2024-03-31-annual-report

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2023-24
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Trustees Annual Report

Approved on:

11 November 2024

Company Secretary Gemma Mae Halligan

[e-mail] www.amadanensemble.com

AMADAN ENSEMBLE TRUSTEES REPORT 2023-24

The Trustees

The trustees, who are also the directors for the purposes of company law, present their report and the unaudited financial statements of the charity for the period ended 31 March 2024.

Registered charity name Amadan Ensemble

Charity registration number 108168

Company registration number NI657533

Principal office and registered office 22 Sydenham Gardens, Belfast

Mr Richardson

Ms Lynskey Ms Conaghan Ms Venny

Mr Moore

Ms Kernoghan-Reid (Appointed 21 May 2024) Mr Mullan (Resigned 20 May 2024

Independent Examiner Finegan Gibson Causeway Tower 9 James St South, Belfast BT2 8DN

AMADAN ENSEMBLE TRUSTEES REPORT 2023-24

Structure, governance and management

Amadan Ensemble is a company limited by Guarantee governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 20th October 2020. It is registered as a charity with

HMRC and the Charities Commission Northern Ireland. The Board of Trustees administrates the charity. The board meets, at a minimum, quarterly. Two volunteer Creative Directors, Gemma Mae Halligan and David Quinn, are appointed by the Directors to manage the day-to-day operations of the charity. To facilitate effective operations the Creative Directors have delegated authority, within the terms of delegation approved by the Directors, for operational matters.

Risk management and Internal Controls

The Board of Directors has established a system of internal controls, designed to provide reasonable, but not absolute, assurance against material misstatement or loss. They include:

• Regular consideration of the financial position of Amadan Ensemble by the Directors

• Ensuring at least one Director has the necessary skills to interpret and analyse Amadan’s financial records and reports

  • Delegation of authority and segregation of duties

Public Benefit

The Trustees are committed to providing a public benefit and have considered the Charity Commission's guidance in this area. We believe that producing innovative work our audiences will benefit from an enriched family life & social interaction as well leading to more diverse creative expression of culture and which interrogate commonly held opinions, enabling risk-taking in a safe space. We also believe in providing high-quality training opportunities for arts practitioners & the public and performance opportunities for emerging artists.

AMADAN ENSEMBLE TRUSTEES REPORT 2023-24

Objectives and Activities

1

The Charity is established to produce high quality physical theatre specialising in Clown and Bouffon for indoor and outdoor stages, venues and festivals throughout Northern Ireland and beyond. To produce bold new work intended to be exciting, thought-provoking and entertaining for audiences of all ages. Using the pleasure and innocence rooted in Clowning to create theatre that is both delightful and fun, allowing our audiences to come together and take risks while protected by enjoyment and laughter. To use the humour and satire of Bouffon to prick our audience’s conscience, unravelling their tightly-held views and enabling them to have fresh discourse with themselves and others. To provide unique theatrical moments both entertaining and sincere that our audience can carry with them.

2

To encourage appreciation of the arts and stimulate the artistic endeavours of the public through providing regular training in physical theatre styles and methods. To offer world class training opportunities to local artists through organising masterclasses with elite practitioners. To promote the benefits of physical theatre, Clown and Bouffon training as a means to boost the participants' skills in confidence and resilience.

3

To support other theatre artists in their endeavours making bold new work and promote collaboration between artists, including interdisciplinary collaboration where possible.

To pursue any other aims in support of the objects of the charity.

4

Strategic Report

The following sections for achievements and performance and the financial review form the strategic report for the Charity.

