The Spark Annual Report 2014

Annual Report 2014

www.thesparkarts.co.uk

Contents page

Welcome 3Festival Highlights 4Festival Attendance 7Imaginative Spaces 8Our work across the year 10Our Supporters 12Financial Report 14Festival venues and staff 15Our Partners 16

Our Vision

The Spark enableschildren to enjoy the opportunities fordiscovery offered by the arts as audiences, aslearners and as creatorsof their own art.

This Annual Report marks the end of a highlysuccessful and busy year, which includes thelaunch of new and innovative programmes ofwork such as Imaginative Spaces (our work inLibraries) and Pop Up Play (our Digital R&Dproject). Our portfolio of work continues to growin ambition and reach as we engage thecommunities in Leicester and beyond.

Regionally we have been collaborating with colleagues to deliver a series ofstrategic and inspiring summits to look at The Cultural Life of the Child acrossearly, primary and secondary years. This has involved professionals fromdifferent sectors, extending our advocacy role in new and dynamic ways.

The Spark Festival remains our flagship project and this year we saw 24,880people attending 190 events over twelve wonderful festival days. Thisrepresents a considerable 25% increase in attendance from 2013 and is ourhighest attendance to date. In addition we have hosted a TYA (Theatre forYoung Audiences) industry event, bringing colleagues from across the UKarts sector together. In partnership with IdeasTap we were able to supportthe development of two emerging UK artists, platforming new work as partof the festival offer.

We are pleased to be able to report sustained positive results and would liketo thank our funders and partners for the important role they play in enablingour success. The business and arts community continue to embrace whatwe do with great generosity and warmth, which brings significant benefitsto the children we work with. With this wonderful support, we feel confidentin our ability to continue this work and to grow our ambition, reach and impactin 2015.

Welcome

www.thesparkarts.co.uk 3

Spark Festival 2014 was thebiggest to date. 190 events and24,480 attendances. It's rare tosee such consistent growthand momentum in any artsorganisation. Even rarer whenthe organisation is devoted tothat most marginalised sector:children! The success of Spark

is proof that both the need and the audience arethere for high quality arts provision for youngpeople. I'm excited to see where the Spark'smomentum will take it next.

This year's festival was particularly special for meas I was lucky enough to be part of theprogramme. I, Malvolio played at Curve and I felthonoured to be able to contribute practically tothe output of such a wonderful event. Just as myMalvolio is nothing without his audience,the Spark is nothing without the young people itis devoted to. Bring on Spark 2015!

Adel Al-SalloumDirector

David BellChair of the Board of Trustees

Tim CrouchSpark Patron

“It was mind-blowing. I loved it! Iwant to keep it in my head always.”

Solomon, Pupil at Mellor Primary School about Yummm!

“I will tell other people that the SparkFestival was really good and tell themto go and see it.”

Pupil at Mellor Primary School

4 www.thesparkarts.co.uk

This year’s Spark Festival was another resounding success,with many fantastic artists visiting Leicester, creatingcountless memorable moments. As always our loyal Sparkaudiences came out in their droves and here were some ofour favourite moments:

At Your SchoolBritish-Asian clarinettist, composer and musician, Arun Ghosh and hissextet took part in our ‘At Your School’ programme, adapting andperformed a jazz concert that has traditionally been performed toadults. Our audiences loved the show, which almost raised the roof ata number of primary schools. Arun also worked with Key Stage 2pupils from Sandfield Close Primary, Glebelands Primary andMowmacre Hill Primary schools for a number of weeks in the run-up tothe festival. These pupils were then involved in a special performanceat The Y Theatre – our schools and venues programme meetingtogether for the very first time.

In Your TheatreMulti-award winning international company Aracaladanza captivateda sell-out audience at Curve with Constellations, as one of our excitingperformances recommended for older audiences. As a result of ourwork as part of the East Midlands Children’s Theatre and DanceNetwork, Frozen Charlotte’s Too Many Penguins sold-out at EmbraceArts and thrilled our youngest Spark audiences.

On Your DoorstepDiversions: Route II returned to New Walk Museum and Art Gallery,who tied it into their work hosting the Alexandra Reinhardt MemorialAward (ARMA) artist residency award. Children got to meet and workwith Danish-born artist Maria Zahle, helping to shape her artwork forthis prestigious residency. Hundreds of children got to take over theRenaissance Hall in this wonderful experience.

