Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2023 Snapshot by Norfolk & Norwich Festival

2023

SNAPSHOT

Director’s review

16-23. Creative Communities

2-15. The Festival Festival at a glance Audiences Investing in artists Collaboration News and Views Accessibility & Inclusion Sustainability

Festival Connect & Create Interview with Anna McCarthy Norfolk Open Studios

24-29. The Organisation The Future Support us Support & Partnerships

Director’s review Norfolk & Norwich Festival continues to navigate the changing world we live in. We have found a balance between being creatively bold, inclusive, and generous while ensuring we maintain the sustainability of our charity. 2023 was a great year for the Festival with artistic integrity and a strong ‘festival spirit’ alongside meeting box-office targets. After our 250 celebrations in 2022, we set out to consolidate and establish a framework so the Festival can grow in future years. Core elements provide the backbone including the Welcome Weekend, two days of free city wide performances and the Festival Gardens, centred around the Adnams Spiegeltent. We also continue our collaboration with important partners such as the National Centre for Writing on the City of Literature Weekend. We topped and tailed the Festival with extraordinary concerts – Rhiannon Giddens charmed us on opening night and The Hallé brought our celebration to a wonderful climax. We hosted, rich and diverse music from the likes of Jasdeep Singh Degun and Alfa Mist and we welcomed packed audiences for Chelsea McGuffin & Co’s Le Coup at the Adnams Spiegeltent. We’ve been particularly grateful for support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for two special projects which reached their conclusion this year: Common Ground - exploring how young people can embrace heritage, and Festival Forever - our volunteer-led project unearthing the Festival’s history. In April we began work on Festival Connect & Create, our creativity and cultural participation initiative for children, young people and their communities. For us it is a game-changer, connecting education and cultural leaders; nurturing projects in target communities and sharing ideas, knowledge and experiences. From 2024 you will begin to see some of those outcomes in the Festival. This snapshot provides a window into the workings of Norfolk & Norwich Festival. None of it would be possible without the enormous support of staff, volunteers, audiences, funders, donors, sponsors and partners. Thanks to you all!

Daniel Brine Artistic Director & Chief Executive

55,000+ Festival attendees

30+

venues

38 free events

200+

pieces of media coverage

Festival at a glance... It’s not all about numbers, but here’s your quick guide to Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2023. 2

Three.

£60,000+ of products and services donated from corporate partners

Festival events delivered in

250 YoungNNF members

2087

hours volunteered

Norfolk towns and villages Snapshot 2023

95%

agreed

quality of performances were good/very good

94%

thought

the whole experience was good/very good

84%

agreed

there was good/very good value for money

96% staff were welcoming

thought

The Festival:

Audiences ...the heart of everything we do. Here’s what our audiences thought in 2023. “I think it was superb and the highlight of my year in Norwich. It’s one of the reasons I chose to move to Norwich and embodies the wonderful vibe of the city, arts and culture. Smiles were all around, people came alive, it was a really special experience.” Audience member

And we’re working hard to ensure the Festival audiences of the future... With the support of the John Jarrold Trust and CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust our YoungNNF scheme, offered free access to selected classical concerts for young people and subsidised ticket prices for a wider range of our programme. FLOCK is a network for young people (18-25 yrs) interested in pursuing careers in the arts, culture, and creativity. Members joined us at this year’s Festival for a special networking event. Mint, set up by City College Norwich, focusses on getting young people, who experience barriers to work into sustainable paid employment. Over a period of five months, ten members attended weekly meetings and workshops as part of our Festival Forever project. Two members of the group gained further employment with the Festival after the project finished. 5

The Festival:

Investing in artists We support artists through Festival presentations, commissioning new work and professional development projects.

Solem Quartet - one of the UK’s most innovative and adventurous string quartets were in residence with us at this year’s Festival. Presenting three concerts, spanning Beethoven to Kate Bush, they also coached talented young musicians of the Guildhall Young Artists, Norwich. The result of a three year relationship with the artist, Laurence Osborn, we premiered TOMB! a piece co-commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival, King’s Place and Cheltenham Festival. Our partnership with BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme aided four of the brightest young musicians on the threshold of an international career to reach the next stage of their development. Looking forward to the 2024 Festival, we are supporting Norfolk artists, Dot Howard and Sorrel Muggeridge to develop A Handful of Time and Abigail Conway to research the presentation of //RIDE in Norfolk. Both projects will be unique experiences for audiences and our support enables the artist to connect with communities to help think through and frame their projects for the future. 6

The Festival

how we’re supporting artists - residencies - comissioning

200+

- speak to james

artists

40 local artists

world premieres

10 commissions residencies

The Festival:

Collaboration Collaboration is a vital process in putting our Festival together, helping ensure we are showcasing the widest talent possible.

