We are the Minories. Arts Charity. Annual Report November 2022 - November 2023 ## Contents |LETTER FROM THE CHAIR|3| |---|---| |ABOUT US|4| |MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS|5| |FINANCIAL SUMMARY|6| |PROGRAMMES AND INITIATIVES|7| |COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT|10| |FUTURE OUTLOOK|11| |ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS|12| 2 ## Letter from the Chair Dear Friends and Supporters, It has been a productive and energetic year for We Are the Minories. We have celebrated reopening the Minories Gallery, welcomed diverse artists and audiences, and deepened our impact on the community. This report highlights our achievements and the strides we have made towards our mission of enriching lives through the arts. I commend the imagination, dedication, and pure grit of our staff, Emma Howe, Emma Barrow and Francesca Lombardi, our trustees, our volunteers, and our tenants for making the last year so successful and rewarding. I am very proud to serve as your chair. Thank you for your unwavering support. Sincerely, Photo: Jayne Lloyd Ben Coode-Adams 3 ## About us ## MISSION Our mission is not just a statement; it’s a commitment. **We will use our building, garden, collection and archive as a catalyst to connect with our region and communities through a high-quality and widely accessible creative programme.** ## VISION Empowering our communities to access the life-changing power of art VALUES Our core values are: Financial Stability Inclusivity Diversity Creativity Environmental Sustainability Photo: Mads Pierce 4 ## Major Achievements ## EXHIBITIONS We hosted six exhibitions featuring over 150 artists. ## EVENTS We organised four events, including artist talks, community celebrations and live music. VENUE HIRE We took 16 bookings for the use of our spaces. ## ARTIST FAIRS We ran two artist fairs with over 20 stallholders. ## PARTNERSHIPS We established new partnerships with local people, community groups, businesses, and non-profits. Photo: Street Art Atlas 5 Financial Summary THEMINO Donations and legacies (excluding Endowments Received) £19179 CharitabLe activities £95119 THEMINO Other trading activities £41965 Investments £31 Other £0 Photo: Jayne Lloyd ## Programmes and Initiatives The year has been characterised by reinvigoration and dynamism, with new staff Director Emma Howe appointed May 2023, Gallery and Programme Manager Emma Barrow appointed June 2023, and Francesca Lombardi taking charge of frontof-house duties from October 2023. We are profoundly grateful to Jade Fothergill, who left us in March 2023. We wish her all the best for the future. Jade worked with us from December 2020 until March 2023. She delivered our Cultural Recovery Fund grant, an ambitious programme to support freelance creative professionals through the pandemic and deliver top-class creative work. She operated our gallery in Trinity Square until the end of December 2021, found our space on Long Wyre Street, oversaw its refurbishment and installed the We Are Commoners exhibition. We began the year with a bang, delivering our Festival of Commoning in Priory Walk. Organised by Jade in collaboration with Craftspace, we delivered a weekend of workshops and celebrations with our neighbours on Priory Walk, including Colchester Arts Centre, Bridgeway, African Families in the UK, Colchester Food Cooperative Leaf Café run by En-form, Level Best and Community 360. We worked with artists Megan Neko from Stitch and Bitch, Alinah Azadeh, Shane Waltener and Professor Freddie Robins. We were successful in being accepted into the Steps to Sustainability programme run by the Social Enterprise Academy. This programme supported us in developing our innovative, sustainable wedding offer, which is bearing fruit now. We successfully applied for a grant to the National Heritage Lottery Fund for a governance development programme. To devise our long-term strategy, we ran sessions for our staff and board with facilitator Dr Torange Khonsari until June. Jack Fellows joined the staff in January 2023 to help develop our earned income. He oversaw multiple repairs to our building, including the roof, the plumbing and heating systems, to ensure we could open to the public. He also developed a fruitful collaboration with Crisp Events. We began to use our building to generate income by renting out spaces. Our first tenant was the British Origami Society, which now stores its internationally significant archive in our building. We opened our building for the first time since March 2020, with Potfest in February 2023. We saw over 1,000 visitors through the doors over three days. The Essex Photography Prize was equally busy. In April we were delighted to be able to host the informative and erudite Colchester Archaeological Trust Roman wall exhibition. CAT held a number of hugely popular workshops with local people sorting and labelling finds. Meanwhile, we were running exhibitions out of space on Long Wyre Steet. Our programme Arable, devised to support artists working with our collection and funded by the Hervey Benham Charitable Trust, continued. Deborah Lander curated the intriguing exhibition ‘Moments’ in January, showcasing moving image works by five early career artists. In February, Arable artists Clare Sams and Mary Pullen Deacon held an exhibition with workshops and talks. We supported Deborah Lander’s successful application for a Developing Your Creative Practice Arts Council Grant. The culmination of that work was the sparkling ‘In Memoria’ exhibition, which ran from July to August. In the Spring of 2023, we ran workshops with artists Abbie Cairns, Gemma Garwood, Heidi Sharp, Tilly Hawkins and Iris Gunnarsdottir. We continued with our life drawing classes led by Sarah Hill. In May we hosted ‘Odes to the Ocean’ an immersive listening event with music, accompanied by a film by Sally Child, movement by The Nose Collective, and a textile installation created through public workshops. 