Chapel Arts Annual Report 2022-2023
Trustees’ Annual Report for the period
from 1 May 2022 to 30 April 2023
Charity name: Chapel-en-le-Frith Arts (known as Chapel Arts)
Charity registration number: 1178080
Charity Address: 29 Market Street, Chapel-En-Le-Frith, HIGH PEAK, Derbyshire, SK23 0HP
Objectives and Activities:
The objectives for which the charity was established are:
To promote and encourage public participation in, and appreciation of, the arts in CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH and its surrounding communities, in particular, but not exclusively, by the organisation and production of community arts festivals, workshops, events and performances.
Chapel Arts meets these objects by running art and craft workshops; a writing group; spoken word evenings; musical and dramatic performances; a regular film night; and an annual short story competition. We seek to conform to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit by ensuring all activities are available to the people living in and around Chapel-en-le-Frith and are widely advertised. Any charges are kept to the minimum needed to defray costs or are offered free of charge, although donations are welcomed.
Governance and Management:
| Trustee Name | Position Held (if any) | Date appointed or resigned if during current year |
|---|---|---|
| Anne Cawthorn | ||
| Mark Henderson | ||
| Carol Jones | Treasurer | |
| Charles Pickering | Chair | |
| Simone Pottage | ||
| Christopher Sizeland |
Volunteers:
Chapel Arts is run entirely by volunteers, including its trustees, and has no paid employees. The trustees are extremely grateful for the help and support provided by our loyal band of volunteers. They devote many hours to our activities and without their contribution Chapel Arts would not be able to function.
Sue Stringer, a volunteer, sat on the Management Committee alongside the trustees and acted as our Minutes Secretary until her resignation on 14 February 2023. The trustees would to like to record their thanks to Sue for her help over many years. Her help and support was greatly appreciated. A search is underway to find someone to join the committee as our Honorary Secretary.
Achievements and Performance:
Chapel Arts had a reasonably successful year in 2022-23, except for the Creative Arts and Crafts area, as the problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic gradually eased and people started to regain confidence in attending events and activities. However, the increase in inflation and the cost of living caused us to hold our prices at the same level as in 2021-22. The bounce-back in attendance, largely for Film Night and the Writing Group, resulted in a small surplus for the year. The accounts can be found at the end of this report.
Performing Arts :
Performing Arts held two concerts during 2022-23 at Chapel Playhouse, in collaboration with Chapel Players. The first, in October 2022 by The Very Grimm Brothers , featured
Adrian Mealing, a poet and lyricist who had performed in a previous Chapel Arts concert as the leader of A Fistful of Spookies , and John Denton, an accomplished musician. The audience appreciated their original poems and songs, largely inspired by experiences of lockdown, but attendance was disappointing.
For our second concert in March 2023 we featured a well-known and respected Glossop duo, The Fay Brothers . They played acoustic covers of songs by prominent artists from the 1950s through to the ’80s, mixed in with a few of their own compositions, and the atmosphere was electric. The attendance was much improved and the feedback very positive. The event produced a small surplus to be shared with Chapel Players for use of the venue.
Film Group:
Films continue to be shown monthly at Rems. Over the past year people have started to return to the film evenings, overcoming their nervousness post-Covid. We now have a regular audience again.
In collaboration with Chapel Players, we showed a Harry Potter Christmas film at the Playhouse in December. All children who attended were given a selection box, courtesy of Gareth Jones from Rems. Free tickets were distributed to low income families via Little Cherubs.
After a problem with the sound at March’s film night, approval was sought and gained from Gareth Jones, the owner of Rems, to have the projector mounted from the ceiling and the speaker mounted on the wall. The work has prevented any more wires coming loose because the equipment is no longer moved between showings. It has also obviated the danger of a trip hazard, and has increased the space for seating and therefore the number of people able to attend.
Creative Writing:
The last of our ten 2021-22 sessions was held at the beginning of April 2022. The topics we’d pursued during the later part of the season included writing monologues and writing for the stage, and we planned to extend those themes over the following year. We did so during the later part of 2022 and early 2023, producing a total of eleven monologues set in a GPs’ surgery and then constructing a one-act play, The Waiting Room, based on those monologues. Arrangements were made with Chapel Players, the local theatre group with which Chapel Arts has forged connections, to hold a reading of the play; for practical reasons, this event has been deferred until the early part of 2024. The theatre group in Glossop, Partington Players, have arranged readings of the monologues by their actors later in 2023, with our group members, the authors, in attendance.
As in previous years, we devoted the spring of 2022 to preparing presentations for the Buxton Festival Fringe in July. Our theme for 2022 was Reconnecting. This title was chosen because thanks to our release from Covid-19 lockdown were able to perform live rather than through YouTube recordings. However, we made YouTube recordings as well;
these, along with the pdf of our presentations, are available from the Chapel Arts website. By no means all the presentations at the Fringe were about the resumption of face to face contact after the end of lockdowns. Reconnecting with the internet, renewing the pursuit of piano grade examinations, inadvertently connecting with a bull’s horns and reconnecting with one’s forebears were among the other interpretations of the title that various members of the group developed. Our ticket sales enabled us to contribute money to a local children’s charity, Little Cherubs.
For the rest of the 2022-23 season we discussed our works in progress; two more novels were published by the group, and more are likely to be completed and released soon. The fourteen members of the group continued to enjoy our in-class and homework exercises, which they considered beneficial for their writing, and we looked forward to preparing for live presentations at the Buxton Festival Fringe in July 2023.
