‘Please celebrate the joy of being creative: it is the gift each of us has, something we can share and go on enjoying year after year. It helps
us feel good about ourselves and about each other…and what could be better than that?’
Uplifting words from our patron Dame Joan Bakewell this year; a year that has seen some huge challenges for the organisation but one in which we have again shown our true strength and attracted significant new funding.
This year (2014 – 2015) has been the final one in which
High Peak Community Arts received revenue funding from Arts Council England after 36 years continual funding support. We reapplied to be a National
Portfolio Organisation for 2015 – 18, but this time were not successful.
Despite this, the Arts Council concluded in their final report that:
‘HPCA are a considerable asset to the area and supports communities to experience the arts both within the High Peak and beyond. The organisation has also catered for a wide variety of community groups across different sectors by way of its partnerships and flexibility’.
Staff, trustees, volunteers and other supporters have worked extremely hard to find alternative funds to carry on its work in the future. As a result, we have been awarded another 5 years of Big Lottery Funding for Project eARTh with increased sums towards salaries and overheads, and Grants for the Arts funding from the Arts Council for our Youth Programme to take us forward into 2015 – 16.
As well as fundraising for the future, we continued with a full and exciting artistic programme, supported by our talented pool of freelance artists. Opera, film, animation, and music with young people; yurt days with children and families; explorations of local history with communities; public art with adults experiencing mental distress;
and creative projects with homeless women and those recovering from drug / alcohol dependency have been co-ordinated by our small staff team. There are details of these projects on the following pages and a list of our grant funding is on the back.
All this of course has required good governance, and support from trustees. I am grateful to my colleagues on the board of trustees for their time, energy and commitment to our organisation, so it continues to reach out into the community.
Dawn Bryan, Chair
FULL REPORT BELOW!