/ Trustees' Annual Report for the period
From / Period start date / To / Period end date
Day01 / Month04 / Year2014 / Day31 / Month03 / Year2015
Section A Reference and administration details
Charity name / Arty Party Limited
Other names charity is known by / Arty Party
Registered charity number (if any) / 1142517
Charity's principal address
/ Store 12, The Market Hall, Claremont Street
Shrewsbury
Postcode / SY1 1QG
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
Trustee name / Office (if any) / Dates acted if not for whole year / Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any)
1 / Sara Mai / Chair / November 2014/ March 2015
2 / Mike Jones / Secretary
3 / Paul Tudor
4 / Jan Bridges / Treasurer
5 / Ian Barnes / Co-opted
Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)
Managed by Julia Dean-Richards

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts
Type of governing document
(eg. trust deed, constitution) / Memorandum and Articles
How the charity is constituted
(eg. trust, association, company) / Company Limited by Guarantee
Trustee selection methods
(eg. appointed by, elected by) / Appointed by the Board / Elected by Members
Section C Objectives and activities
Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document / To improve the quality of life of people with disabilities within Shropshire and its surrounding areas, by promoting education and the arts, and through this improving individual health, social wellbeing and economic stability. Also to promote social integration and community cohesion, building trust, confidence and communication between people with disabilities and the wider community through the medium of the arts.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit) / Ensuring our work delivers our aims
We will review our aims, objectives and activities each year, considering our achievements and the outcomes of our work in the previous 12 months. We will refer to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning future activities. In particular, the Trustees will consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.
Arty Party is a membership arts organisation that works with adults with learning disabilities to create art, performance, craft, writing, film and music.
The Arty Party Able Events Team is a group trained to run art and social events, including the Dancing Hippo Club that many of our members enjoy.
Our Art Studio is for people who wish to be artists - discovering their own style and exhibiting and selling their art.
Our Physical Theatre group meets regularly, and makes stunning performance pieces.
Our Market Art Enterprise Team runs weekly art and craft market stalls at the Wellington and Shrewsbury Indoor Markets. Our stalls sell the work of artists, writers and crafters, with a focus on the work of people with learning disabilities.
Our Members Committee makes decisions and we learn and work together.
Membership, Teams and Committees
We have over 100 members. 12 members are elected onto the members committee. This committee makes decisions about future activities and fundraising, and is chaired and minuted by its members. 2 committee members represent the committee at Board meetings.
The Able Events Team is a team of members who, funded by the Big Lottery, have been trained to organise and run social events. This team are trained in Front of House, Communication, Disability Awareness, Accessible Venue Set-up and Customer Service.
Publicity and Marketing
We do this through two facebook pages, a twitter account, newsletters four times a year, flyers for events and info at market stalls. We have also generated newspaper articles, and have talked on BBC Shropshire Radio. Members are involved in all aspects of publicity, from poetry and reports in newsletters to radio interviews.
Section D Achievements and performance
/
Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year / Activity 2014 - 2015
Market Enterprise
We ran two weekly indoor market stalls - Wellington on Fridays and Shrewsbury on Tuesdays. These stalls focussed on selling the arts and crafts of learning disabled adults. We also worked with local crafters and artists, who helped the team to learn new skills. The Market Art Enterprise team set up and ran the stalls, supported by Julia Dean-Richards and Julie Watson.
Shrewsbury team was Jamie, Jonathan, Samantha, the Wellington team was Georgie, Becky, Ricky, Nathan, Tristan, Krisstel and Jenna. Suppliers were paid 80%, generating 20% towards Arty Party stall rental and overheads. The stalls continued to be self-sustainable, despite a reduction in market trade generally during this period. All relevant skills were covered 'on the job' - the stalls were multi-functional - great hubs in the community, with local people contacting us, coming for a chat and donating their own hand-made goods. The stalls were lively and welcoming, and a focus for anyone who wanted to get involved.
One member, who worked with the Arty Party stall last year, was inspired to start his own market stall at Shrewsbury market. This is great evidence of progression and achievement