7 ## Programmes and Initiatives Our connections with Creative Colchester strengthened - in June we hosted their networking event and Q&A, featuring Cllr David King (Leader of Colchester City Council) and Lindsay Barker (Executive Director Place) discussing future plans for culture in Colchester. On 28th April, we were accepted to work towards Museum Accreditation. Although we have a great deal of work to undertake to achieve this accolade it is a major milestone to have been accepted into the programme. We completed a fire risk assessment of the Minories building, alongside other buildingrelated admin such as reinstating alarms and fixing the heating. Lydi Martin generously gifted us books to add to our small but useful library. We held the Colchester Institute BA(Hons) Fine Art exhibition ‘You do You’ in Long Wyre Street. This was a wonderfully varied and exciting exhibition across media. Congratulations to staff and students. Nice one. We began redesigning our website and graphic identity with brilliant local designer Kate Goodall. Our new look was launched in September. We inititated a venue hire offer at the Minories, starting with weekly Yoga classes and going on to host a variety of events throughout the year, including birthday parties, album launches, and away days. We reopened our building fully on August 19, 2023, launching with a feast of creativity by the often overlooked printmaker Michael Rothenstein, lent by Goldmark Gallery, who also kindly donated several prints to the Victor Batte-Lay Foundation. We celebrated Heritage Open Days with a Q&A with Colchester Graphic Designer, Paul Warren (of Warren Graphics), discussing his involvement in the original Rothenstein exhibition - held at The Minories in 1981. Hot on the heels of this popular and successful exhibition, we hosted ‘Essex Artists Past and Present’, curated by Hayletts Gallery and ‘Sargy Mann: Summer 1974’ curated by Cobbold and Judd in our Ballroom. The former showed a broad and deep range of Essex artists, including Simon Carter, Elizabeth Morris, Chloe Cheese and James Dodds. The latter presented work by artist Sargy Mann, painted at Thorington Street in Suffolk. As a result of the second exhibition a work of art by Sargy Mann was donated to the VBLF collection. In August we also started delivering a project co-produced with patients and NHS/EPUT staff of The Lakes Unit, Ipswich Road, Colchester consisting of nine fortnightly art workshops led by a selection of local artists. This project went on to win ## an NHS Innovation Award. In October we hosted our first PRINTFEST, a selling fair for printmaking, featuring seven local artists selling their works. New connections in our community led to us hosting the vibrant ‘More than History’ Fashion show for Colchester Black History Month in October. October also saw Colchester’s first Street Art exhibition, delivered in collaboration with CRISP events and EYE-SAW, a local street artist. Our funding from the Hervey Benham Charitable Trust allowed us to deliver an artist residency by Clare Iles, a sculptor based at Cuckoo Farm Studios just north of Colchester. Clare created a menagerie of farmyard animals with visitors to the gallery old and young in response to paintings of prize animals by artist John Vine in the Victor Batte-Lay Foundation Collection. We hosted work by emerging artists from local educational establishments. Both the ACL Level 2 Art and Design Showcase and the ‘Generator’ pop-up exhibition of work from Level 3 Foundation Diploma Art & Design students at Colchester Institute took place at Long Wyre Street. Common Ground Colchester, a community cooperative, moved into our café space supported by our JustGiving campaign. Our 8 ## Programmes and Initiatives café reopened, serving hearty plant-based seasonal food sourced from local suppliers. They now have over 300 cooperative members. We are incredibly thankful to everyone who donated to the campaign and helped us fit out the kitchen ready for their arrival. In November we conceived of and hosted the innovative ‘Alternative Fireworks Night’ - An immersive light and sound experience in our garden co-created with local DJ Dave Goddard and Light Artist Extraordinaire ‘The Octopus’. We programmed rolling exhibitions featuring works from the VBLF collection. We replaced the flooring in the upstairs space, sound-insulating it for the first time before renting it to Creative Co-op, a graphic design co-operative. We ended this financial period with a strong start of 6,909 visitors. Staff and Trustees attended the Heritage Compass Symposium, the Association of Independent Museums Conference, and the Steps to Sustainability Conference. All staff undertook Rebuilding Heritage training sessions. Our premises successfully obtained its public entertainment licence, with Emma Howe passing the personal licencing test. We welcomed new trustees Jevan Watkins Jones, artist gardener; Jessica Twyman, curator at the Art Exchange Essex University; Lesley Scordellis, a former trustee of the Guildford Institute and part of the Cannock Mill cohousing community; and Russell Walker, Artist Illustrator; Edmund Bacon facilities manager; Yasmin Carr community organiser. Farewell, Dr Sarah Demelo and Clare Sams as Trustees. Thank you for your time and your valuable contributions. Photo: Jayne Lloyd Photo: