BARBICAN ART SOCIETY
TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT
April 2024-April 2025
Charity name: Barbican Art Society
Registered charity number: 1164194
Location: Barbican Estate, London, EC2Y
Introduction
- The Barbican Art Society is a non-profit making, community adult education project located in the Barbican Estate, London, which aims to make art accessible through provision of art classes led by professional artists and art tutors. The decision-making body is provided by a committee of trustees, currently numbering 10, all of whom are volunteers and are, or have been, students of the Society’s classes. This report covers the financial year 2024-25, comprising 3 terms: summer and autumn terms 2024 and spring term 2025.
Objects of the charity
-
The objective is to advance public education in and appreciation of the arts. This is carried out through a range of art classes led by professional tutors which take place in the Society’s dedicated art room. The classes, held both in the day and in the evening, are run over three 10-week terms during the year. Classes also run in the Easter and Summer holiday periods in one-day or short courses.
-
BAS classes are open to anyone, irrespective of art experience. Many students remain with the Society for years. Some of our tutors have also been with us for a considerable number of years and we value that continuity. We also establish relations with new tutors to provide variety and to assist in the wider development of the course programme.
Activities during the year 2024-2025
-
In the three terms during the year, there were 10-11 classes per week held in both daytime and evening, which adds up to 32 10-week courses in the year. This represents a total of 80-88 student places a week. In addition, in one term we had two short courses of 3 weeks duration each. There was a high take-up rate, with the majority of classes full.
-
In addition, BAS hosted 15 workshops during summer 2024, equivalent to 20 workshop days, and two at Easter. These were usually of one day duration, but one was 2-day and another 5 days. Again, the take-up was high.
-
Most classes are in painting and drawing. They include mixed media classes, life drawing classes, specialist classes in pastels and oils, and a drawing class. We have also held short courses during the year in calligraphy and in book binding. Although our provision has traditionally been for adults, a new departure this year was a drawing workshop for children accompanied by a parent, held in summer 2024 and led by Katherine Tulloh, who has wide experience of working with children. We are considering a repeat of the class in summer 2025.
Open Evening
- The BAS again held its annual Open Evening with wine reception in June, which was well attended . It is held to display the work of students, and show visitors how the art room is used. The event helps raise the profile of the Society and celebrates the work of students, who are able to see their artwork on the wall.
Barbican summer fete
- For the third year, the BAS had a stall at the Barbican summer fete held in Thomas More gardens in early September. Having a presence at the fete, showing examples of students’ artwork, helps to spread the knowledge of the Society’s activities within the Barbican estate.
Trustee Changes
- Owing to pressure in his other work, David Beech, our Chair, resigned as a trustee in September 2024. Hilary Sunman agreed to resume her old role as Chair on an interim basis, in which role she has been supported by John Lumley. Francois-
Xavier Villemin resigned as Treasurer in the autumn but agreed to cover the role until a successor was appointed.
- The continued development of the number and range of courses inevitably means an increase in administrative tasks, and in the autumn of 2024 the trustees undertook an exercise to separately identify particular roles - such as personnel issues, publicity, management of the website and Sumup payment system - and allocate responsibilities among trustees. It became clear that we would need to increase the number of trustees, up to our permitted maximum of 10, and we are grateful to Gabrielle Oliver, Renu Gupta and Deborah Wallis for answering the call. Deborah immediately began preparations to take over from Francois-Xavier as treasurer. All organisations need new people and ideas, and new trustees who are prepared to commit and to contribute are most welcome.
Revision of the constitution
- In recent weeks the trustees have been considering the governing document of the BAS, the constitution, which provides the legal basis on which we operate as a charity, with a view to bringing it up to date. An important recent decision has been to change from an unincorporated association to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) which will provide a legal identity for BAS, enabling it to enter contractual relationships and ensure limited liability. When work is completed on the new constitution, trustees will be considering a system of ‘friends’ or ‘affiliates’ drawn from among our major stakeholders: supporters who wish to be more involved with the Society. Further information will follow.
Class Membership Secretary
- The trustees would like to thank Sylvia Rogers, the Class Membership Secretary, for her invaluable work over the course of the year in providing the first contact for students, making available information on classes and courses, and for undertaking work on publicity.
Treasurer’s report 2024/2025
The 2024/2025 accounts presented to the Annual General Meeting also show, for purposes of comparison, the figures for 2023/2024. These accounts show that the Barbican Art Society made a surplus for the year of £690. This surplus is after adjusting for fee payments deferred in 2023/2024 for this year, as an addition to income, and after deducting payments received this year for the Summer term in 2025.
Despite our trajectory of controlled deficit, all classes filled exceptionally well in Spring Term 2025, which explains the slight surplus. This result increases our reserves to £13,091, an amount which represents roughly the costs incurred by the Barbican Art Society for running one full term.
Barbican Art Society
Financial Statement for the year ended 5th April 2025
05/04/2025 **05/04/2024 ** |
05/04/2025 **05/04/2024 ** |
05/04/2025 **05/04/2024 ** |
05/04/2025 **05/04/2024 ** |
05/04/2025 **05/04/2024 ** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income |
||||
| Students' fees received | 34 521 31 244 |
|||
| Tickets sold | 0 1 280 |
|||
| Interest | 686 156 |
|||
| Expenditure | ||||
| Tutors' and models' fees paid | 28 400 24 955 |
|||
| Accommodation | 2 279 | 2 348 | ||
| Event organizing | 305 | 1 370 | ||
| Bank and Credit card fees | 746 | 520 | ||
| Art materials | 372 | 390 | ||
| Cash surplus | 3 106 | 3 097 | ||
| Add deferred income b/f | 8 164 | 3 902 | ||
| Less deferred income c/f | -10 580 | -8 164 | ||
| **Surplus/Deficit ** | 690 | -1 165 | ||
| Accumulated fund b/f | 12 401 13 566 |
|||
| Bank | 12 203 13 365 |
|||
| Cash | 198 201 |
|||
| Accumulated fund c/f | 13 091 12 401 |
|||
| Bank | 23 551 20 367 |
|||
| Less deferred income | -10 580 -8 164 |
|||
| Cash | 120 198 |
The preponderant source of income of the BAS is from fees paid by students. They amounted to £32,105 this year, up by 19% from last year when it was £26,982. This is due to running more classes this year. Our reserves have also generated a small interest income of £686 (up from £156), benefitting from higher rates in 2024/2025.
