist whose moving-image practice involved the language of genre cinema, appropriation and circular narratives.
Governance and public benefit statement
The Foundation's governing document is its constitution. The constitution follows the Charity Commission's foundation model, ie the model for a charitable incorporated organisation whose only voting members are its trustees. Responsibility for the Foundation therefore resides with its trustees.
Seven trustees were in post at the beginning of the year, and there have been no changes in the year. Gary Thomas and Emma Bennett acted as co-chairs, and Sue Jones acted as treasurer, for the year. No other trustee held an official role, but trustees have taken on tasks for the Foundation, clearly assigned to individual trustees or groups of trustees.
The Foundation employed no staff during the year but engaged a consultancy service to provide administrative support and project management assistance. Arts consultant Harriet Fleuriot acted as Freelance Office and Project Manager for the year. The Foundation agreed fees at a daily rate of £200, paid upon receipt of an invoice, for the number of days (or part days) worked in any given month or period of months, and the total paid for the year was £1,600.
The Foundation does not own any premises. Work carried out for the Foundation by the trustees and consultants during 2024-2025 took place in their own homes, studios and offices, and trustees' meetings took place online.
Two formal meetings of the trustees were held during 2024-2025 and average trustee attendance was 85%. A small number of additional meetings were held in the year to focus specifically on the publication and exhibition, with selected trustees in attendance. All trustees gave freely of their time to promote the objects of the Foundation. No trustee received any remuneration or benefit from the Foundation during 2024-2025.
The Foundation cannot, and does not, operate in isolation. It seeks to work positively in partnership with others to provide activities that promote diverse artistic and cultural practice and the study of artists' moving image. Stuart Croft Foundation is committed to ensuring its decisions and decision-making processes are, and are seen to be, free from personal bias and do not unfairly favour any individual connected with the charity.
An official Conflict of Interest Policy and Privacy Policy was approved at the meeting of the trustees on 7 March 2019. It is the policy of Stuart Croft Foundation to ensure every trustee understands what constitutes a conflict of interest and that they have a responsibility to recognize, declare and document any conflicts that might arise for them and to ensure that the conflict does not affect the decision making of the organisation. All prospective new trustees must register any conflicts of interests by filling in a Conflict of Interest form before joining the Foundation. A Conflict of Interest register is updated regularly, and conflict of interest is a standing order item for every meeting of the trustees.
In summary, the Foundation seeks to be an efficient and well-operating charity with effective processes, record keeping, financial management and full compliance with legal requirements and recommended good practice.
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Stuart Croft Foundation
Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 30 September 2025
Governance and public benefit statement continued
The trustees confirm that, in carrying out all of their activities related to increasing public understanding and knowledge of contemporary moving image practice, they have complied with their duty under the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the public benefit guidance published by the Charity Commission.
Achievements and performance
To make the Stuart Croft archive accessible
Exhibition
The work of the Foundation was heavily weighted in the first half of this financial year when the development and production of a large-scale retrospective exhibition demanded a considerable input from the Foundation’s trustees. A robust working relationship was formed with our partners at Leeds Art Gallery, and trustees were actively involved in all aspects of the production including the concept, curatorial design, technical specifications (lighting, sound, text and signage, subtitles and audio descriptions), as well as press and social media.
In addition to a financial contribution from SCF core funds, the Foundation also assisted the gallery in securing sponsorship from ADi Audiovisual, who provided the essential high-quality equipment and technical support that was required, at a substantially reduced cost.
The exhibition ‘Stuart Croft: Eternal Return’ took place at Leeds Art Gallery, a nationally important institution, receiving over 200,000 visitors per year. The exhibition took place from the 8[th] November 2024 to the 6th April 2025. It was the first survey show of Croft’s moving image work since his death in 2015 and was made more compelling by its location in the city where the artist was born and raised.
The exhibition involved an ambitious installation of purpose-built spaces, through which visitors were invited to experience four of Croft’s major film works: The Stag Without a Heart (2010), Drive In (2007), Remetior (2014), and Comma 39 (2011). Approximately 150 invited guests attended the gallery for an opening event on Thursday 7[th] November 2024.
The launch of the exhibition was scheduled to coincide with Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) which ran from 1-17 November 2024. LIFF included a Stuart Croft season, presented in partnership with Leeds Art Gallery and the Stuart Croft Foundation which was intended to complement the exhibition. This special ‘spotlight’ programme on Stuart Croft involved a selection of his moving image works presented alongside films that had inspired him. Pairs of films were screened at different venues across the city and as part of the film festival programme the gallery hosted an introductory talk and screening event on the 8[th] of November. At this event SCF co-chairs, Gary Thomas and Emma Bennett, presented talks that explored the playful and thoughtprovoking ways Croft’s films imaginatively collapse the boundaries between art and cinema.
The Foundation also worked in collaboration with Leeds Art Gallery on an Arts Council of England grant funding application for a substantial programme of community engagement projects centred around the exhibition Stuart Croft: Eternal Return . Unfortunately, despite resubmission, this application was not successful, but the gallery’s Youth Engagement Curator conducted workshops at the gallery with Visual Communication students from Leeds University and was able to work with students from Lawnswood High School (Stuart’s former secondary school) via the National Gallery’ Articulation project. This project involved a group of school students working with a poet at the gallery to make their own experimental films in direct response to their experiences with Stuart Croft’s work.
