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2021-04-05-accounts

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Period end date 6[th] April 2020 5th April 2021

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Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name

Deep Roots Tall Trees

Other names charity is known by Registered charity number (if any) 1169357

DRTT

Charity's principal address 53 High Street

Corby

Postcode NN17 1UU

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

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20		 Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for whole
**year **		 Name of person (or body) entitled
to appoint trustee (ifany)
Mrs Bridget Margaret
Watts
Eddie Arthey
John Mellor
Diane Goldsmith Chair
Julia Thorley Resigned 29/11/2020

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Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Neil Paris – Artistic Director

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Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document Constitution (eg. trust deed, constitution)

How the charity is constituted Charitable Incorporate Organisation (Foundation) (eg. trust, association, company)

Trustee selection methods Appointed by Charity Trustees (eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

DRTT is governed by a board of trustees. Prospective trustees are identified on a rolling basis by the Board and matched against the findings of an annual Board skills audit. They are initially approached by the Chair, a trustee or The Artistic Director who discusses with them the work and aims of the trust and requests that they join a board meeting as an observer. Following a satisfactory outcome, the prospective trustee is formally approached in writing by the Chair. The new trustee is then given an induction pack which includes information on the role and responsibilities of trustees, terms of appointment of trustees, a copy of the latest annual report and accounts, a copy of the current artistic plan, as well as policies including equal opportunities, child protection and vulnerable adults protection and health and safety policies. All trustees are offered places on relevant training courses as and when appropriate.

The trustees have a risk management strategy which comprises:

The work has identified a number of risks related to ongoing changes in the prevailing funding environment in particular regarding the acquisition of funding through local grant schemes, national lottery funded schemes, and charitable trusts and foundations. A key element in the management of financial risk is the setting of a reserves policy and its regular review by trustees.

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Section C Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

The objects of DRTT are The objects of DRTT are The objects of DRTT are as follows: as follows: as follows:
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To advance the arts, culture and heritage for the benefit		 of the
public, particularly but not exclusively, by promoting and
facilitating access to and performances of music and other art
forms; and
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To provide for the
Northamptonshire		 recreation of people of all ages in
and elsewhere for the benefit of the public by
providing facilities and services to them in the interests of social
welfare with the object of improving their conditions of life; and
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To advance education within the framework of music and		 arts for
the benefit of the public of Northamptonshire and elsewhere.
The Trustees of the Charitable Incorporated Organisation have complied with
their duty to have due regard to the guidance on Public Benefit published by the
Charity Commission in exercising their powers and duties.
The activities undertaken to further DRTT’s purpose for the Public Benefit
consist of arts and arts education projects, performances and events, providing
opportunities for our beneficiaries to collaborate with professional musicians and
artists of the highest calibre.
Our regular core activity is a community choir and a dancetheatre group whose
membership consists of people living in the local area and beyond. The choir
focusses on writing, arranging, rehearsing and performing songs to sing and
perform alongside local amateur musicians in collaboration with our Music
Director. The song repertoire comprises almost entirely of these new songs and
we support our beneficiaries in taking an active part in the songwriting process.
The dancetheatre group works with our Artistic Director to create new bespoke
pieces of work.
We run workshops and events based around singing and songwriting, as well as
on related activities (e.g. movement, vocal health, etc.). These are offered out to
the people in the choir and dancetheatre groups, the general public, and other
organisations including educational establishments such as schools and
colleges, and local community groups and clubs.
We also organise special music and arts projects that are larger in scale than
our core activity. These include further opportunities for beneficiaries to
collaborate with professional musicians and artists as well as offering:
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music and arts education workshops for the local community including
schools and colleges;
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performances and arts installation events incorporating the work of other
artists working across a range of different genres and forms (e.g. visual
artists, dancers etc.) in collaboration with the choir, our Artistic Director
and Music Director;
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participatory performance and installation events open to the general
public.

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Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

Beneficiaries involved in our core activities (e.g. choir and dancetheatre groups) are also active as volunteers throughout the year supporting the operation of DRTT both in our regular activity as well as public events.