Festival Highlights 2014


AracaladanzaArun Ghosh QuintetBamboozle Theatre CompanyBirmingham Stage CompanyCamille ScherrerCircle of TwoCompany of AngelsChristian LeeCurve Young Arts Entrepreneurs Half MoonKrazy Kat Theatre CompanyLa Baracca – Testoni RagazziLeicester Print WorkshopLinda HardingLucy Hammondmacrobert and Frozen CharlotteMaria ZahleMonski MouseMovers Theatre CompanyNorwich Puppet Theatre Pedestrian Rene Baker Replay Theatre Company Science Museum LiveShlomoSinfonia Viva Tall Tales Big Moves Tell Tale HeartsTessa Bide Theatre-RitesTim Crouchtutti fruitti

Festival companies& artists


Our co-production withBamboozle Theatre This year’s festival featured an exciting collaboration withtheatre company Bamboozle, creating a dramatic adaptationof Julia Donaldson’s well-loved book Jack and the FlumflumTree. Designed for children aged 7 - 14 with learningdisabilities, the show launched at this year’s Spark festivalbefore touring to special schools nationwide and embarking ona tour of regional theatres.

Bamboozle Theatre has a strong track record in producingimmersive and interactive theatre for children and youngpeople with learning disabilities, including projects with theNational Theatre on War Horse and Curve on 42nd Street.

Lighting the fire with IdeasTap Creative development opportunities are vital to supportingartists in creating new work for children and young people.This year we worked with IdeasTap, a charity that works tocreate industry opportunities for artists, on order to mentor andsupport two emerging artists to create new and distinctive workfor children. The Spark Festival gave a warm welcome to TessaBide and Arnold’s Big Adventure and Rachel Birch-Lawson’sSea Story.

www.ideastap.com

This year’s festival contained some brand new productions, one of which was our own co-production withBamboozle Theatre. We are proud the festival is a platform for new work and talented emerging artists in this way.

“Fantastic - lots of lovely sensoryprops and sounds. Lovely interactionswith students and accessible on lotsof levels - an inspiration!”

Jeff Renner, Ash Field Academy

“The opportunity to showcase ourwork at The Spark was invaluable,giving us an opportunity to performour work to a new audience andreceive feedback which was crucialto the work’s development.”

Rachel Birch-Lawson

Our 2014 festival surpassed all expectations, with our audiences growing by 25% from last year. In the lasttwo years our attendance levels at the festival have almost doubled. This increase can be attributed to ourgrowing relationships with the venues we work with including a fantastic programme of digital events atPhoenix. Horrible Histories was hosted on Curve’s main stage and De Montfort Hall returned to the festivalwith a bang, hosting the fabulous The Energy Show.

In Your TheatreTheatre performances / workshops

At Your SchoolIn school performances, including workshops

On Your Doorstep Performances in community venues e.g. libraries, community centres, shopping centres and parks

Curve Playground *Free family activities at Curve

Visual & Digital Arts *Phoenix Square, New Walk Museum and Pedestrian

Total

* estimated audience figures at free activities.

Summary of attendance 2014


Another record year

55 65 9,140 11,663

53 53 4,660 4,810

19 14 674 897

32 20 1,985 3,146

50 38 2,306 3,964

147 190 18,765 24,480

2013 2014 2013 2014number of events attendance

“I’ve heard that in this library if youread a book the stories come true”

Year 5 pupil from Granby Primary arriving at Southfields Library


Re-imagining libraries as cultural hubs at the heart ofthe community

Imaginative Spaces is a year long 'artist in residence' project whichfocuses on a programme of work delivered in Southfields andBraunstone libraries, to support storytelling as a medium topromote reading for pleasure and language development.

Over the course of 2014 Jayne Williams (based at The BRITECentre) and Andy Reeves (Southfields Library) have been workingwith library staff, schools, families and community groups todevelop a programme of work that shows creative and innovativeways to use library spaces, books and other resources.

The artists have created a bespoke programme for each settingwhich reflects the needs, dynamics and relationships of thecommunities. Local children and families have been taking part ina range of activities and pop up events, half term and summerperformance projects, regular workshop sessions and theatreperformances. In the first few months over 2,000 people engagedwith 67 activities.

This project is being delivered in partnership with Leicester LibraryService and forms part of a broader strategy that seeks to developlibraries as a beacon of excellence, cultivating a renewed senseof ownership of local libraries, and encouraging families andchildren to become actively involved in arts and culture at the heartof their community.

“Leicester Libraries have workedwith The Spark for a number ofyears, and we consider them tobe an exceptionally importantpartner. The Imaginative Spacesproject has been an enormoussuccess and is encouragingchildren and families to activelyengage with their library in newand exciting ways.”

Cllr Sarah Russell,Assistant Mayor for Neighbourhoods

Imaginative Spaces



“I am both interested and excited to see how this type of immersivedigital technology may enhancechildren’s learning, overall enjoymentand understanding of a book.”