Publication
Throughout the exhibition, the Foundation’s publication ‘Stuart Croft Returns’ (ISBN: 9781912458233), was made available for sale from the gallery shop along with postcards and exhibition posters.
The monograph, which was designed by Margherita Sabbioneda and published by The Everyday Press in partnership with SCF in spring 2024, has now gained international distribution via Public Knowledge Books and is readily available in bookshops and online.
This year, The Everyday Press has presented the book at numerous book fairs including, Athens Art Book Fair, Berlin Miss Read, Offprint Paris, Offprint Tokyo and Printed Matter London and New York.
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Stuart Croft Foundation
Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 30 September 2025
Publication continued
The Foundation continues to make donations of the book to public galleries and libraries. The publication has now been included within the British Film Institute’s special collection archive, and a copy is available via the Reuben Library, at BFI Southbank, London.
The Stuart Croft Foundation Awards
Launched in 2017 the Stuart Croft Foundation Awards have enabled filmmakers, curators, writers, researchers, students and recent graduates working between and beyond the gallery and cinema to create new and experimental moving-image projects. The Awards were specially focused on projects where other funding would be difficult to secure, and eleven artists were supported over three rounds of the Awards in 2017, 2018, and 2020. Recent achievements by SCF Awardees include:
Anna Brass ’ SCF film Haukebodde Hacoud Hacwod Aukud (SCF Awards 2020) was recently acquired by the Arts Council Collection.
Myrid Carten’s debut feature documentary A Want in Her (previously titled No Place like Home , SCF Awards 2020) won three British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) in November 2025: The Raindance Maverick Award, Debut Director and Best Feature Documentary.
Communications and public outreach
In partnership with Leeds Art Gallery, SCF ran an advertising campaign for the ‘Eternal Return’ exhibition. A poster design that featured a film still from ‘Comma 39’ (2011) was on view on Leeds City Council’s billboards throughout the city centre and with smaller notices placed within local and national press. Press coverage for the show included articles in the Yorkshire Post and the Leeds List. SCF also collaborated with the gallery on social media posts relating to the exhibition and its associated events.
In February 2025, SCF placed an advert in Art Monthly to promote both the Leeds exhibition and the monograph. Margherita Sabbioneda (The Everyday Press) was recruited to design the half-page advert that was published online and in print on 26 February 2025. (Art Monthly’s print circulation is 3,500 copies with an additional 1,650 Digital Edition Subscribers).
The Stuart Croft Foundation’s website (www.stuartcroftfoundation.org) was updated in advance of the exhibition opening, and received an increase in unique visitors this year. Engagement on Facebook and Instagram increased in response to the exhibition and film festival and @stuartcroftfoundation now has 944 followers.
We have continued to carry out a simple marketing strategy focusing on highlighting the Stuart Croft archive, celebrating the impact of the SCF awards, and promoting events and activities associated with the Foundation through our website, newsletter and social media channels.
Archive
SCF was pleased to donate Stuart Croft’s films and ephemera to the national collection of the British Film Institute (BFI) in 2018. Within this financial year a number of additional items were submitted to the BFI: 19 x A5 notebooks and 1 x A6 notebook were donated (these notebooks containing information about Stuart's film works made between 1998 and 2014 had been found by Stuart’s father amongst his other personal items); and an A4 folder of documents relating to film scores that had been donated by a sound designer, Doug Haywood, who had worked closely with Stuart over many years. These items were gratefully received by the BFI and will be made available via the special collections archive.
The Foundation has continued to promote the Stuart Croft archives. The physical archive is available to visit by appointment, and the online catalogue has been accessible since August 2018 via the online BFI Collections Search: https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/stuart-croft-artist-filmmaker-archive
Plans for the future
Several trustees travelled to Leeds to visit the exhibition on the 14[th] of March 2025 to mark the 10[th] anniversary of Stuart Croft’s death. A dinner hosted by Stuart’s family took place in celebration of the artist’s life and SCFs achievements since his death.
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Stuart Croft Foundation
Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 30 September 2025
Plans for the future (continued)
Stuart’s mother, Philomena O’Hare, (who had been partly responsible for the endowment from his Estate on which SCF was established), died in December 2024 and therefore did not witness the publication or the exhibition first hand. However, Stuart’s father, Mike Croft (along with other members of his family) gratefully acknowledged the book and exhibition as huge milestones in the Foundation’s work.
Since the close of the ‘Eternal Return’ exhibition on 6 April 2025, trustees have made enquiries and initiated conversations regarding the possibility of placing some of Stuart Croft’s moving image works within national art collections. Over the next year we will be continuing with this line of enquiry whilst continuing to review the milestones we have met.
The priority for the next financial year will be developing a strategy for the future of the Foundation. Financial restrictions make it necessary for SCF to become increasingly streamlined, more responsive, and less active, but we remain committed to maintaining Stuart Croft’s important legacy.
