APRIL 2020 - MARCH 2021
A YEAR IN REVIEW
For 2020/21 our logo strip for corporate materials should include Supported by: BCP Garfield Weston Arts Council England plus Investors in People (standard) Disability Confident Fundraising Regulator BCP Tourism Member ( attached) We're Good to Go See It Safely If we could have these as a a 'strip' I can give them to colleagues to update contracts and other documents . Many thanks Sara
SUPPORTED BY
Single line
POOLE ARTS TRUST LIMITED 01202 280000 www.lighthousepoole.co.uk
SUPPORTED BY
AFFILIATED WITH
CONTENTS IN 2020/21…
57 PERFORMANCES (9 PRODUCTIONS) PRESENTED 190 PERFORMANCES (125 PRODUCTIONS) RESCHEDULED 327 PERFORMANCES (230 SHOWS) CANCELLED
CONTENTS 4 MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR AND CEO 5
CORE VALUES
6
A YEAR OF INNOVATION
8
BRIDGE THE GAP
10
CONNECTING WITH AUDIENCES
12 ARTISTS AND CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT 14 RESILIENCE 16 FINANCIAL SUMMARY: KEY FACTS 18
Caption
2021 AND BEYOND
A YEAR IN REVIEW APRIL 2020 - MARCH 2021 | 3
The global pandemic has given the world the most challenging and complex issues to deal with. The entertainment, culture, and hospitality industries, all of which form our business, have been the most affected and are among the last sectors to return to business. The impact on Lighthouse has been the most significant in our history. The challenges that we have faced as an organisation and an industry have required us to think differently and respond creatively to weather the twists and turns of the last year. Our approach has been to focus on what we CAN do rather than what we cannot. Taking every opportunity, Lighthouse has re-opened to the public between each lockdown, albeit with a severely restricted capacity of 30% to comply with social distancing and with almost every process changed across the building. For many months we faced deep uncertainty about the future of our organisation and indeed the whole entertainment industry. We were unable to open for nine months of the year, and we rescheduled 190 performances (125 productions) and cancelled 327 performances (230 productions). This has been a fantastic feat of logistical planning and delivery from our Head of Programming and our Marketing and Sales team. Audiences have been patient and generous, in many cases donating the cost of their tickets to us. One of the most challenging times came towards the end of summer when our reserves were down to the wire, and we had no idea when the lockdown restrictions would lift or if the furlough scheme would be extended. We made some difficult decisions, including making several redundancies and our casual workforce were not re-contracted. We spent months trying to get clarity from the government to give the cultural sector a road map to work with, working with industry colleagues to lobby and advise ministers and local politicians, highlighting the plight of the arts sector and its predominantly freelance workforce at every possible opportunity on Radio 4, BBC News, local radio.
Thankfully, the government supported the industry with a £1.57bn Cultural Recovery Fund (CRF) and we were successful in every round. This enabled Lighthouse to deliver a surprising amount of activity, kept our team working, our building open for our partners and associates, provided artists with a space to create work, and ensured that audiences remained connected with the venue. It also allowed our resident orchestra BSO to continue to offer performances digitally and their concerts have been live streamed from Lighthouse right across the world. Many other digitally streamed works have taken world class performances directly into people’s homes. We are grateful for the continued support of Arts Council England, BCP Council, the individuals who have supported Lighthouse with monetary gifts or services in kind, and the trusts and foundations who have backed us. The Weston Culture Fund has been a real game changer - providing support to ensure that our artistic programme flourishes. It has enabled Lighthouse to offer an exciting programme despite the uncertainty and to create new work. We produced an original Christmas show, ‘Happy Ever After’ and launched our first outdoor season. In this year of turmoil, anxiety and sadness, there have also been moments of great joy, creativity, and determination. There have been many positive changes both in our organisation and within our industry that we will embrace. Our team have coped magnificently and have been supportive and fun throughout. Our focus now is to reopen fully, start generating income, support our staff who have had to face so much uncertainty, stress, and change, and develop a new business plan for recovery and developing our future.
Elspeth McBain, CEO
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Mark Powell (Chair) Spencer Clarke (Deputy Chair) Richard Hendry Donald Nordberg MT Rainey Jane Webster Monika Barnes Alison Gannagé-Stewart
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CORE VALUES
We are ASPIRATIONAL
WELCOMING
EXCELLENCE
We are up for it! We passionately believe in the power and the value of the Lighthouse. We believe that bold, audacious arts can enrich and inspire the lives of our community through shared cultural experiences.
We welcome our staff, volunteers, artists, audiences, partners and our community into our work. We are friendly, inclusive and work together effectively and safely, ensuring that teamwork is at the heart of everything we do.