The National Centre for Writing (NCW) are our partners on the City of Literature Weekend. Based in Norwich, England’s first UNESCO City of Literature, NCW promote great literature and the power of writing and reading. They also nurture literary talent and host a programme of world-class events at Dragon Hall. IN SITU is the European platform for outdoor artistic creation. For 20 years it has supported around 300 artists from 13 countries across Europe to develop and present their work. Norfolk & Norwich Festival is a partner in IN SITU which has enabled us to bring to Norfolk work including Johannes Bellinkx’s Reverse (2019) and Strijbos & Van Rijswijk’s Signal-on-Sea (2022). Without Walls is a consortium of over 35 organisations, including Norfolk & Norwich Festival, that support the UK outdoor arts sector by commissioning and touring new work. Each year at the Welcome Weekend, you’ll sample some brand-new outdoor shows from leading UK companies thanks to our partnership with Without Walls. The Festival

The Festival:

News & views Our work brings Norfolk and Norwich to a national and international audience.

4.9m total media reach during Festival period

650k website visits during the Festival period

200+ press coverage inc The Observer, The Telegraph and London Jazz News

100k

Website visits during the festival period total social media reach during the Festival period

The Festival.

‘‘Not your average festival’’ ‘‘Makes me proud to live here’’

300 subsidised access tickets

40% of the programme reflects EDI including 7 New comissions for EDI* artists

79%

agreed

the Festival is welcoming for the whole community

139 essential companion tickets provided

14.

The Festival:

Accessibility & Inclusion The Arts should be accessible to all. We seek to reflect the diversity and difference of England today and are committed to being inclusive regardless of age, background, beliefs or orientation. We seek to reflect the diversity and difference in our artists, audiences and workforce. We are striving to make Norfolk & Norwich Festival for everyone.

This year, 9 volunteers joined us from New Routes, a Norwich based charity, offering support for refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants, promoting cross-cultural integration. We have been supporting volunteers with additional needs through the The Buddy Scheme for multiple years. Working with Norwich-based charity Stepping Stones and Norwich City College’s inclusive learning course, we were able to support 14 volunteers who, along with all of our volunteers, were integral to the success of the Festival. *EDI - Equality, diversity and inclusion

The Festival:

Sustainability We recognise our actions have an impact on the environment and we’re committed to reducing it. This year we...

•

Delivered NNF23 free of diesel generators in Festival Gardens. All power was from mains or battery sources.

•

Partnered with Beryl Bikes to encourage staff, crew and audiences to cycle.

•

Worked with an amazing group of volunteers who increased recycling rates by eliminating bins and introducing our waste management station.

•

Reduced impact of artists riders by working with agents to reduce range and scale of food and drink requested.

•

Measured more than ever to understand our impact.

•

Received positive responses to meat and fish-free food and compostable loos.w

The Festival

Using reusable cups meant...

15,000 single use cups avoided landfill

Our total recycling Our total recylingrate ratewas was...

46%

higher than in 2022

By using mains electricity we produce just

4% of CO2 emissions compared to a diesel generator per KWH *Source: Show Must Go On Report

Creative Communities We know that creativity can transform lives. It builds cohesive communities, develops vital skills, and supports health and wellbeing. We want more people to have access to creative opportunities through our Festival and our year-round participation work with children, young people and their communities.

The end of an era An Arts Council England initiative, the Bridge Network was established in 2012 with Norfolk & Norwich Festival managing the eastern region’s Bridge. Over the past ten years, Festival Bridge has worked to connect the cultural and education sectors so that children and young people could have greater access to arts and cultural opportunities. After a decade of nurturing creativity in schools and communities, Arts Council England ended the Bridge network in 2023.

£239,000 invested in partnership projects around the region during 22/23 16

Creative Communities.

A trio of other Festival participation projects reached their conclusion in 2023...

Common Ground was a 3-year programme bringing together partners from the creative and heritage sectors to enable young people to develop new approaches to heritage interpretation.

Lost & Found Films was a project conceived by Norfolk & Norwich Festival and Andy Field, working with children from across Norfolk to create films of imagined histories, showcased at 2022 and 2023’s Festival.

Artist At My Place saw a number of artists working in long-term residencies at schools across areas of Norwich with the least provision, bringing a diverse programme of workshops from music to poetry.