Financial review
The trustees continue to adopt a cautious approach towards the guardianship of the Foundation’s financial resources. The Foundation’s financial resources during 2024-2025 were derived from its inheritance from Stuart's estate, and a generous award of £3,000 from the Royal College of Art towards the ‘Stuart Croft Returns’ publication. The trustees' caution results from the one-off nature of the inheritance and the unlikeliness of any further additional funding becoming available.
All of the Foundation's funds were maintained at all times during 2024-2025 within the compensation cover provided by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. In addition, as part of the Foundation's effective stewardship of its financial resources, cash flow is monitored on a day-to-day basis, and cash flow and other financial information are reported to trustee meetings. All expenditure is approved by the trustees. The processing of any payment from the Foundation has to be authorised by two trustees.
HMRC accepts the Foundation as a charity for tax purposes. Its income is not therefore liable to taxation. It claims and receives gift aid against tax on suitable donations. Its incorporated status makes it advantageously eligible for certain investments that would otherwise not be available to it.
The Foundation holds no funds on behalf of others.
The net payments for the year were £12,032, all unrestricted in nature.
Funds were spent on activities to promote public access to the Stuart Croft archive, an exhibition of Stuart Croft’s work, together with administration and running costs. There are no funds in deficit. During 2024-2025 a current account was held with Barclays Bank, and a savings account with Market Harborough Building Society. The Market Harborough account was closed in December 2024, with £11,386.57 transferred to the Barclays current account.
Reserves policy
The charity's free (unrestricted) reserves, at the year end were £5,046 and there was £10,194 held in an expendable endowment fund. Total funds held at bank by the Foundation on 30 September 2024 therefore amounted to £15,240.
Approved by the board of trustees on …………..……...…….
Signed: ………………..…………. (Trustee)
Name: ……………..…..………….
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Stuart Croft Foundation
Receipts and payments account for the year ended 30 September 2025
| Notes 2025 2025 Unrestricted Endowment funds funds £ £ Receipts Donations (2) 3,000 - Bank interest - - Total receipts 3,000 - Payments Publication and exhibition costs 11,208 - Administration 1,933 - Awards - - Accountancy 315 - Internet hosting and web development 1,576 - Total payments 15,032 - Net receipts / (payments) (12,032) - Fund balances brought forward 17,078 10,194 Fund balances carried forward (3) 5,046 10,194 |
2025 Total funds £ 3,000 - 3,000 11,208 1,933 - 315 1,576 15,032 (12,032) 27,272 15,240 |
2024 Total funds £ - 747 747 24,129 3,915 400 300 1,276 30,020 (29,273) 56,545 27,272 |
|---|---|---|
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Stuart Croft Foundation
Statement of assets and liabilities
| as at 30 September 2025 2025 2025 Unrestricted Endowment £ £ Cash funds Barclays Bank 5,046 10,194 Market Harborough Building Society - - Total cash funds 5,046 10,194 Liabilities Accruals |
2025 Total £ 15,240 - 15,240 2025 £ 790 790 |
2024 Total £ 15,885 11,387 27,272 |
|---|---|---|
The financial statements were approved by the board of trustees on …………..……...…….
Signed: ……………...………….…. (Trustee)
Name: ……………..…..………….
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Stuart Croft Foundation
Notes to the accounts
for the year ended 30 September 2025
1 Accounting policies
Basis of accounting
The trustees have taken advantage of section 133 of the Charities Act 2011 and have prepared the accounts on a receipts and payments basis.
There has been no change to the accounting policies since last year.
No changes have been made to the accounts for previous years.
Taxation
As a charity the organisation benefits from rates relief and is generally exempt from income tax and capital gains tax but not from VAT. Irrecoverable VAT is included in the cost of those items to which it relates.
Fund accounting
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity.
Endowment funds represent those assets which must be held permanently by the charity, principally investments. Income arising on the endowment funds can be used in accordance with the objects of the charity and is included as unrestricted income unless restrictions have been imposed by the donor. Any capital gains or losses arising on the investments form part of the fund. Investment management charges and legal advice relating to the fund are charged against the fund.
Further explanation of the nature and purpose of each fund is included in the notes to the accounts.
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Stuart Croft Foundation
Notes to the accounts continued
for the year ended 30 September 2025
| 2 Donations Royal College of Art 3 Endowment funds Stuart Croft endowment Fund name Stuart Croft endowment |
2025 2025 2025 2024 Unrestricted Restricted Total Total funds funds funds funds £ £ £ £ 3,000 - 3,000 - 3,000 - 3,000 - Balance b/f Incoming Outgoing Transfers Balance c/f £ £ £ £ £ 10,194 - - - 10,194 10,194 - - - 10,194 Purpose Endowment from the estate of Stuart Croft, to be used to further the objects of the Stuart Croft Foundation. |
|---|---|
4 Related party transactions
Trustee expenses
No trustee received any expenses during this year (2024: 1 trustee £1,452)
Trustee remuneration and benefits
No trustee received any remuneration or benefit during this or the previous year.
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