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
4 | A YEAR IN REVIEW APRIL 2020 - MARCH 2021