Everything we do is of the absolute highest quality. We strive to achieve excellence in every aspect of our work and how we deliver it.
VALUE BEHAVIOURS
VALUE BEHAVIOURS
VALUE BEHAVIOURS
We are proud to be a role-model for Lighthouse.
We ensure every interaction with our community is friendly and welcoming.
We take pride in our building, each other and in the work we do.
We strive to improve and develop in everything we do and lead innovative ways of working.
We embrace change and push our boundaries as individuals and as an organisation.
We lead by example and will be accountable for our actions.
We will meet and exceed expectations across all areas of Lighthouse.
WE DO NOT
WE DO NOT
WE DO NOT
Close our minds to new ideas or inflexible.
Look to blame others, rather than learn and change.
Make do, rather than always seek to do better.
Be a roadblock to stop others developing new ideas or ways of working because “It’s always been done that way.”
Exclude, alienate or undermine others.
Do the minimum, leaving tasks half-finished for others to complete.
A YEAR IN REVIEW APRIL 2020 - MARCH 2021 | 5
A YEAR OF INNOVATION In a year like no other, Lighthouse rose to the challenge showing creativity and innovation in how we supported artists and connected with our community. This entrepreneurial mindset saw many ‘firsts’, including an outdoor season in our amphitheatre, a socially distanced Christmas show, screening facilities installed in our theatre and a curated programme of digitally presented performances that took place online. The challenge of COVID-19 has been a constant throughout the year, with only 10% of planned public events going ahead. 30 % of the programme was rebooked in to 2021/22. However, we are fortunate to have a range of spaces that can be adapted for different uses and decided that we would ensure we made the best use of this unique opportunity to keep people working, and audiences engaged. In the last twelve months, the Theatre has been adapted for the studio programme of music and comedy; it has also become a cinema, ‘Screen on Stage’, with investment in a state-of-the-art projector, surround sound and the largest roll-up screen in Dorset. The Concert Hall platform was extended to enable the BSO to be socially distanced and create a full digital concert season. We launched ‘Lighthouse Outside’ the first time the amphitheatre to the side of Lighthouse has been properly used as a performance space since it was built in the 1970s. The programme included Live & Unheard, Coastal Comedy and The Handlebards with Romeo and Juliet. This signalled the launch of our ‘fifth’ venue.
Over Christmas, Happy Ever After, produced by Lighthouse and written and directed by its star Chris Jarvis, was an instant hit with socially distanced audiences who revelled in the panto jokes as children’s storybook characters shared their happy ever after tales. Sadly, covid hit the company, then the government closed venues again but we managed to deliver 15 performances. Artists and freelance workers have been particularly impacted and we honoured artists fees and opened our stages for artists to rehearse, create new work, and present it via live streaming. A priority has been the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, ensuring they could continue to work. While other concert halls and theatres announced year-long closures, the BSO was one of the first British ensembles to broadcast live performances to audiences worldwide. Truly pioneering. In celebration of the part popular music has played in the lives of generations of its audiences, Lighthouse commissioned Dorset-based artist, Lorna Rees of Gobbledegook Theatre, to write a song about it. The song, ‘And the Floor Bounced’ has been watched thousands of times online and generated a flurry of media coverage. We connected with Paines Plough theatre company and its ‘Come To Where I Am’ caller service that saw actors Fiona Wade (from Emmerdale) and Abigail Cruttenden (from TV’s Not Going Out) read ‘Quicksand’, a ten-minute play, to audiences in local care homes. Invisible Music by Platform 4 was a digital reboot of their unforgettable live event. Film and soundscape were blended to create an immersive and intimate meditation on hearing loss. ‘Super-Spies in Lockdown’ by Angel Exit Theatre, was an interactive performance game played out across two online sessions on a private, secure Zoom chat, bringing the action to the participants’ own homes. Lighthouse played a part in a ground-breaking new
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Pete Lockett in Theatre
music project by hosting an exclusive online concert, new collaborative work, and a music workshop. Making Tracks brought together emerging artists from the UK and around the world to showcase diverse music, initiate new collaborations and explore strategies for music-based environmental engagement We joined fellow Music Beyond Mainstream consortium members and the Music Venue Trust to participate in the #saveourvenues campaign by streaming a unique collaboration between American singer-songwriter John Grant and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. We invited percussionist Pete Lockett to spend a week in the theatre developing a new performance with pianist Peter-John Vettese. ‘Other Voices Other Room’s was subsequently broadcast online. The venue was also used as a set for a new escape room game. Lighthouse was a partner venue for an online sharing of Romantics Anonymous, Emma Rice’s delicious musical about the fragile love affair between a gifted chocolate maker and her socially awkward boss. This was live streamed directly from Bristol Old Vic to Lighthouse audiences at home.
