BELCONNEN ARTS & CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

ANNUAL ARTISTIC REPORT 2005

A PROJECT OF BELCONNEN COMMUNITY SERVICE - SUPPORTED BY THE ACT GOVERNMENT THROUGH ARTSACT

Introduction

The Belconnen Arts and Cultural Development Program has originated from a range of community arts projects run in 1998 and 1999. It is one of more than twenty programs that come under the umbrella of the Belconnen Community Service. It operates across a broad range of activities including visual arts, literary arts and performance, drawing participants and audiences from every sector of the Belconnen community. These include children and adults, teenagers and seniors, those who are differently abled, both mentally and physically, families of every configuration and diverse community groups.

Over the last five years, the Arts and Cultural program has initiated, managed or supported, in whole or in part, many projects that have significantly contributed to the Belconnen community’s cultural identity. Many established and emerging artists have been able to gain skills and/or pass their artistic skills on to the community. 2004 saw a transition of the program at Belconnen Community Service in a change of focus from community arts delivery to a community cultural development program. In 2005 the Arts and Cultural program employed a full-time development officer, part time gallery curator, part time theatre development worker, and casual theatre operational workers.

The key principles of the current program are:

• To ensure that inclusive, transparent and culturally inspiring processes are utilized to achieve outputs and outcomes for the community.
• To ensure that the program will target  diverse groups and foster their ability to express themselves creatively.
• To involve participants in all aspects of the program (planning, implementation, and evaluation).
• To build community connectedness.

There were 4 major tools used in achieving the Arts and Cultural Development Program objectives for 2005: the Belconnen Theatre; the Belconnen Gallery; the Belconnen Festival; and the email news and website.

Sections of the Report

· Belconnen Theatre

· Belconnen Gallery

· Belconnen Festival

· Email News and Website

· CCD Projects

· Networks and Committees

· Publicity, Promotion and Marketing

· Belconnen Community Service Programs

· Staffing and Administration

· Partnerships

· Meeting Key Result Areas

Belconnen Theatre

Four major theatre initiatives were in operation during 2005:

· Support for the theatre as a venue that can be hired out to independent performance groups.

· Building Belconnen based community theatre initiatives that seeks to engage a range of age groups with theatrical interest in the production of their own work

· Promoting, attracting, and supporting a diverse range of new groups to use the theatre.

· Forming partnerships with established organisations throughout the ACT to use the venue regularly.

Users of the Theatre

Independent hirers have been able to take advantage of reduced and simplified rates and upgraded equipment in the theatre, and the availability of technical support and advice. The simplified and upgraded technical aspects of the theatre have opened up more possibilities for one-off hirers to much more easily set up performances, and this has been reflected in the enormous increase in use from April 2005, when these changes were made. The Belconnen Theatre significantly reduced its hiring fees in 2005 to promote accessibility, and is currently the cheapest equipped space in Canberra. This policy has so far been outstandingly successful.  The Theatre is run as an accessible community space rather than as a commercial venue and this is expected to continue through the funding period.  With the planned arrival of new performance spaces in Belconnen it is anticipated that the current Theatre will change its focus and become a smaller sized alternative and accessible performance space appropriate for developing and emerging artists and companies, cultural groups and more intimate performance.  The current technical set-up of the Theatre is designed to accommodate the lighting, sound and staging needs of one-off and inexperienced theatre users, whilst allowing experienced users to adapt the space to their needs.  It is essential to its accessibility to provide basic technical support and to upgrade and maintain technical equipment.

Analysis of some statistics

The following table shows comparative figures for use, covering the 2005 calendar year, and an earlier period when there were no fulltime workers.

Table 1: Comparison of some Belconnen Theatre Statistics

	Last Year	Previously
Period covered	Jan-Dec 05	Jan-Dec 00
uses of theatre	277	142
public events	116	46
Unique participants	1,334	n/a
Audience	7,923	9,429*
Average audience/public event	68	n/a
Average percent capacity	39%	n/a
Average total audience per week	152	n/a
percentage of public events per uses	42%	32%
Average public events per week	2.20	0.88

*This figure combined audiences and participants, but also totalled repeat participants, and therefore  some figures cannot be compared.. Current figures show “unique” participants in the programs.

