Artists Attic Trust CIO
TRUSTEES' REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2026
Charity Registration No. 1198542
CONTENTS Page Trustees' Annual Report 1 - 7
Receipts and Payments Accounts 8
Artists Attic Trust CIO Year ended 31 March 2026
Charity Reg. No. 1198542
Trustees' Annual Report
Artists Attic Trust is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (charity no. 1198542) whose registered office is at 44 Daisy Hill, Dewsbury WF13 1LH. The trustees of the charity for this reporting period were:
Bruce Bird appointed 7 August 2023 Royston Flaherty appointed 7 August 2023 Gina Suzette Reid appointed 7 April 2022
Objects of the charity
The purpose of the charity is to promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of Batley/Spen and the surrounding areas the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation, including arts and crafts, of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, financial hardship or social and economic circumstances or for the public at large in the interests of social welfare and with the object of improving the condition of life of the said inhabitants. In furtherance of the above object the charity shall have the power to establish or secure the establishment of a community arts centre and to maintain and manage the same (whether alone or in co-operation with any statutory authority or other person or body).
Statement on public benefit
The trustees confirm that they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers or duties. The above objects and other information set out in this report demonstrate this in more detail.
Activities report
The trust is managed by the three named trustees. The purpose of the charity is as a creative hub providing resources and creative direction for the public provided by a collective of professional artists. Due to relocation one trustee has expressed a wish to resign and we are actively seeking a replacement as well as additional trustees.
Artists Attic provides opportunities for individuals and groups to create and experience arts and crafts. We believe that everyone benefits physically or mentally, directly or indirectly from exposure to the arts in all its forms.
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We do this by:
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providing a safe space where anyone can create their own art or experience creativity by some other means in their own time;
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by guiding people through the exploration of their creativity led by qualified artists. In the beginning by free drop-in sessions and progressing to planned workshop programmes and;
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by supporting artists living locally who wish to contribute to our work and to the regeneration of the local area.
Free services
Our basic objective is to be available to meet the creative needs and development of individual members of the community. We do this by being open for visitors to ‘dropin’ on three days a week. This enables them to discuss with our artists what they want to do and identify a way forward at their own pace. Although highly visible at street level our property is located in the most deprived area of Dewsbury and footfall is light. Despite this we do have interest generated mostly by our online presence and more than 400 people have expressed an interest.
Our local council also signposts individuals to us when they believe we can provide relevant support. However, the reputation around the Daisy Hill area puts many people off visiting our location.
We continue to attract interest from members of the community with physical or learning difficulties. Creative activities are primarily individual and depend on the individual coming forward and expressing their interest. We aim to ensure that while we provide support for creative activities that contribute to the wellbeing of many vulnerable people we ensure that we continue to maintain our unique characteristic of delivering creative art.
Grant funded projects
‘ Artful Expressions’ is an evening art club for young children operating on Monday evenings every week and originally funded by Awards for All.
This ran from October 2023 to July 2024 but continued to operate after funding was exhausted thanks to the generosity of our contributing artists. New funding was obtained from the National Lottery Community Fund of £19,990 in February 2025.
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Charity Reg. No. 1198542
At that time the intention was to expand on activities beyond the weekly children’s workshop and to include greater engagement with the local community to create additional street art as a contribution to the regeneration effort in the town. However, two issues have prevented this development.
C aption: Artful Expressions getting
creative with cardboard, 2 Feb 2026
As reported last year the club suffered a massive loss of users due to the closure of residential accommodation in the area. This emphasised the deprived nature of our postcode area (WF13 1LH) being within the top 1% of the UK Index of Deprivation 2025.
Arts Council England has also designated Kirklees as a "Priority Place" due to historically low investment in the creative arts. This effectively confirms the need for recreational and creative activities that we provide in the area for the reduced number of children.
We continue to have a strong link to the Romanian community and hosted an event organised by the local community in February 2026 at which the Romanian Consul General was the guest of honour.
Caption: The Consul General of Romania in Manchester, Ms Nicoleta Teodorovici visiting the art club on 23 February 2026
CCTV and safeguarding
We have been fortunate to be gifted sufficient CCTV equipment to cover all our meeting rooms and have reviewed and adapted our Safeguarding policies. Unfortunately, the cost of installation has exhausted our unrestricted funds. Grant funders have been kept advised throughout. This issue also caused us to pause the planned expansion of our activities and it has been agreed with the Community Fund that their grant funded
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Charity Reg. No. 1198542
workshops will be continued until the grant funds are exhausted.
Holiday Activity Clubs - during school holidays.