Spoken Word Evenings:
The Spoken Word group meets on the last Wednesday or Thursday evening of the month, roughly bimonthly, at Rems bar in Chapel-en-le-Frith. We also met on one Saturday afternoon in February at the Mustard Seed in Chapel. This was an experiment to see if people enjoyed the different day, time and venue. The afternoon was a success and I will use the Mustard Seed again during winter months.
Spoken Word allows people to read any literature, usually short stories or poems. There is a mixture of work they’ve written themselves and work by other authors. The evening is split into two sessions, which usually allows people to read twice, with a time limit of five minutes per person in the first session and then again in the second. Some people also like to come along to listen rather than perform.
Spoken Word is a free event as Rems imposes no charge for the venue. The Mustard Seed did charge for heating, but donations given by the participants covered the cost. Donations from participants at Rems are given to Chapel Arts to cover any advertising costs, which are minimal. The advertising comprises posters, which are displayed around Chapel and in other local places. I also print flyers to leave in Rems and elsewhere in the town, which the Film Group can hand out at meetings. I also use the Chapel Arts Facebook page to advertise.
The Spoken Word group had four meetings during this twelve month period. The numbers attending ranged from five to eight. In July, the Chapel Arts Creative Writing Group performed twice at Rems as part of the Buxton Festival Fringe, so I skipped the Spoken Word meeting that would have been due at the same time.
Visual Arts and Crafts:
The search for a volunteer coordinator for Visual Arts and Crafts continued throughout 2022-23 without success. In the absence of someone to organise and run a programme of events including the Art Show, activities have been in abeyance.
FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Brief Statement of the Charity’s Policy on Reserves:
The Charity employs no staff, nor does it rent permanent offices. Therefore, the Charity does not need to hold significant reserves.
Cash reserves are regularly reviewed. The Charity holds sufficient cash to cover six months of central costs, such as public liability insurance and web-hosting, plus amounts to cover any outlay committed to planned events, to replace equipment, or to meet any unforeseen expenditure.
Further Financial Review Details:
At the end of the of the financial year 2021-2022 we had cash funds of £5170, but at the year end 2022-2023 this had risen to £6013, an increase of £843.
The finances of the Charitable Trust remain healthy with ample funds in reserve. The small loss by Performing Arts was more than compensated for by surpluses in Film Night and Literary Arts. Additional savings were made by the decision, after the 2021-22 experience, to cease to run the Short Story competition in 2022-2023. Despite the best efforts of the Literary Arts coordinator, the competition had failed to attract sufficient numbers of entries for effort expended. Terminating our paid Zoom account as we returned to face-to-face meetings, and seeking alternative quotations for the renewal of our Public Liability Insurance, reduced our outgoings further. The quotations received enabled us to achieve the same level of Public Liability cover for a lower premium.
CHARITY ACCOUNTS (1 May 2022 – 30 April 2023)
BO Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the Porlod frorn Ttr ection A eceipls an payments Unfestricted Restricted Endowment fund# lund funds the re¥t£ Total luMd IDt nEe¥t La51 ypwr to thp nEryre¥t r tolhErarvJf the nEurle Al Receipt Pert0[rnan Arts Film Night EasyFund-Raising Lilerary Art5 rt&Craft Short story Competition Bank Compensation Donal5 1,05 873 1,052 873 15 927 10 487 927 540 450 83 100 tota ros Income ffor AR 2,977 3,466 get and See table). Sub tot8 Totalrecelpt 2,977 3,46 A3 Payin8n¢s Performance Arts Film Night EasyFund-Raising Liierary Arts rt&Craft Centr dministration Short Story Competition 1,15 472 1,157 472 1,885 44 102 102 416 500 403 403 678 300 tot8 2,13 2,134 3,823 4 Assèt and inv•strnent purcha8eg, l•ee able) 89 tota 89 Total payment 2,134 2,134 3,912 reIp1s11PYnnts A5 Tran9tgr9 belwèen funds A6 Cash funds lasl year end Cash funds th year en 843 5,170 5,170 5,616 6,01 6,013 5,170
Section B Statement of ssets and liabilities al the nd of the period Unrestricted Restricted Eiidowtnent, fund8 lund8 Iuhd tv Mir••l f I'.tt> rK•aT•8t£ to ne4re¥l £ I Calegories B1 Cash funds Nalwest Currènt Acc 5,992 21 etty as Total Cash lunds 6.013 "laeebatsntrs %irth receipts YmefitsacCllt[s)Tr Unr•Btrictedi.Restricted Endowmen funds funds fund to nurul £ j Ito to £ j Datalls B2 Other Monétary assets -#und io WhlCh1:- t 1 euNent ¥4u&l 4W4ol 198 i. loptlonnD I loptkinlll r)elai1g B3 Investment assets "Èund i¥hlch •tI bEn$ nrestricted Current v*ue IopiioMII B4 Assets rétalned for the eharfity's own use Film Projection & ound System Blu Ray DVD Player 2,128 500 Vundlo Arnounl due lIalIty rdates (Opt1) When due loptk)nall etails B5 Liabilities
DECLARATION
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
Signed:
Charles Frederick Pickering
Chair
Signed:
Carol Ann Jones Treasurer
Date: 6 November 2023