It seems evident that the successful multi-year funding for the Arts and Cultural Program has had an immediate impact, with an enormous amount of activity in the facility. Comparing these figures with the current multi year funding targets for the period 2006-08, it is also evident that output is way ahead of the targets:

“An initial target of 400 audience members per month was set for 2005.  This seems likely to be well exceeded. On this basis, the target is now to double this audience by 2008.  Participants in programs in the Theatre were similarly targeted at 1,000 for 2005.  It is anticipated that this will slowly increase to around 1,300 by 2008. By 2008 the theatre expects to achieve 300 separate uses per year, and average 800 audience members per month.” (from the successful multi year funding application to artsACT)

Table 2 shows clearly the increase in occupancy rates:

Table 2: Theatre occupancy rates

	booked at	actual at	currently
as of date	Apr-05	Dec-05	May-06
period covered	Apr-Dec 05	Jan-Dec 05	Jan-Dec 06
total days	275	365	365
total booked	118	277	340
percent occupancy	43%	76%	93%

The following chart shows the breakdown of use of the theatre in 2005:

Local amateur and youth theatre groups are 60% of the users, with local theatre development occupying another 15% of the theatre use. Significant new users are local cultural groups, orchestra and music groups, and an increase of the space as a film venue.

Community Theatre

Community Theatre initiatives have viewed the Theatre as a regional focus for creative energy and concentrating creative drive. The development program aims were to encourage and foster projects to draw on local desire and experience in broadly attractive areas of activity such as dance/ amateur theatre/ young people’s theatre/ community theatre. The program has provided working opportunities around which ongoing theatre activity can form, and allows and encourages these working opportunities to grow into working relationships amongst individuals and groups. Support structures are in place for skills development that supports the projects, involving targeted workshops, mentoring, and skill building classes. Results of this work have included theatre development worker Gary Fry’s initiation, support, and mentoring of Lifting Lucy by local playwright, Eris Harrison, with local actors and director, (May 05); The Scent of Lilac Darling, a teenage show in 2005; and Buzzing Productions, an avant garde young theatre group which has been using the space in the last year, and presented an innovative piece of improvised movement and text in Nov 05.

Meeting Community Development Outputs

In the last year, and building on the work of previous years, the Belconnen Theatre has enormously developed its capacity as a community resource. It has successfully linked local performers, groups, cultural organisations, and participants. It has involved the general community, diverse social groups, schools, youth, differently abled groups, theatre and music goers, children, senior citizens and others from across Belconnen and the ACT. It has provided a wide range of events and involvements, from local children’s theatre to concerts from our resident Maruki community orchestra; from international singers and dancers from India to local community events and poetry evenings.  Each and every event has had its own audience and participants, drawn overwhelmingly from Belconnen. A series of partnerships is in operation across the community, involving sharing or resources and information. Practical support is provided that is affordable and appropriate, enabling sophisticated presentations to be made simply. Pricing and technical support are so well integrated that anyone, individual or group, can afford to use the space to achieve their own objectives within the community. The theatre is well known across the ACT for its diversity, user friendliness, and useability. Its outputs are prodigious, and should the new cultural centre on the lake be approved, it will not come a moment too soon, as the Belconnen community has proved its capacity and need for such expression and activity.

Table 3: Belconnen Theatre users in 2005

User	type	#uses
Belconnen Community Service	various	11
Bazm-I-Adab	cultural  – poetry	1
Chilean Cultural Assoc	cultural – film	3
Canberra Karnataka Ass	cultural – various	5
Polish Association	cultural-theatre	2
Taiwanese Ass Canberra	cultural-concert	1
Jill Glastonbury Dance Academy	dance	8
Yogan group	cultural-dance	1
Action Callisthenics	local performance	4
ANU	graduation	1
Excalibur Callisthenics	local performance	1
Open Art	concerts	3
Tai Chi	workshops	7
Maruki Community Orchestra	music	3
Andante Andante	concert	2
Music For Everyone	children’s music theatre	15
ATO	seminar	2
CPSU	seminar	1
DIMA	seminar	3
Al Fresco’s Magic	audition	1
Converra-t-on	theatre	6
Ickle Pickle	pantomime	32
John XXIII Drama Soc	theatre	9
Phoenix Players	theatre	8
Tempo	theatre	60
Belladonna	theatre	17
Buzzing Productions	theatre	15
Please Close The Door	theatre	10
Bungee	theatre workshops	11
Canberra Youth Theatre	workshops	33
Messengers	youth theatre	1