With the grant funding for Holiday Activity Clubs being linked to the number of users and the reduction in our user group, the grant revenue available no longer covers the cost. The trustees determined that we could not continue with a loss-making activity.
Sustainability
The trustees are conscious of the need to become more resilient by developing our own sources of income. To this end the home page of our website shows a number of paid workshops that we offer in order to generate unrestricted income. Several artists making use of our facilities regularly make donations as a contribution to overheads.
With both the property and artists labour being provided at no cost our particular problem is the funding of utilities requiring some £5,000 per year for electricity, gas, broadband and water. In addition, the gas boiler has now been condemned and without longer term security on the building it is not possible to obtain grant funding for a replacement. We are therefore reliant on electrical heating and our heating bills are likely to rise. The search for unrestricted funds for utility costs and boiler replacement is therefore our highest priority.
If the space we are able to make available to users is not habitable due a lack of funding for utility costs then the work and skills of our artists collective is wasted.
However, we continue to provide a safe space for whoever may need it while directing their attention towards our core objective of creative activity when they are with us.
Hosting of other creative groups, artists and facilities
With the space available in our property, Artists Attic is able to provide space for other creative and community groups to support their activities.
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We continue to host the Serendipity Creative Writing group, thus broadening our reach beyond the visual arts.
We host a crafter making handmade greeting cards; the Urban Remade Studio that upcycles retro and vintage clothing ; and we have both screen printing and laser cutter equipment installed that are owned by contributing artists but available for use by the public.
Reserves
The trust has a Reserves Policy with a target level of three months operating costs, excluding grant funded projects.
Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) - structure, governance and management
The charity is governed by its CIO Constitution and was registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales on 7 April 2022 as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO).
The members of the CIO are its charity trustees for the time being. The only persons eligible to be members of the CIO are its charity trustees.
There are presently 3 trustees whose details are given above.
The trustees manage the charity on a day-to-day basis.
Policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees
The charity recognises that it has a responsibility to provide guidance and assist new trustees in fulfilling their duties and responsibilities, this is done in accordance with Charity Commission guidance. New trustees are encouraged to study relevant Charity Commission; the constitution of the charity and any amendments to it; have access to the Google Workspace where all information relevant to the charity is held and the latest copy of this report and statement of accounts.
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Risk Management
The trustees confirm that they have various policies in place for managing risk. As can likely be deduced from the above the highest risk the charity has at present is finding funding and the ability to heat and light our space. Safeguarding is of course one of the risks that has to be managed as well as health & safety of users and artists.
Approval
The Trustees Report for the Year ended 31 March 2026 was approved by the Board of Trustees on 10 June 2026 and signed on their behalf by:
Bruce Bird
Trustee
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Receipts and payments accounts
Prepared in accordance with Charity Commission for England and Wales publication CC16a.
| 2026 | 2026 | 2026 | 2025 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes | Unrestricted | Restricted | Total | Total | |
| funds | funds | funds | funds | ||
| RECEIPTS | £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Donations | 1,040 | -- | 1,040 | 1,524 | |
| Grants | -- | 4,445 | 4,445 | 33,865 | |
| Sundry income | 1,571 | -- | 1,571 | 41 | |
| Gross income | 2,611 | 4,445 | 7,056 | 35,430 | |
| PAYMENTS Artist costs Materials Project costs Administration and transport costs Promotion and website costs Property costs |
682 283 -- 873 154 2,112 |
9,500 414 612 -- -- 5,049 |
10,182 697 612 873 154 7,161 |
6,987 565 842 1,238 181 6,734 |
|
| 4,104 | 15,575 | 19,679 | 16,547 | ||
| Net of receipts/(payments) transfers between funds Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
(1,493) 1,163 51 (279) |
(11,130) (1,163) 23,608 11,315 |
(12,623) -- 23,659 11,036 |
18,883 -- 4,776 23,659 |
|
| Reserves Unrestricted funds Restricted funds: Awards For All Dewsbury East Kirklees DESFT Kirklees HAF |
b/f receipts 51 2,611 19,209 -- 4,000 -- 399 -- -- 4,445 |
payments (4,104) (11,252) (642) (399) (3,282) |
transfers 1,163 -- -- -- (1,163) |
c/f (279) 7,957 3,358 -- -- |
|
| Total reserves | 23,608 4,445 23,659 7,056 |
(15,575) (19,679) |
(1,163) -- |
11,315 11,036 |
Approved by the trustees on 10 June 2026 and signed on their behalf by:
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Bruce Bird, Trustee
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