The first Welborne ‘Arts Weekend’ was in 2001. This came about because we were offered the Creative Arts East (CAE) 2001 touring art exhibition at short notice; another village had cancelled because of foot and mouth restrictions. The exhibition was brought on a lorry to Welborne for one day and we put on a flower festival in the church and provided refreshments. We attracted over 130 visitors and made a small contribution towards village hall and church funds.

For 2002, we decided to expand the Arts Weekend. We successfully applied for an ‘Awards for All’ grant of £2,608 which covered the costs of hiring a marquee, transport, printing and security costs. As well as the CAE touring exhibition, we invited a group of local professional artists to put on a separate exhibition. On the Saturday evening we had a concert by a local choir. We attracted over 400 visitors over two days and made a surplus which we shared with the church.

2003 was a difficult year. Funding bids went in late and we did not attract all the grants that we had hoped. However, in a very positive display of community spirit and lots of self-help, the festival was even bigger and better than before. We had two marquees and added poetry readings. Some of the planned elements of the festival had to be cancelled because of the lack of funding. In spite of the difficulties we attracted a lot of people, continued the tradition and even made a very small surplus.

The renamed Welborne Arts Festival in 2004 was the best so far! The total number of visitors to all the events was over 700. This nearly doubled our previous highest attendance and reflected the wider scope of the festival. Over 60 villagers contributed to the festival in some way. This was particularly encouraging as it suggested we were achieving our underlying objective of community-building.

We were very successful with funding bids and even had to give back £2,700 to ‘Awards for All’!

Our original proposals included schools workshops and linked activities, concerts in the church, ‘Something for all the senses” in the church, arts workshops and presentations for families, as well as two art exhibitions.

We delivered all of these and a few extras, such as the appearance of the Bristol Art Library, well within budget.

The 2004 festival made a significant surplus, £1000 of which has been put into a reserve fund to give us some flexibility in funding future festivals. Hopefully, a surplus will become the norm, but is dependent on the major costs being met by external funding.

Long term objectives of Welborne Arts Festival

Our objectives are:

to improve access to and experience of the arts and professional artists for people living in a remote rural area where access to the arts is limited
to celebrate Welborne as a community and a place to live
to increase the sense of inclusion for all residents of Welborne and surrounding villages
to address the issues of community development, learning and skills, rural isolation, particularly for the young, the elderly and the disabled
capacity building by linking culture and learning
to develop new rural audiences for the arts
to inspire villagers to be creative themselves
to develop audiences for future activities in Welborne

We have the serious intent of “bringing the arts to the people” but there will always be a sense of fun in what we offer.

Research and publications featuring Welborne Arts Festival

Welborne Arts Festival, with its increasing reputation year on year, has featured in a number of research projects and national publications, including:

Only Connect

Welborne Village Hall (a charity) was one of the promoting groups included in the recently-published major publication “Only Connect” about arts touring and rural communities. This was carried out by Comedia for the National Rural Touring Forum.

The report says that:

· rural touring arts events offer memorable experiences and can provoke lasting debates, becoming part of the shared history that is a basis of community;

· audiences span the age range, and include many families;

· rural touring in village halls brings people together

· rural touring is not a poor substitute for the kind of experience offered by urban arts venues;

· facilities may not be as good, but the intimacy of the space and the opportunity to meet the performers give a village hall show a unique power;

· rural touring can make it a more challenging experience for the audience, who often come for reasons unconnected with an interest in the arts.
The report concludes that ‘rural touring makes an important contribution to artistic and community vibrancy in rural areas’ and that ‘rural isolation, poverty, social exclusion and similar disadvantages should not prevent people from having good access to experiences.’

The SOUL Project

Welborne Village Hall has also been the subject of research by Norwich City College as part of the ‘SOUL project’ (Soft Outcomes Universal Learning) which is funded by the Big Lottery Fund.
When organisations apply for grants the charity is always concerned that it is going to get value for money. To satisfy this concern indicators may be used to measure hard outcomes (e.g. income generated; number of people attending; range of activities offered).

SOUL is attempting to produce a programme of indicators which will measure other outcomes, 'soft outcomes': (such as self esteem, dealing with other people, improving personal life experiences, sense of community etc) as they apply to individuals who are 'clients' of the organisation and for the organisation itself.

Welborne Village Hall was selected for the research project along with 80 other voluntary organisations because of the wide recognition that we are successful in achieving soft outcomes for the community we work in and have an impact not just in Welborne but on the villages around.

The researchers spent a year attending and learning from all the activities run by Welborne Village Hall, including Welborne Arts Festival. As part of the festival in 2004, the researchers undertook a survey of those attending. Their analysis of the responses led them to conclude:

The festival was well organised and enjoyed by the majority;
The festival attracted people from rural areas who did not regularly attend arts events;
The festival was seen as giving status to the local community;
The festival increased the willingness of respondents to attend other arts events;
The festival increased the willingness of respondents to participate in the arts generally.

The researchers said: “To be able to stage such an event is a remarkable achievement for such a small and relatively isolated community, with a significant proportion of the village being involved in some manner”

Paul Hamlyn Foundation Annual Review for year ending 31 March 2004

“Welborne Village Hall - £2,960 for professional artists to undertake creative workshops with pupils in three primary schools prior to an arts festival in the remote village of Welborne in rural Norfolk.”

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