Physical Theatre and Art Studio
Arty Party ran Art Studio and Physical Theatre sessions at Belmont Hall, Wellington, funded by Comic Relief. Physical Theatre was led by Ray Jacobs (Shropshire Inclusive Dance). Art Studio was led by artist, Tanya Raabe, with sessions by other local artists who became more involved during this period.
We ran Physical Theatre sessions at The Trinity Centre in Shrewsbury. The day long sessions were attended by ten learning disabled adults. The sessions ran at cost price and insurance was covered by fundraising. The sessions were run in partnership with Shropshire Inclusive Dance, facilitated by Ray Jacobs and Rachel Liggitt, who have many years experience of working with learning disabled performers. Ray Jacobs has worked with Arty Party since it was founded.
Performance
Our performers took part in two performances during 2014. The first was commissioned by Bethphage, for their birthday celebration event. The piece 'A Sea of Tiny Flames' was very beautiful, and met with enthusiasm by attendees at the event.
The second large scale performance was called Woodside Home, and was created with funding from BBC Performing Arts Fund and Community First. The Physical Theatre group was joined by members who had previously taken part in our performance projects, and also by participants from Shropshire Inclusive Dance. Woodside Home was performed at two venues, and included specially composed live acoustic guitar music, by Simon Cresswell. Thoughts and feelings about home were gathered through interviews with the public in Woodside, Telford. West Midlands storyteller, Peter Chand, was MC for the events and added his own entertaining stories about home. The performance was filmed - a way of increasing audience numbers for our performance work.
Poetry
In October, Arty Party authors, poets and storytellers wrote poems and performed at café tables, as part of Wellington Literary Festival. This was very well received, and presented the opportunity to work alongside other authors, such as Catherine Cooper and Richards Denning.
The Able Events team continued to host Dancing Hippo Club events. The team now has its own uniform and identity, and is taking responsibility for the success of the events - including the production of flyers and making contact with local businesses for sponsorship and raffle prizes. we ran a valentines ball, a barbeque, and a Christmas party.
Fundraising
Fundraising started with a smile, this period, when Market stall holders held a fundraising event at Easter, and raised £700 for Arty Party.
Arty Party members fundraise to run Dancing Hippo Events - themed nights attended by many of our members. This year, member, Becky, organised and carried out a sponsored swim at Wellington swimming baths. Becky swam 65 lengths in 55 minutes. She raised over £200, which was put towards our Valentines Ball. We also ran a Christmas event, which was very well attended, with lots of good friends and new faces.
Julie Watson ran a bootsale, and raised £157.
We also ran the Arty Party Lottery from the stall in Shrewsbury. This was a way of raising money to help us pay our annual running costs. Many of the stall holders, plus other friends of Arty Party and members of the general public, entered the lottery on a weekly basis. The market team played an active role in the running of the lottery, and took on responsibility for collecting and recording payments. Particular thanks go to Ricky and Jamie for leading on this.
In addition to the sterling work put in by members and friends, we received grants from Comic Relief, Community First, BBC Performing Arts Fund and Shrewsbury Carnival Fund. Thank you to all our funders.
Carnival
Arty Party made a carnival comeback during this period. We entered Shrewsbury Carnival 'Go Pop with Arty Party' and came home with second prize for a group on foot, and third prize for a charity stall. We took the opportunity to hold a competition to find a name for the Arty Party Blue Cat. The cat is now named Marty. We also entered Woodside Carnival, and won first prize in the parade. We were lucky enough to receive a donation from Shrewsbury Carnival fund, to put towards the 2015 carnival, awarded at a ceremony attended by Sean and Julia.
Section E Financial review
Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves / Arty Party is a small charity, dependent upon small grants and fundraising, as well as earnings, to sustain its operations and to run activities. Our reserves policy reflects the fact that we do not currently employ permanent paid staff, but must cover insurances and essential core costs in order to sustain any activity. We have therefore calculated the amount of reserves needed to run the organisation for 6 months without income, during which we would focus upon fundraising activities.
Details of any funds materially in deficit / N/A

Section F Other optional information

N/A
Section G Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s)
Full name(s) / Sara Mai
Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) / Chair
Date / 30/07/2015

TAR 1 March 2012