In terms of expenditure, tutors’ and models’ fees have gone up from £24,955 to £28,400, an increase of 14% resulting from running more classes. Student’s fees cover 113% of the tutors’ and models’ fees, up from 108% last year.
Second item of expenditure is accommodation. It represents £2,279, a similar figure as last year. Cleaning costs have gone up by 10% to £1,279. Business rates are also up by 15% to £603. However there has been no non-recurring expense for the maintenance of the Expenditure Amount (£) Art Room. More details are available in the table on the right.
| Expenditure | Amount (£) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cleaning | 1 279 | ||
| Business Rates | 603 | ||
| Insurance | 260 | ||
| Tea | 77 | ||
| Keys Internet domain |
24 12 |
||
| Other Grand Total |
24 2 279 |
Two additional items of expenditure are worth mentioning:
-
Art materials costs are stable.
-
Event and promotion costs are down to £305. Apart from Summer school advertising and organizing the Open Evening in June 2024, the BAS also offered refreshments after its AGM in May.
The charity remains in a healthy financial situation. Accumulated funds,
representing reserves available to the Society as of 5th April 2024, remain at a high level of £12,989 (excluding prepaid students’ fees). This is mostly represented by funds held in various bank accounts, plus £120 held in cash (down from £198 last year). Students mostly pay for classes by card, either in person a few weeks before term end, or online via the Sumup online store which is linked to our main website. £33,141 were collected this way for fees totalling £739.
| Term **Student fees Tutor fees Other costs Surplus/Defcit ** |
||||
| Summer25 (as of 5/5) 11 078 10 130 1 100 -152 |
||||
| Spring25 9 921 8 300 1 070 551 |
||||
| Autumn24 9 961 8 800 1 070 91 |
||||
| Summer24 12 223 11 300 1 070 -147 |
now organize in comparison to when the decision was taken. However, there is no immediate need for adjusting student fees. This financial year, only the Summer Term generated a small deficit, and sales were exceptionally good in the Spring Term, as a result of advertising the classes 2 months before their start date. The general effort from trustees in planning classes in advance has paid off and this gives trustees some room for offering a potential increase in tutors’ fees – I would suggest bringing the hourly fee from £30 to £31 to remain in line with inflation, for a projected cost of roughly £1,000 across the full year. A donation of the surplus of £239 from the Piano at an Exhibition event last year was discussed previously but has not realised yet hence still cannot be accounted for in this financial year.
As pointed in my report last year, should trustees decide to adjust student fees, they should look in priority at fees of classes with model, which generate almost no surplus once tutor and model are paid, even if the class runs with 8 students. An increase of 10% of the student fee, to £165, would be appropriate, if not to reduce our deficit, at least to harmonize our fee structure and reduce the financial risk of running these classes with less than 8 students.
| François-Xavier Villemin | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Normal class Class with model |
|||
| 8 x student fee 880 1200 |
|||
| Tutor fee 750 750 |
|||
| Model fee 0 400 |
|||
| Surplus 130 50 |
On behalf of the trustees, I present this report of 2024-2025.
Hilary Sunman Chair
Trustees 2024-5
Trustee dates David Beech Chair to 25.09.2024 Resigned 09.2024 Hilary Sunman Chair from 3.10.2024 Francois-Xavier Villemin Treasurer Julie Mapstone Secretary John Lumley Diana Jowsey Ruth Steele Feona Hamilton Renu Gupta Joined 16.01.2025 Gabrielle Oliver Joined 16.01.2025 Deborah Wallis Joined 16.01.2025
To the Members and Trustees of the Barbican Art Society Registered charity no. 1164194
Audit Report for the year ending 5 April 2025
As requested by the Trustees, I have reviewed the financial statements for the Society for the year ending 5 April 2025, that show a surplus of £690 for the year (2024: deficit £1,165) and closing funds available to the Society of £13,091 at that date and I have concluded that these show a fair representation of the Society’s financial position.
I have examined the accounting records and bank statements, and I have seen analysis and explanations for major items of expenditure and any significant changes from last year’s accounts.
For the avoidance of doubt, and as in previous years, I have been unable to verify that all those who have attended classes, and should have paid, have indeed paid but I note that the detailed records are kept by the Treasurer that reconciles fees with class attendances.
Other issues noted:
The cash balance at the end of the year is around £120, a reduced value that Trustees consider suitable to be held for unexpected ‘one-off’ type expenses. As income has exceeded £25,000 in the year, the Society will be obliged to file a Trustee Report & Accounts, accompanied by a report from an independent examiner (the role that I have effectively carried out), together with an Annual Return. The TR&A will need to be filed in a Charity Commission compliant format and within 10 months of the financial year end i.e. by January 2026.
As referred to in previous years’ reports, it is recommended that all new tutors or models that the Society engage should provide written confirmation of their own responsibility for making their own personal tax arrangements as self-employed persons.
I would like to thank the Society’s officers for making the accounting records available clearly and promptly.
Dave Taylor ACMA 507 Gilbert House, Barbican, London EC2Y 8BD 13 May 2025