Karen Hammond, Head Teacher at

Mellor Primary School

POP UP PLAY

The Spark Arts for Children has been working on exciting newproject in partnership with De Montfort University and Digital ArtistLuke Woodbury, thanks to funding from the Digital R&D Fund forthe Arts. Our Pop Up Play project aims to question how immersivetechnology can support creative learning and communicationskills with and for children and young people.

The team have delivered a series of case studies involvingstudents and teachers from Mellor Community Primary School,Leicester and Three Ways School, Bath alongside a number oflibraries, museums and arts organisations across the UK in orderto develop this project.

The result of the project will be an open source Pop UpPlay product that is freely available to use by all. The software willbe accompanied by a creative framework, a tool kit that is flexible,and maximises engagement for teachers, arts practitioners,librarians and other educational professionals.

A final symposium and product launch is planned for February /March 2015.

The Spark works to increase its impact on the creation and presentation of arts for children in the UK

Cultural Life of the Child

“Every child and young person has the opportunity to experiencethe richness of the arts, museums and libraries” Leicester’s CulturalAmbition Statement

This year The Spark have been part of a region wide advisory boardworking to support and deliver a series of summits led by TheMighty Creatives (East Midlands Bridge) The ambition for theCultural Life of the Child is to create a meaningful system that willhelp transform our children's future; to find better ways of workingand living together with more effective co-ordination andcollaboration across and between local government, arts andculture, health and education sectors.

To date we have supported Summit #1: The Early Years, Summit #2:The Primary Years and Summit #3: The Secondary Years - threeinspiring days involving over 200 delegates from across the EastMidlands. The summits have proved incredibly successful and weare proud to be able to contribute to this exciting series ofconversations with colleagues across the region.

City Festival

Back by popular demand, The End of the Pier Delights returned toOrton Square this August, bringing good old fashioned family funto the City Festival and ending a wonderful summer for The Spark.

Tongue Tied Theatre brought The Revenge of Mr Trout, a highlyinteractive performance for 5-12 year olds, whilst Talking Birdsbrought The Whale to Orton Square – enabling children to stepinside the belly of the beast to meet Jonah, a submariner who needsthe audiences help to take a message back to the surface. We alsowelcomed back La Bella Ukulele, who entertained the 1100 peoplewho attended.

Our work across the year


“simple and accessible Pop Up Playgiving a new era to digital education#SparkPUP”

Immerse


“Lovely Saturday so farenjoying Leicester’s@thesparkarts festival. It’sbrilliant fun so do go downand get involved.”

Jonathon Ashworth MP

The Spark Arts for Children exists to ensure that all children in Leicesterhave the opportunity to access high quality arts experiences, which willspark their imagination and raise their future aspirations.

We play a vital role in contributing to the well-being and prosperity ofchildren and families. We keep our ticket prices as low as possible andoffer 20% of our festival activity free to audiences and participants.50% of our festival performances took place in schools, libraries andcommunity centres.

We couldn’t have done it without you...

This year we renewed our partnership with the Belmont Hotel – theSpark Festival’s official hotel, who provide wonderful hospitality to all ofour artists throughout the year.

Our print partner continues to be Taylor Bloxham, with whom weproduce all of our high quality festival print, with reduced paper costsfrom Paperlinx. This year we started a new partnership with De MontfortUniversity, enabling students to gain valuable arts festival experienceat our Play-ground event at Curve. Once again local restaurant ChutneyIvy hosted a delicious company meal for our artists and supporters,supported by our festival partners Equity.

Thanks also go to the schools who supported us on Hero Day.

In May we launched a new Spark Supporters scheme, to help secureregular individual and business donations, with options starting fromjust £5 a month. In return for this much-needed support we offermembership of a new Rocket Club to a nominated child who will receivea quarterly newsletter, a badge and a certificate.

We are also grateful for support from trusts and funds helping us withspecific projects with children and young people during the year (seelist on the back page).

Thank you everyone!

Thank you to our Supporters

“The Spark Festival is aninspiration in itself toencourage children tothink outside the box andto enhance their thinkingby stimulating theirimaginations”

Taylor Bloxham, Print Partner


ROCKETclub

Financial year September 2013 - August 2014

Figures shown are based on pre-audited accounts.

A copy of our published accounts can be supplied on request.

During the year 2013/14, The Spark continued to receive National PortfolioOrganisation funding from Arts Council England and a grant from Leicester CityCouncil, which represents about one third of our income. We are extremely gratefulto both organisations for their continued support for the Spark Festival. The charityalso received continued support from its corporate partners, trusts, foundationsand donors.

We secured additional funding from the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts to supportthe Pop Up Play research project, and we have worked alongside LeicesterLibraries to deliver the Imaginative Spaces project. Through our Catalystprogramme we were also able to raise matched-funding from Arts CouncilEngland and therefore our income has increased by 10% during this financial year.