Creative Communities:

Festival Connect & Create A trio of projects giving you a taste of what’s to come with Festival Connect & Create... Creative Schools: Andy Field and Becky Darlington bring The Book of Thetford to 200 children. Part fictional imagining, part guidebook, the project allows young people to write stories about life on their streets, draw new maps of their neighbourhood and design new monuments to their unrecognised heroes - an opportunity to experience a place through the eyes of some of its youngest inhabitants. Working with illustrators and designers to bring the book to life, it will be launched in a special event as part of Norfolk & Norwich Festival in 2024. Creative Leaders: As part of our Creative Leaders programme, we have launched our annual Creative Bursaries - 16 awards of £2,500 (eight for artists and eight for young people). The artist’s awards will support creative practitioners to develop their practice for schools and community settings. The young people’s awards will enable young people interested in careers in the arts to develop their cultural and community leaderships skills. Creative Places: Acquired by Norfolk Wildlife Trust (NWT) in 2022, Sweet Briar Marshes is made up of 90 acres of marsh and meadow to the west of Norwich. In Nature Connects Us, and working with NWT, we will commission a participatory arts project to empower local communities to connect, access and shape Sweet Briar Marshes, bringing urban communities together with local nature. 18

Creative Communities

Creative Communities:

Anna McCarthy Our new Head of Festival Connect & Create tells us a little bit about her work...

Tell us a bit about Festival Connect & Create Festival Connect & Create is an ambitious and exciting new initiative which aims to provide opportunities for children, young people and communities - those most in need - to have high quality creative experiences. We’ll be working in partnership with artists and cultural organisations to create programmes of activity across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Peterborough and Suffolk. Why do you think engagement in the arts is so important right now? The arts have always had a critical role to play in society, providing opportunities for expression and inquiry, and as a forum for existential debate. We are currently living in a time of constant and rapid change and need more than ever a means through which we can work things out, express, connect and communicate with each other and with ourselves. The arts and creativity enable us do just this, as well as supporting individual and societal health and wellbeing. What’s most exciting about working for, and in, the East of England? This part of the country has its own distinctive natural beauty as well as an incredibly rich creative and cultural landscape; connecting these to our communities through high quality participatory programmes is incredibly rewarding to be part of. Plus, it’s home - I’m attached, and I can go swimming in the sea after work! What was your favourite event at this years Festival? There were so many amazing performances. I particularly enjoyed the music programme, from Rhiannon Giddons to Fergus McCreadie. But if I were to choose one, I think it would be Jasdeep Singh Degun at St. Peter Mancroft. It was magical. 21

Creative Communities:

Norfolk Open Studios This year 241 artists opened their doors as part of Norfolk Open Studios. Longstanding participants, Barrington Farm told us why they think Open Studios is so valuable. “It provides independance and agency’’ Sarah Ballard (curator

Barrington Farm is a supported studio for adults with learning disabilities, founded in 1987 when the owner of the care home next door bought the farm as part of an extra property. When speaking to Head curator, Sarah Ballard, she told us just how beneficial Norfolk Open Studios is to the Artists working at Barrington; ‘It’s a massive part of our calendar, and we love it. Because we are more remote here, it’s a lovely chance to open our doors and welcome in friends and supporters and the public. We get to work with the expertise of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival and focus on making it look great. It’s important for every artist to have that outlet and feel important and valued’ Norfolk Open Studios provides a platform for artists and allows them to gain feedback, connect with other artists and share creativity with a wider audience. It was great to visit and see how valuable that opportunity is for the artists at Barrington. 22

Creative Communities.

16.

The organisation:

The Future The next few years are an exciting time for our organisation... Having marked the 250th anniversary of the Festival in 2022, we have ensured a stable structure for the future, ensuring we continue to deliver artistic excellence, growth and a sustainable approach to everything we do. With the addition of Festival Connect & Create to our work, we now bring year-round delivery to support children, young people and their communities across East Anglia. For the first time, we will embed our programme principles – social responsibility; art relevant to today; and our ‘Festival spirit’ - across all of our work. This represents a step-change in ambition, bringing a coherent artistic voice across all of our work. Norfolk & Norwich Festival is much loved by our audiences - valued as a cultural celebration, for its exceptional entertainment and the unique artistic voice it brings each May. As we evolve our work, integrating the delivery of Festival Connect & Create, we will further expand our impact on the cultural life of East Anglia to support community wellbeing, cohesion and social renewal. While we remain immensely grateful for the support of Arts Council England and Norwich City Council, in real terms our funding has been at near standstill for over a decade, while costs continue to escalate. The pressure on our organisations is considerable but our ambition has not diminished. You can help support and share in our ambitions. Find out how overleaf. 25

The organisation:

Support us Our ambition continues to be backed by Arts Council England but in real terms our funding is decreasing. Supporting our work is easy.

