Review
of the third
Welborne Contemporary Arts Weekend
14 and 15 June 2003
The
2003 Welborne Arts Weekend was a great success. We attracted over 300
people from across the county to an event which was bigger and better
than previous years. This was particularly encouraging following the great
difficulties we had with funding.
We made a small surplus for both Welborne Village Hall and for the Church.
Perhaps our real successes were that we put on such an impressive event
in our small village in spite of the difficulties and that over 50 villagers
were involved in some way.
An exhibition of art work made by children from Mattishall School in workshops
before the weekend - run by Annette Rolston, one of the artists in the
CAE (Creative Arts East) touring exhibition.
'InPrint',
the touring exhibition from CAE.
An exhibition
by Breckland Artists, a new organisation of professional artists in the
Breckland Area
An exhibition
by the Norfolk Contemporary Craft Society
A daily
programme of poetry readings, demonstrations and presentations
Artwork
by villagers from Welborne and Mattishall.
A flower
festival in the church
One of the lessons we learnt in 2002 was that we needed to involve other organisations, both to increase the scale of the event and to spread the workload.
The original plans had included the Norfolk Museums Service, but this did not work out. However, Creative Arts East and two other arts organisations did take part.
Promotion and publicityAnother lesson from 2002 was that publicity needed to be ready even earlier and that personal contacts with the local press and media, were the key. We asked Creative Arts East to do this for us for a fee, but this was not possible.
We were very lucky to make contact with Paul Dickson. He agreed to carry out our promotion and publicity for a (small) fee. When funding did not materialise he very kindly agreed to do our press release for nothing and gave us lots of free advice. Through him, we had excellent coverage in the Eastern Daily Press, the Dereham and Fakenham Times and we were invited to do an interview with Louise Priest on Radio Norfolk. We could not have asked for more.
We were also included in a full page feature in the EDP in the week before the Arts Weekend. Following the weekend, we had really nice coverage in both the Eastern Daily Press and the Dereham and Fakenham Times.
In view of our funding difficulties, Creative Arts East produced a special run of their InPrint posters which included details of Welborne Arts Weekend. Creative Arts East also allowed us to print our own flyers on the back of InPrint flyers. These were far from ideal, but we were able to put out publicity. The flyers were distributed through the arts marketing branch of Creative Arts East and the posters were distributed to libraries by the County Council Library Service.
It is very difficult for us to tell how effective the individual elements of promotion and publicity were in encouraging people to come.
This was difficult. The two organisations who we had hoped would cover most of our costs were not able to do so. Lack of time meant it was not possible to apply to other major funders.
We were only able to go ahead thanks to the generous help of Norfolk County Council, South Norfolk Council and a great deal of very creative support from Creative Arts East. HSBC and Goff Petroleum were the first of, hopefully, many generous business sponsors. Builders Equipment kindly loaned us the builder's screens for the second year running.
We had to provide our own transport, overnight security and catering. The fact that a number of villagers willingly took on these roles was very encouraging, but the scale of effort is not sustainable in future years.
The trustees of Welborne Village Hall unanimously agreed to underwrite the costs of the event because they felt it was important to stage the event in spite of the funding difficulties. This was especially heart-warming, given that they knew there would inevitably be little, if any, surplus for the village. However, the trustees of Welborne Village Hall must not be so exposed to the risk of loss in future years.
A special
thank you to Creative Arts East for their support, advice, coming up with
creative solutions and even funding the poetry readings. Thanks also to
Breckland Artists who contributed towards the costs of the event, staged
their own exhibition, put on a number of demonstrations and presentations,
sold member's work and made us another £122 commission on their
sales.
The attached financial summary shows that we made a very small surplus,
but this was only achieved by organisations and individuals contributing
generously to the event. It is not reasonable to expect this level of
generosity in future.
Good publicity in the press and on radio
Good distribution of
flyers and posters
Personal invites were
very effective
Three arts organisations
took part and staged their own exhibitions
WVH was able to concentrate
on planning, funding, providing the infrastructure and organising the
event
In spite of funding
difficulties we put on an event which was bigger and better than previous
years - while the final costs 
were
half those in 2002
As an organisation we
showed that we had the resilience to successfully react to difficulties
The visual arts elements
of the event were bigger and better than previous years
The poetry reading,
demonstrations and presentations were extremely successful
The grouping of the
exhibits and events in front of the church, with the feel of a village
green, was just right
The workshops in Mattishall
School worked well and encouraged children and parents to come to the
weekend
We have had very good
feedback from the other organisations involved
The
catering was excellent, encouraged people to stay longer and generated
a good profit
The
help of the Police with their 'no parking' cones meant that car parking
was all on Rectory Meadow. This opened up the views of the Village Hall
and made the roads safer for pedestrians
Excellent
coverage of the event in the press
The
weather!
What didn't go so well?
·
Posters and flyers (while the help from CAE was appreciated) were not
very suitable - too much information
· We had to put too much effort into transport and overnight security
· Numbers were down on 2002
· We generated virtually no surplus for either the village hall
or the church
· The Creative Arts East exhibition was isolated in the village
hall
· Barnham Broom School were not involved
· Because of financial constraints we could not risk losing money
on a concert by professional musicians and it had to be cancelled
·
Start planning for the next time as early as possible
· Clarify our longer term objectives for Welborne Arts Weekend
· Work with partners and key organisations at the planning stage
· Get funding applications in during the autumn
· Try and get longer term funding
· Build up a fund to provide a buffer
· Decision time is Christmas
· Publicity and promotion must start after Christmas
· Get even more people and organisations involved to spread the
workload and increase capacity
· Need to consider for and against continuing as annual event
· We should build on the 'village green' effect
· We should include even more demonstrations and presentations
· We should include more literature and poetry
· We should have a Saturday night concert and include other music
· The Village Hall should be used for catering; nothing else
· The Creative Arts East exhibition should not be so isolated in
future.
· Important to repeat the risk assessment before the weekend and
to act on it
Welborne Arts Weekend is beginning to be recognised as a significant annual event in Norfolk. We must now clarify our vision and longer term objectives while continuing to develop it gradually to avoid over-stretching ourselves.
We are meeting a number of actual and potential partners in mid August 2003 to review this year's event and to consider how best to develop Welborne Arts Weekend in future years.