‘With all the open space in the auditorium to play with, it gave us an amazing opportunity to blur the boundaries in every aspect of the production. it meant we could do things with the sound and lighting that would not otherwise have been possible and stretch what could be achieved in the Theatre.' PETE LOCKETT.
BRIDGE THE GAP As soon as we were forced to close our doors in March, we went to work behind the scenes to raise funds through a variety of different channels. We are hugely grateful to all those who donated to the ‘Bridge the Gap’ appeal, those who have donated the cost of their tickets, the members of the Lighthouse friends scheme, Arts Council England, BFI, The Theatres’ Trust, the Weston Culture Fund, DCMS Culture Recovery Fund, Cooper Dean Charitable Trust and BCP Council for their financial support and encouragement as we have sought to turn the events of the last year to good. One of the fundraising highlights was the support of the Garfield Weston Foundation’s Weston Culture Fund. The fund was designed to help organisations restart their work. In awarding us a £290,000, their Trustees commented that they were “particularly struck by our focus on community engagement and artist support”. The gift is paying for a wide variety of activity including upgrading the infrastructure of our Lighthouse OUTSIDE amphitheatre, helping us to pay artists fees so that we can encourage some of the country’s larger touring shows to come to Lighthouse, organising a Dorset Artists’ conference to provide professional support to artists from our region, and subsidising tickets to help us encourage new audiences to visit Lighthouse.
One of the important things to come out of this funding is SANCTUARY – an innovative new scheme that offers artistic practitioners use of our space as well as financial support for travel and accommodation, to progress their practice and develop new work. Programmes like SANCTUARY will ensure that the grant we’ve received from the Garfield Weston Foundation will have a long-term impact at Lighthouse. Using this funding to develop new artist development programmes will unlock future funding opportunities from other trusts and foundations that will support the continuation of this work. In common with all arts venues throughout lockdown, Lighthouse faced unprecedented challenges to its very existence. Moved by our plight, former students of Poole and Parkstone Grammar Schools who have since embarked on careers in the arts came together to organise the ‘Love for Lighthouse’ online benefit concert. The various alumni made a compelling case for Lighthouse’s role in inspiring the next generation of performers and arts professionals and was a significant moment for the venue, reminding us how important Lighthouse is to the community that we serve.
Help Lighthouse survive, so we can thrive
8 | A YEAR IN REVIEW APRIL 2020 - MARCH 2021
Caption
“Our cultural sector is at the heart of our local communities, providing not only entertainment but education and inspiration for many. Our Trustees were impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit shown across the arts in response to Covid-19. It was a privilege to hear what organisations had been doing to survive and reinvent the way they reach audiences. What stood out was the level of collaboration and support they had for each other and the determination to keep going, despite the increasingly difficult situation.” PHILIPPA CHARLES, DIRECTOR OF GARFIELD WESTON FOUNDATION
CONNECTING WITH AUDIENCES At Lighthouse, we bring people together for remarkable experiences. The past year has been one of the most rewarding and certainly the most challenging to date. Social media followers continued to grow – our early lockdown post ‘And the Floor Bounced’ written and performed by Lorna Rees achieved over 15,000 views in the first week alone – and we made the most of all the ways we can to stay in touch with our audiences through this challenging year. With shows cancelled and the country asked to stay at home, we explored ways to connect with our audiences. As the world in lockdown embraced streamed cultural content from the National Theatre and RSC to individual musicians and poets, Lighthouse took to social media more than ever to stay in touch with our community and the audiences we missed so much. We launched several themed platforms such as Monday Memories, Workshop Wednesdays, Film Friday, Spotify Saturday, Sunday Funday. Even lockdown couldn’t stem the impulse to make things, so by moving creative content online, Lighthouse could commission small pieces of work from artists affected by coronavirus. One such artist, award-winning storyteller Michele O’Brien created a brilliant series of bedtime stories on video that we shared through our Facebook channel on Sunday evenings. That led to our first ever Bedtime Story Writing Competition, presided over by respected Times critic Donald Hutera.
We always aim for a robust programme of familyfriendly work, particularly in the Theatre and Sherling Studio, often aimed at very young children. 25% of our programme is aimed at Children and Young People and Families; this year, it was nearer 45% as the Christmas show, Happy Ever After, was one of the few events presented. We sent 2 million emails during this time – a combination of rescheduled and cancellation notices and the ‘stay in touch’ communications. We stayed in contact with 32,000 regular customers via our newsletter. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Linkedin followers continue to grow, and we had over 35,000 active followers across social media. Key funding announcements attracted a massive spike in interest and positive support from our community. We recorded over 21,000 new bookers in the previous year and are fully committed to seeing further development in this area once the programme returns as we capitalise on the ongoing investment in the organisation.
