## **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**<br>**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
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the
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luMd*
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the nEur￿le
Al Receipt
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Film Night
EasyFund-Raising
Lilerary Art5
rt&Craft
Short story
Competition
Bank Compensation
Donal￿￿5
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
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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
re￿Ip1s11P*Yn￿nts
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,
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Calegories
B1 Cash funds
Nalwest Currènt Acc
5,992
21
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as
Total Cash lunds
6.013
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B2 Other Monétary
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B4 Assets rétalned
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Film Projection &
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Blu Ray DVD Player
2,128
500
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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