Make a donation An immediate impact on our work. You can donate from as little as £2.50 and can do so on our website, on the phone or whilst purchasing a ticket. Supporter scheme Make a big difference from as little as £15 per month. Get closer to our work and support the Festival programme or Festival Connect & Create. Legacy giving Remembering Norfolk & Norwich Festival in your will can leave a lasting legacy for future generations and build on our work nurturing artists and supporting young people. Corporate partnerships We can provide bespoke solutions around social or environmental responsibility, brand awareness, hospitality or audience engagement. Find out more at nnfestival.org.uk.support-us 26

The Organisation

Donate here

Six.

The organisation:

Support & Partnerships Across all areas of our year-round programme, we rely on the generous funding and support offered by so many. We are endlessly grateful to these organisations and individuals who, like us, believe in the transformational qualities of the arts and want to ensure East Anglia continues to grow as a truly great place to live, work and play. Thank you all. Principal Funders Arts Council England Norwich City Council

Funders:

Norfolk County Council

Trusts, Foundations & Grant Giving Organsations Anguish’s Educational Foundation The Arts Society Norwich CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust The Educational Foundation of Alderman John Norman The Ellerdale Trust The Fuller Endowment Fund The Geoffrey Watling Charity The John Jarrold Trust North Norfolk District Council Norwich Freeman’s Charity The Paul Bassam Charitable Trust The Red Socks Charitable Trust National Lottery Heritage Fund

Programme Partners:

Creative Arts East In Situ, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union National Centre for Writing Without Walls

Corporate Partners & Support: Adnams Beryl Big Sky Living Birketts Chadwicks Dipple & Conway Eastern Daily Press Epos Now Greater Anglia Hatch Brenner Hollinger Print Jarrold Kettle Foods Ltd Link Radio Services Lovewell Blake MCB Financial Services Meantime Media Motus Truck & Van Norwich Evening News Porsche Centre Norwich RBC Brewin Dolphin Recover Physio Swank Interiors The Forum Yawn Marketing

Presenting Partners:

The Assembly House BBC Introducing BBC Radio 3 Britten Sinfonia Chantry Place The Corn Hall Creative Arts East The Cathedral of, St John The Baptist Forest Fringe The Garage GroundWork Gallery HALLE Inn Crowd In Situ Creative Europe Programme of the European Union Maddermarket Norwich Castle Norfolk Museums Norwich Puppet Theatre National Centre for Writing Norwich UNESCO City of Literature Norwich Arts Centre Norwich Cathedral Norwich University of the Arts Original Projects Outpost Studios Out There Arts Norfolk Contemporary Art Society Sainsbury Centre Sheringham Little Theatre St Peter Mancroft University of East Anglia Visit Norwich Without Walls

Supporters:

Alice Liddle Amanda Sandland Taylor & Roger Holden Ann Ford Ben & Jenna Conway Brenda Arthur Caroline Kennedy-Chivers Chris & Sue Williams Dave Plummer & Lesley Whitby David & Anthea Case Frances Berridge Frank & Di Eliel Fred Corbett Ian & Helen Mcfadyen Jamie Mcleod Jane & John Hawksley Jim & Sara Webber Jim Durrant John Howkins Jonathon & Karen Needham Jonathon Cooper & Daniel Brine Justine & Damien Conway Kate Hawes Len & Rachel Hobson Lynn Biggs Mark & Lesley-Anna Hewett Mary Lowden Mollie Whitworth Mrs Waltraud A L Jarrold MBE Nicholas & Caroline Dixey Nick & Juliet Collier Olwyn & Paul Venn Roger & Lesley Everett Roger Rowe Simon Back Simon De-Lacy Asams & Robin Norman Steph & Paul Allen Stephany Renouf Suzanna & Roger Bunting Tim Ridgley Tony & Juliet Colman

Norfolk Open Studios

Norfolk Open Studios is made possible by the hard work and dedication of over 200 artists and young people from across Norfolk.

Festival Board of Trustees

Thank you to all those trustees, past and present, who have given time to the Festival’s work in 2023. Brenda Arthur Chris Sargisson Chris Yates Frances Berridge Lucy Garland Marc Jaffrey Corrienne Peasgood John Paul Garside Martin Mitchell Maanik Chadda Kate Carreno and special thanks to the 131 volunteers this year - without whom the Festival could not happen. Norfolk & Norwich Festival is a registered charity, number 1164424

and to all those supporters and donors who wish to remain anonymous