‘Came and watched the show today with my two daughters; it was amazing. The show was such a feel-good show, and I felt completely safe with social distancing. Lighthouse staff were excellent and very friendly would recommend to anyone who just wants to forget 2020 for an hour and enjoy some festive magic in a safe environment. Well done Poole Lighthouse!’ FACEBOOK POST, HAPPY EVER AFTER
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Happy Ever After
ARTISTS AND CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT We have managed to keep a substantial proportion of our Creative Engagement programme in place and continue to develop our relations with schools and stakeholders in a much more proactive way. As a direct result of grants from the Garfield Weston Foundation’s Weston Culture Fund and the Arts Council-administered Culture Recovery Fund, Lighthouse launched its SANCTUARY scheme to enable artists to use its spaces to devise, develop and rehearse new work. The artists and companies we have worked with throughout the year included Paul Green / Wild Wire, Lorna Rees / Gobbledegook Theatre, Ninebarrow, Stuff & Nonsense, Lockett-Vetesse Band, Sisata and Green Submarine Theatre. We worked with Paines Plough/ Roundabout to deliver the Future Arts Centres national lottery project ‘Here and Now’ commission, ‘The Heart at the Centre of the World’ a new play by Andrew Muir and performed by local young people.
Arts Award Discover Online How to Discover Online
Arts Award Discover Online Logbook
THIS LOGBOOK BELONGS TO
AGE
Arts Award Discover Programme
We delivered our first National qualifications. Certified by Trinity College London, Arts Award is a range of qualifications that support anyone aged up to 25 to grow as artists/ arts leaders. We worked with Dorset Scrapstore and local food banks to support and sponsor 100 5–9-year-olds who have not had access to the internet throughout the pandemic to complete their Arts Award Discover. Our Young Writers passed their Bronze Arts Award, and entrants as young as six have achieved Arts Award Discover Online qualifications. Inspired by the return of birdsong as a consequence of lockdown, Lighthouse writer-in-residence Jack Thacker wrote and recorded a new poem, The Night Office, to represent what happens when the nightingale’s song is slowed down to suit the iconic bird’s metabolism. Jack also wrote a series of Lighthouse Under Lockdown blogs for the writer development agency ArtfulScribe.
Culture Recovery Fund
Lighthouse also contributed funds and expertise to help found and publicise the Dorset Artists Emergency Fund for freelance creatives living and working in Dorset who experienced severe financial hardship due to the pandemic. The fund raised around £20,000 to help artists meet urgent financial needs.
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The Drive by Angel Exit
IN 2020/21 …
DURING THE YEAR WE HAVE PROVIDED 287 (2020: 1,669) SESSIONS FOR OVER 3,845 (2020: 38,000) PARTICIPANTS AGED 0-19.
RESILIENCE With over 90% of planned venue activity cancelled and advance ticket sales reduced, aiming to build our financial resilience in 2020-21 was quickly superseded by the need to survive and, where possible, survive well. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme helped us retain most of our skilled staff and in July, the Arts Council’s Emergency Response Fund supported the loss of income and additional costs incurred for April to September 2020. Thanks to the organisation’s efforts lobbying local and national government and making the case in the media, the organisation was invited to participate as a case study as DCMS sought to understand the impacts of the pandemic. Shortly after the announcement of the ERF award, the DCMS / ACE Cultural Recovery Fund phase 1 (CRF1) was announced and we were awarded funding of £987,964 to cover periods October 2020 to March 2021. This enabled the organisation to underwrite further lost income and exceptional COVID-related expenses as well as to begin investing in the measures that would contribute to resilience in the ‘new normal’; live streaming facilities, some enhancement of the outside amphitheatre space, the Cinema Theatre facilities (the cinema programme could now continue under extended social distancing) as well as continuing to engage artists, including BSO, to make and develop work on site. It also enabled the organisation to replenish an element of reserves spent tackling the effects of the pandemic.
