Wirksworth Arts Festival. Chair’s Report 2023
The Festival consists of 3 main parts: the Trail Weekend, the Artist in Residence/central exhibition, and events run in partnership with a range of other local groups and organisations.
- The Trail Weekend is always the focal point of the Festival, and the event on which we survive or fall. We had a good number of venues, over 70, made up of homes and gardens and public spaces. We had over 160 artists applying and, through the Arts Panel, chose 132 to exhibit. We estimate 4000 people at the Trail. We sold 3000 wristbands, and there were children and others with free wristbands. We were pleased to offer free wristbands to refugee families and carers.
Setting up was extremely hard work, and we wouldn’t have done it without all our wonderful volunteers, and full-time input from some trustees. The Trail Weekend was a fantastic success. We had masses of feedback in person, via email afterwards, phone calls and on social media. Feedback was about the quality of the art, the amount artists sold (almost every artist sold) and visitors enjoyed the chance to chill out in the Food Court , a new development for us in 2023.
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The Central Exhibition, ‘Stones and Power’ - this was the exhibition set up by our Artist in Residence from 2022, Jemma Gunning, who works mainly in printing. Visitors loved the exhibition, especially the massive wall hanging showing a local quarry. She has grown immensely over the period of her residency, and we hope that the way her work has developed is partly to do with the time she spent here, how she used her time, and how she developed her work. Hence, work exhibited in the RA Summer Show.
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Partnership events - The Performance Programme is run in partnership with Town Hall Events – it was a very successful and varied programme; performances included A Jazz Night, Too Darn Soulful and Lemn Sissay. Our partners MusicWirks provided the pop up music during the weekend and various musical events as well, including Thomas Truax.
The Tunnel Project - the Festival was pleased to be supporting artist Rhys Taylor of Harpo Arts, a respected Street artist who is working on a large artwork for the town and has been engaging people of all ages in Wirksworth in discussions about the Tarmac owned steel tunnel which is on a public footpath. This won’t be finished until the end of 2023.
Our long-term partner Gig On The Roof provided a Sunday night concert featuring local bands. This is an important event for bringing in younger people to both perform and to listen and also engages a large and varied selection of local people.
Other Festival events include the Clypping of the Church, which is inherently tied into the Festival, concerts in the church and our Children’s Trail ‘Where’s Woolly’ linked to the discovery of a mammoth in the local area!
Managing, funding and delivering the Wirksworth Festival 2023. We held our AGM in April 2023. We attracted a new trustee and lost one who retired. The 2023 Artist in Residence, Feral Practice, was appointed in April 2023, and began her 3-month residency in July. Her work will be exhibited in the 2024 Festival.
As can be seen from the attached accounts, almost all of our income comes from the Trail Weekend: wristbands+artists’ fees+catering. We also have some local sponsorship, and a generous donation from The Ampersand Foundation which sponsors our Artist in Residence programme. We could not manage without the in kind funding offered by the Wirksworth Town Council and in particular. long standing sponsorship from two local businesses.
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WIRKSWORTH ARTS FESTIVAL
Balance Sheet as at 31.1.2023
| 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| ASSETS | ||
| Fixed Assets | 0 | 0 |
| Cash | ||
| Leek Building Society | 10,171.02 | 25,615.69 |
| Lloyds Bank | 17,131.51 | 8,062.49 |
| Pay Pal | 424.54 | 143.08 |
| Petty cash | 38.2 | 0 |
| Electronic Transfer | 45 | 0 |
| Total Cash | 27,810.27 | 33,821.26 |
| Debtors | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL ASSETS | 27,810.27 | 33,821.26 |
| LIABILITIES | ||
| Creditors | 0 | 0 |
| 25,418.41 | ||
| TOTAL LIABILITIES | 0 | 0 |
| Charity Funds | ||
| Opening balance equity | 19,307.17 | 19,307.17 |
| Retained earnings | 11,234.27 | 8,402.85 |
| Deficit/surplus | -2,731.17 | 6,111.24 |
| 27,810.27 | 33,821.26 |
Approved by independent examiner Signed Dated
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