The choir has a small steering group consisting of between three and four members of the choir. Their role is to feedback opinions and ideas from the choir to management as to the running of the choir and other activities, feed ideas into and support the artistic planning of the organisation, as well as devise and run social activities for the choir on an occasional basis.

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Section D Achievements and erformance p

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

Deep Roots Tall Trees provides accessible arts and cultural activities for the people of Corby and surrounding areas. We empower participants to explore their creativity as a means through which to express themselves, develop new skills, and raise aspirations.

Based in the town of Corby, Northamptonshire, the organisation was set up in 2012 (first as an unincorporated association and then, in 2016, as a registered charity) as a response to the significant postindustrial social and economic changes the town was undergoing.

Working alongside professional artists, our singers, musicians and dancers create and perform their own songs and choreographies. Over the past 8 years, they have worked with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Sinfonia Viva, performed for the Queen, sung in Gaelic, Polish and Latvian, and performed in a football stadium, a theatre, an art gallery, in Corby’s urban woodlands, and on film.

By enriching people’s lives through arts and culture, our work impacts on personal and social health and well-being, creates stronger communities, and builds a brighter and more fulfilling future for our beneficiaries.

Our vision for Deep Roots Tall Trees is to expand its offering of arts and cultural activities to all sectors of the local community as well as further afield, empowering individuals and partner organisations to achieve personal growth and societal change.

In response to the many difficulties local people face, we offer a programme of aspirational arts activities:

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During 2020-2021, the organisation was run by:

ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Following the national lockdown and the complete shutdown of all our faceto-face activities the organisation swiftly and successfully shifted its activities online using the digital conferencing app Zoom to continue our regular activities.

Within a week of the announcement off the first lockdown we ran our first online choir and dancetheatre sessions. The choir and dancetheatre directors adapted their teaching methods and our General Manger set up, managed and guided participants through the use of Zoom. Our first online session saw over two thirds of our regular participants able to continue their activities with us. As our, and their, digital knowledge grew attendance increase and through the year we were able to deliver our core activity to the majority of our regular participants. The switch to digital also attracted new members to both groups.

We gathered feedback through online surveys and learned that while our participants reported getting great benefit from the sessions having to sing and dance alone brought significant challenges and they missed the contact with friends that came with singing and dancing together.

In response to this members of our volunteer Steering Group organised and ran online quiz-nights. These fun, informal social events proved highly popular and appreciated. Alongside our regular session these made a significant additional contribution to the health and well-being of our participants during the lockdown.

Participants also reported that as they became used to singing and dancing alone, they began to develop artistically in ways that they hadn’t imagined. Some reported that they positively enjoyed being able to work on their own and the distancing effect of working online made them feel safe enough to try

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things that they would not normally have done in a face-to-face group situation.

After the first few months of working online, the management, choir and dancetheatre leaders and participants felt confident enough with the technology to extend the online activities to include more creative projects.

Online creative projects

Filming and recording themselves on their smart phones, the choir and dancetheatre groups created virtual performances of one of their wellestablished songs and a new choreography which they had learned online.

In June 2020 we commissioned a local artist, Carole Miles of The Eloquent Fold, to devise and run an online garland making workshop inspired by Eastern European midsummer traditions. Our planned Cultural Celebration event had to be cancelled and this activity maintained some contact and momentum across the communities and attracted some new people to our work.

During November and December, we created a cross-cultural virtual performance of the song Silent Night which included members of the Latvian and Polish communities singing verses in their own language.

Also, during November and December we engaged Northamptonshire based storyteller and dancer Jo Blake to run the online dancetheatre sessions. This provided both a new stimulus and experience for the dancers and employment for a local artist.

Possibly our biggest challenge and greatest success was the adaptation of our headline collaborative project with Sinfonia Viva to an online format. As it was impossible to tell when we might be able to resume working face-to-face again, both Sinfonia Viva and ourselves felt that it was important to try and maintain as much activity as we could. Both organizations had experience of delivering online sessions and creating virtual performances and so we decided to develop that format further and run an interactive, creative, collaborative song writing project on Zoom.

Working creatively in this way was a completely new situation for both organisations and a bit of a leap in the dark. The result of this collaboration was ‘Doorstep Delight’ a new song written and composed online by Pete Letanka of Sinfonia Viva and the Deep Roots Tall trees choir.