AMADAN ENSEMBLE TRUSTEES REPORT 2023-24

Achievements & Performance

Amadan Ensemble invested time and resources into the stability and development of the organisation as well as continuing to expand its artistic programme and its programme of training and skills development. This year saw the creation of a new festival dedicated to theatre based training, Theatre Works Fest NI, and an expanded tour of Geppetto to SEN Schools and theatres across Northern Ireland and ROI. Amadan Ensemble also continued to develop its growing network of partner organisations and artistic collaborations. Amadan Ensemble provided training & skills development opportunities to 106 artistic practitioners/members of the public and participated in seven performance events with an audience of approximately 36,000. Amadan Ensemble received an award of £20,000 from Belfast City Council in the form of the Pathfinder Award aimed at a flexible and tailor-made approach to stability and development along the aims of Belfast's cultural strategy. This award enabled Amadan Ensemble to retain the staff positions of Administration & Development Assistant (Kate Murphy) and Bookkeeper (Colm Smyth) who support the work of the two Creative Directors and also contributed significantly to the organisation's core costs. All staff remain on a part time basis.

Original Productions

Mr Mess - July 2023

Amadan Ensemble toured to Arvalee Special School, Omagh.

Geppetto Regional & ROI venues and SEN Schools Tour - March-April 2023

‘Geppetto’, which premiered at the Lyric Theatre earlier in the year, completed its second tour. Amadan Ensemble to regional Special Educational Needs Schools and Northern Irish arts venues. The NI tour was supported by a grant awarded by Arts Council Northern Ireland National Lottery Fund, allowing us to tour to venues we had never been to before and by supporting work with Thrive we focussed on increasing our audience throughout NI.. Amadan Ensemble provided employment opportunities to eight freelance artists and theatre practitioners.

AMADAN ENSEMBLE TRUSTEES REPORT 2023-24

Workshops

Amadan Ensemble provided a Clown workshop for Newry Arts Festival and ran ClownLAB in partnership with the Lyric Theatre. This year saw the creation of the inaugural Theatre Works Fest NI in partnership with The MAC and supported by BCC Small Grants. The festival comprised an international masterclass David Glass, MANIFEST (Amadan Ensemble’s early stage work residency), additional workshops facilitated by local practitioners and a new work showcase.

Walkabout / Outdoor Shows

Amadan Ensemble continued to provide high quality character-based walkabout to numerous large-scale events throughout Northern Ireland, including Glastonbury Festival, Footsteps in the Forest at Slieve Gullion, and the Vault Artist Studios Christmas Market.

Funding

Belfast City Council Pathfinder Award

With this award Amadan Ensemble were able to put time and resources into developing as an organisation. Funds towards increasing staff and paying for the Creative Directors time have greatly increased capacity, stability and allowed the organisation to grow, develop and plan more effectively.

This award also funded other development opportunities such as intensive training and building networks. Due to the development of Amadan Ensemble resources, the organisation was able to effectively fundraise to create a full-scale production of a new piece of work and employ other artists at industry standard rates of pay.

Arts Council National Lottery Fund & Belfast City Council - Arts & Heritage Grants

These funds contributed significantly to Amadan Ensemble’s annual training activities and creative programming by supporting artist fees and logistical costs. With this support we were able to mount the inaugural Theatre Works Fest NI and mount an expanded tour of Geppetto.

AMADAN ENSEMBLE TRUSTEES REPORT 2023-24

Financial Review

It is the view of the Board of Directors that Amadan Ensemble operated prudently and effectively within the parameters of the financial resources which were available.

Plans for the Future

Our plan is to focus on -

• Building upon our efforts to grow our training programme with a programme of regular workshop and longer form mentoring which can funnel participants into the Theatre Works Fest NI, our annual training festival featuring the dedicated new work residency - MANIFEST, an international masterclass and supplementary workshops.

• Seeking new sources of core funding to replace the Pathfinder Award once it ends in 2024 in order to continue with our Creative & Training Programme and retain staff and resources developed over the past two years.

• Offering a touring production and develop a new piece of work, with the aim of bringing it to full production.

AMADAN ENSEMBLE TRUSTEES REPORT 2023-24

Small company provisions

This report has been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies entitled to the small companies exemption.

The trustees' annual report was approved on 11 November 2024 and signed on behalf of the board of trustees by:

Email Address

[e-mail]

Website

www.amadanensemble.com