Emma Gosling 9 ## Community Engagement ## ART IN PUBLIC SPACES We worked with the Army and the Hurrell family to bring the Jac Van Someren sculpture ‘Verwondering’ to our Garden. The sculpture was unveiled in a moving ceremony coinciding with and celebrating the anniversary of Operation Market Garden with the Parachute Regiment, Colchester Garrison, Lord Lieutenant Jenny Tolhurst, High Sheriff Charlie Bishop, the Mayor of Colchester. ## VOLUNTEER PROGRAMME Our 11 volunteers contributed over 2,000 hours of service. Photo: Ben Coode-Adams 10 ## Future Outlook Looking ahead, we aim to: Apply to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a project focussed on making our building more accessible. Increase our outreach and educational programmes, particularly in underserved communities. Strengthen our financial sustainability through diversified funding sources. Professionalise our processes as we prepare to apply for Museum Accreditation. Assess the ecological landscape of our garden, then take active steps to improve the range of species and habitats present. Ensure that environmental responsibility is a key consideration in everything we do. Continue fostering an inclusive environment that celebrates diversity in the arts. Photo: Mads Pierce 11 ## Acknowledgements We extend our heartfelt thanks to our donors, volunteers, partners, and staff. Your unwavering support and dedication are the driving force behind our work, and we are deeply grateful for it. We are also hugely grateful to all our visitors who make everyday such a joy. Please keep coming. We will be doing more and better of everything. KEY SUPPORTERS We are immensely grateful to the previous Friends of the Minories for 30 years spent caring for our garden. ## FOUNDATION SUPPORT Victor Batte-Lay Foundation CONTACT US We are the Minories The Minories Gallery 74 High Street Colchester Essex CO1 1UE Tel: 01206 582 067 Email: info@theminories.org Photo: Mads Pierce 12 Registered number- 13018113 WE ARE THE MINORIES UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30 NOVEMBER 2023 SAS Accounting SeThices Ltd The Colchester ￿ntre Hawkins Road Cold)Ètter C02 8)X We Are The Minories Unaudited Financial Statements For The Year Ended 30 November 2023 Contents Page statement of Financial Position Notes to the Financlal Statements 3-4 We Are The Minories Statement of Financial Position As At 30 November 2023 Registered number: 13018113 2023 2022 Ilotes FIXED ASs￿s Tangible A5SEts 10,322 10,322 CURRENT ASS￿5 Stocks 6.148 2,800 3.573 Debiur5 Cash at bank and in hand 8,254 12.521 8.254 Creditors: Amounts Falling Due Within One Year {3.149 } {1,996 } NET CURREI￿ Ass￿5 (LIABIUTIES) 9,372 6,258 TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT UABILITIES L9,694 6,258 NET AsseTS 19.694 6,258 Income Ststetnent 19,694 6,258 MEMBERS. FUNDS 19.694 6,258 Page I We Are The Minories Statement of Financial Position (continued) As At 30 November 2023 For the year wding 30 November 2023 the company was enritled ro exemption from audit under section 477 of the Companles Act 2006 relating to small companies. The members have not required the company to obtain an ajdif in accordance with section 476 of the Companies Act 2006. The dlrectors acknowledge thelr responslbilities for complyiTrJ with the requirements of thè Act with respect to accountlng records and the preparation of accounts. ThÈsÈ atcounts have beén prepared and delivered in ac¢ordarbtÈ véith the provisions applicablÈ to companies subjert to the small companies, regime. The company has taken advanwe of section 44411) of the Companies Act 2006 and opted not to deliver tts the registrar a copy of the company's Income Statement. On behalf of the board Amy Turnbull Director 16th August 2024 The notes on pages 3 to 4 form part of these financial statements. Page 2 We Are The Minories Notes to the Financial Statements For The Year Ended 30 November 2023 General Informatlon We Are The Minories is a prlvate company. limited by guarantee. incorporated in EnglatTrJ & Wales. reglstered number 13018113 The registered Offi￿ is The Minories, 74 High street, Colct*ster, Essex, COI IUE. Accountin9 Policies Basis of Preparation of Financial Ststements The financial statemenrs have been p￿par￿ under the hisrorial cost convention and in accordan￿ with Financial Reporting Standard 102 sertion IA Small Erstities Tr Finanoal Reporting Standard applicable In the UK and Republic of Ireland. and the Companies Act 2006. 2.2. Turnover Turnover is measured at the fair value of the considerabon received or receivable. net of discounts and value added taxes. Turnover includes ￿VenUe eamed from the sale of goods and '.rom the ￿ ndering of Servi￿5. Turnover is reduced for estimated customer retums, rebates an¢J other sitnilar allowarKes. Sale of goods Turnover from the sale of good5 15 recognised when the si9nificant ri5k5 and rewards of ownership of the goods ha5 tr6nsferred to the buyer. Thi5 15 Usually at the point that the cu5totner has signed for the delivery of the good5. Renderlng of servlces Turnover from the rendering of services is recognSsed by referen￿ to the stage of completion of the contract. The stage of completion of a contrart is measured by comparing the costs incurred for work performed to date to the total estimated contract costs. Turnover ￿ only r￿QgnISed to the extent of recoverable expenses when the outcome of a contract cannot be estimated reliably. Tanglble Flxed Assets and Depredatlon Tangible fixed assets are rneasured at cost ￿sS accumulated (kpreciation and any accumulated impairrnent losses. Depreaation is provided at rates calculated to write off the cts5t of the fixe