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Pete ran creative sessions with the choir over Zoom to collect song ideas and lyrics which they worked together to edit and arrange. Following a similar process Pete collected melodies and musical ideas.

Working with our choir director Gareth Fuller, choral arrangements were composed for the song and once ready, Sinfonia Viva hosted an interactive online musical session with four of their classical musicians. This allowed DRTT choir members to engage directly with the musicians, suggest their own musical ideas for instrumental parts and arrangements and hear them played back in real time. This recreated as closely as possible the experience that we were aiming for in the original face-to face project.

Once the musical parts were finalised, guide tracks were produced which allowed the choir and musicians to rehearse, recorded and film themselves at home on their smart phones. Once all the parts are collated the final video will be edited in Summer 2021 and also be song-signed in British Sign Language by two deaf signers.

CONTINUING AND UPCOMING PROJECTS FOR 2021/22

DRTT Lockdown EP

Inspired by the ‘Doorstep Delight’ project the choir are continuing to record themselves at home with the aim of producing the ‘Lockdown EP’. This will consist of new material written by our songwriting group Ring of Fire, mentored by local musicians, and rehearsed online during lockdown. The plan is to make the final recordings available via digital music platforms.

“Into The Wild”

During the Easter holidays we are planning a short, online, cross-arts projects for primary aged children. The projects will use music, songwriting, visual arts and crafting to explore the nature and wildlife to be found around Corby. An new venture for the organisation this is somewhat of an experiment and will be led by two artists; Kate Stilitz and DRTT Choir Director Gareth Fuller.

Beyond Corby: A Cultural Celebration

Originally planned for June 2020 this is scheduled to take place on Sunday 26th September, 6:00pm at The Core at Corby Cube in the main theatre. Our first live event since March 2020 it is inspired by the theme of harvest and it will feature performances from Corby’s Scottish, English, Latvian and Polish communities. Both DRTT Choir and DRTT Dancetheatre will be contributing performances that showcase their own unique approach to song, music, and dance.

Screendance project

Working with local Community Interest Company HD Media and their young trainees, DRTT dancetheatre will spend four days in September creating an original dance film.

Orchestral Collaboration with Sinfonia Viva: Phase 2

Currently in the planning stage, we will be embarking on a second project in the autumn which we hope will be face-to-face.

Corby Future Voices

Paused since March 2020, DRTT will resume working with youth workers and

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vulnerable young people on Corby’s Kingswood Estate, providing them with the equipment and skills to create their own music.

Regular sessions

Both choir and dancetheatre will continue their regular sessions, moving to a blended live and online offer. Ring of Fire are meeting independently and beginning to create new material for the choir.

GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

The Board of Trustees for the year ending 5[th] April 2021 were:

Chair: Diane Goldsmith Trustee: Eddie Arthey Trustee: John Mellor Trustee: Bridget Watts

Six board meetings were held during the period with two additional less formal catch-up meetings.

Steering Group

Deep Roots Tall Trees Steering Group is made up of four members the choir, dancetheatre and songwriting groups, the Artistic Director and General Manager. It met 5 times during the period.

Cultural Steering Group

Deep Roots Tall Trees Cultural Steering Group is made up of 10 members of the Latvian, Polish, Serbian, Scottish, communities alongside members of the DRTT choir, dancetheatre, songwriting groups Artistic Director and General Manager. It met three times during the period.

All the above meetings took place remotely on Zoom.

Day to day and overall project management was undertaken by the Artistic Director and the General Manager.

PARTICIPATION AND AUDIENCE

During this period DRTT worked with approximately 50 participants, the majority being its established members. The shift to online was taken up by most but not all the choir whilst the dancetheatre retained all its dancers and increased it number by two.

There were no live performances during this period, but the virtual performances reached an audience of approximately 11,500.

FINANCE

At the beginning of 2020 DRTT received the first instalment of grant support from Arts Council England towards 'Beyond Corby’, a new two-year programme of activities. This meant that funds were in a healthy position at the start of the period and pandemic.