This extra income enabled us to produce the Spark Festival and also has allowedus to grow our ambition, reach and impact beyond the festival, supporting a year-round production of new and diverse work for children and families. As aconsequence, expenditure rose by 12% over the previous year as weprogrammed additional activities.

We ended the year with a small surplus of income over expenditure, leaving thecharity in a balanced position and contributing to the reserves.

Financial report

Income

Arts Council England Grant 33%Leicester City Council Grant 4%Other Grants 28%Fundraising & Sponsorship 13%Earned Income 22%

Total income for the year £248,124

Expenditure

Festival Activity 20%Project Activity 29%Core Staff 39%Overheads 12%

Total expenditure for the year £239,301


“For more than a decade, The Spark has entertained,educated and engaged thechildren of Leicester with itsunique range of arts events.It plays a huge part ininvolving the city'scommunities in the arts –and the contribution itmakes to Leicester's culturallife is hugely appreciated.”

Leicester City Mayor, Peter Soulsby

Abbey, Evington, Knighton and Spinney Hill ParksAshby Baptist ChurchBeaumont Leys LibrarySouthfields LibraryThe BRITE CentreNew Walk Museum & Art GalleryPedestrian

Festival venues

DirectorAdel Al-SalloumGeneral ManagerHarriet RoyPress & Marketing Manager Rachael Mabe Development Manager Carrie Carruthers Arts Administration InternRosanna SloanMarketing & Events Support Maya Biswas

Board of TrusteesStephan AalLucy BaniDavid Bell (Chair)Mike CandlerMitch De FariaRavinder KaurVijay MistryMahmood RezaJohn TownsendJeremy Waterfield

PatronTim Crouch

Spark artists in residenceAndy ReevesJayne Williams

Student placementLucy Tester

Spark PhotographerPamela Raith

Cover photographYummm! audience by Pamela Raith

Report designMooli

Sarah BellaviaGeorge BensleyJake BonhamLawrence BrownLucy-Kay BrownsonJade CarrollGiulia CipollaChenelle CostelloAimee FaulknerRachel FitzpatrickMegan FordLuchia Garcia-PerezRichard GoodmanKasim HussainSanpreet JanjuaSung Kan MeEmma KennyMark KennyAshley LewinEllie LockeJohn MackeyCharlotte Mahdoodi

Tanuja MaisuriaJo-Anne MarlowMarina MartinsHannah MooreCarise MurraySupriya NewlayIsabella Nunes do

Nascimento Ramos Liga OrlovskaHannah PutnamFahima RafikShazmin RafikSerahne Rene-SorhaindoKellie RickellKarishka RupasingheMaria ScrivenFfion SmithClaire TebbuttLucy TesterRuth WallisAlex WilliamsJunchen Yang

The Spark staff

In 2014 we worked with a number of wonderful volunteers all-year round,as well as those festival makers who supported us in the run-up to andduring the 190 Spark Festival events.

The Spark would like to say a big thank you to each and every individualwho gave up their time, energy and talent to volunteer for us this year.We really couldn't do what we do without the support of volunteers, andare enormously indebted to them for their enthusiasm, time andcontribution.

“Constellations wasstunning and so is SparkFestival”

Volunteers

Jeanne Jenner Rae


CurveDe Montfort HallEmbrace ArtsThe GuildhallLoughborough Town HallPhoenixThe Y

The Spark Arts for Children, LCB Depot, 31 Rutland Street, Leicester LE1 1RE

Tel: 0116 261 6893 Email: [email protected] Web: www.thesparkarts.co.uk Facebook @SparkArtsFestival Twitter @thesparkarts

Our partners

The Spark Arts for Children is a company limited by guarantee, no.5254229. Registered charity no. 1106952.

We would like to say a special thank you to all those who support The Spark Arts for Children.

Funders The P&C Hickinbotham Charitable Trust, Tesco Charity Trust, Leicestershire and Rutland Community Foundation, The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust

Funders

Design Partner

Media Partner Media Partner

Print Partner

Festival’s Official Hotel

Paper Partner

Media Partner

Donors Boden, East Midlands Airport, East Midlands Trains, maber architects, Mellor Community Primary School, Mowmacre Hill Primary School, Next plc, Paul's Fruit & Veg Ltd, Pro Active Resolutions, Rolls-Royce plc

mooli

Contact Us

Higher Education Partner

Festival Partner Equity

http://www.hspg.com/

http://www.taylorbloxham.co.uk/

http://www.leicester.gov.uk/homepage.aspx

http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/

http://cuttlefish.com/

http://www.belmonthotel.co.uk/

http://www.takeoverradio.co.uk/

Documents

The Spark Annual Report 2014