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The venue re-opened to the public on 12 September, for a limited period after the successful first – soldout – trial of the Lighthouse: Outside season, albeit with minimal events, the bulk cancelled under the commercial pressures faced by promoters in the light of social distancing. After Lockdown 2 had come and gone, along with the small-scale Christmas show, Lockdown 3 commenced in the first weeks of 2021. However, by early February, there was further good news, with £290,000 awarded by the Weston Culture Fund to support the organisation’s post survival recovery. The opportunity to invest in a rejuvenated programme, creative engagement, and artist development programme as we go into 2021-22 is a game-changer and allows the organisation to go beyond survival to having every chance of thriving in the post-pandemic period. Expectations of the length of the crisis grew, and CRF2 was awarded (£493,982) near the end of the financial year, which provided similar support to CRF1 for the extended period and a further contribution towards reflating reserves.
Romatics Anonymous
FINANCIAL SUMMARY: KEY FACTS OTHER EARNED INCOME
£354,938
This represents a decrease of 83% on the previous year.
TICKET SALES
£49,211
Due to the effects of closure, our ticket sales income fell by over 98%.
GRANTS
£2,406,721
Our regular funding continued and we were also supported by the Job Retention Scheme, DCMS, Arts Council England and BCP during this difficult time. £1,627,400 of this figure was due to Covid Recovery Support.
FUNDRAISING
£394,169
Donations boosted the organisation at the end of last year and have continued to support us through this difficult time. Income from the Garfield Weston Foundation provided a welcome addition of funds to support our artistic programme.
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THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS Lighthouse forges partnerships with a range of cultural organisations and artists to realise their artistic projects. Our most quantifiable partnership is the one we enjoy with our community. In attracting audiences, productions and businesses to Poole, Lighthouse drives economic activity worth millions of pounds, promoting the town and its facilities, attracting investment and enhancing the region’s reputation as a beautiful place in which to live and work and visit.
NETWORKS
We work with many partners and are grateful to them for ensuring that we deliver strong art and culture in our region. Arts Development Company Arts Marketing Association British Association of Concert Halls Circus Evolution The Cultural Compact (BCP) Dorset Theatre Promoters Consortium Music Beyond Mainstream Regional Touring Network SUPPORTERS
PARTNERSHIPS
Activate Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy Arts University Bournemouth Angel Exit Arts Council England Arts Development Company Arts by the Sea Festival BCP Tourism Bournemouth and Poole College Bournemouth Symphony Chorus Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Crying Out Loud Dorset School of Acting Extraordinary Bodies Young Company Inside Out Festival
We want to thank all the trusts, foundations, companies and individuals who have supported Lighthouse with donations and gifts. Lyn Glass Mike and Pam Jeffries Ralph and Janet Marshall Mrs M Anderson Anonymous donors Arts Council England BCP Council DCMS BFI Film Audience Network The Garfield Weston Foundation The Alice Ellen Cooper Dean Charitable Foundation The John and Celia Bonham Christie Charitable Trust The Theatres TrustThe Leonardo Trust
Local Enterprise Partnership The Mayflower Theatre Paines Plough Pavilion Dance Southwest The Point, Eastleigh Poole BID Poole Tourism The Powerhouse Serious Soundstorm Stagewise Wave
A YEAR IN REVIEW APRIL 2020 - MARCH 2021 | 17
2021 AND BEYOND Up until the closure brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, our key initiatives and projects were focused on sustainability and growth. Our post-pandemic business plan marks a radical shift in our ambition to enhance professional and artistic opportunities for artists and our staff, volunteers and community. Looking the future, our priorities are: • R ebuilding income generation and financial resilience • I ncrease our fundraising income, particularly multiyear funding, to support Lighthouse Academy, which will become an exemplar for establishing careers in all areas of the cultural sector • D eveloping the diversity of the organisation, its programme, staff, and audience. We recognise there is always more to do to make Lighthouse accessible to everyone. • T o continue to develop and build resilience in the activities Lighthouse provides whether through the current investment in live streaming, additional cinema facilities in the Theatre or the new fifth auditorium – the Lighthouse: Outside amphitheatre space. • T o maintain and build our free reserves to further mitigate business risks • T o develop an organisation-wide approach to customer engagement, including the role of brand and content to engage diverse communities and stakeholders, and build awareness of our philanthropic case for support • T o maintain the building and improve fabric, access and facilities. This will include investment in the Concert Hall, technical equipment, cinema, the Beacon Eatery and Front of House areas.
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Become a Lighthouse Friend
For 2020/21 our logo strip for corporate materials should include Supported by: BCP Garfield Weston Arts Council England plus Investors in People (standard) Disability Confident Fundraising Regulator BCP Tourism Member ( attached) We're Good to Go See It Safely If we could have these as a a 'strip' I can give them to colleagues to update contracts and other documents . Many thanks Sara
SUPPORTED BY
Single line
01202 280000 www.lighthousepoole.co.uk
SUPPORTED BY
AFFILIATED WITH