In light of this it was not felt appropriate by the management team and the board to pursue a grant from the first round of the DCMS Cultural Recovery Fund.

However, due to the uncertainty generated by the pandemic and subsequent impact this had on securing further funding for the organisation, both the Artistic Director and General Manager took de-facto 25% pay cuts to preserve funds. The Dancetheatre Director’s hours were also reduced as due to the nature of online teaching the session times needed to be shortened.

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The Choir Director’s fees remained the same as the choir session remained broadly the same length. These measures remined in place throughout the period.

FUNDRAISING

Despite the pandemic, the team continued their efforts to raise funds in an increasingly difficult and pressurized climate as trusts and organisations focused on supporting ‘front-line’ activities and services.

It was successful in securing received additional grants from The Kenneth Fund and The Heritage Fund COVID grant scheme, both of which were specifically targeted towards combatting the effects of the pandemic. Additional funds were also secured from Corby Borough Council.

INVOLVEMENT IN THE WIDER ARTS NETWORK

Throughout the year the Artistic Director has maintained relationships with strategic local partners as a member of the Corby Cultural Forum. This was formed of a group of long-standing, established arts organisations in Corby in order to develop a response and strategy to represent arts and culture in the town as the local borough council was dissolved into North Northamptonshire Council, one of two new unitary councils for Northamptonshire.

He also attended online conferences and seminars with Orchestras Live and Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust.

Outside of DRTT the Artistic Director continued to run his own online workshops. The General Manger continued his work as Musical Inclusion Partnership and Programme Manager for Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust. Where possible, Choir Director Gareth Fuller continued to lead other choirs across the country online and directed a virtual performance of Northants Sings Out, a massed choir concert.

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

The trustees have reviewed the organisation's needs to generate free reserves in accordance with Charity Commission’s guidance.

In the Trustees’ view, DRTT needs free reserves in order to:

In light of the above, the trustees aim to maintain a target level of free reserves equal to three months of administrative and management costs. In 2020/21 this would have equated to £9,000.

The level of free reserves at the end of 2020/21 is £2970.

The Trustee’s view is that this is the lowest possible level the reserves should reach and, in the short term, should be increased to the equivalent of one month of administrative and management costs – i.e. £3000.

A strategy to increase reserves towards the level designated above (i.e. £9000) will be implemented over the medium to long term to improve the current position.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

N/A

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

DRTT’s principal sources are:

i) Subscriptions from our beneficiaries attending our regular core activities. This currently includes both the choir and the dancetheatre group. Trustees reserve the right to waive such fees for those individuals on benefits or who can demonstrate low levels of income or other form of economic disadvantage.

ii) Grants from a range of sources including:

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In 2020/21, we received the second tranche of grant support from Arts Council England for 'Beyond Corby and secured further support from The Compton Fund (Northamptonshire Community Fund), The Kenneth Fund, Corby Borough Council, Corby Lottery and the Co-op Local Community Fund.

Funding raised in 2019/20 from National Lottery Community Fund and The Austin Hope Pilkington Foundation is still active as progress on the associated project have been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

iii) Donations from individuals

B) Fund Accounting:

General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the Charitable Incorporated Organisation and which have not been designated for other purposes.

Designated funds comprise unrestricted funds that have been set aside by the Trustees for particular purposes. DRTT does not currently hold any designated funds.

Restricted funds are funds which are to be used in accordance with specific restrictions imposed by donors or which have been raised by the CIO for particular purposes.

As of 5[th] April 2021, DRTT held the following restricted funds: ‘Beyond Corby’ - £64,753, ‘Corby Future Voices’ (Youth Music Fund A project) - £16,699.

C) Going Concern Issues

At the time of writing, the Trustees are confident that DRTT remains a going concern until December 2022.

Funding from Arts Council England, Northamptonshire Community Foundation, National Lottery Community Fund, Corby Borough Council, the Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust, and Youth Music, are continuing to support our two major projects, ‘Beyond Corby’ and ‘Future Voices’, although much of the planned activity associated with these initiatives has been delayed and the terms of grants extended accordingly due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the two main periods of lockdown. This funding acquired covers core and marginal costs and provides a firm foundation for operation over the coming period.

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5th April 2021

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