Annual Meeting 2025

Chairman’s Report

This has been a year of enjoyment – artistic and social. What we do remains broadly as it was: talks, visits and other events for like-minded art lovers, having fun and raising money for art-related causes.

Our last Annual Meeting took place on 23 April 2024.

Events

Our events over the past year are listed in the Appendix. I believe that the programme as a whole has been reasonably balanced. The events have mostly been well-received and supported. Developing and delivering the programme is a central task for the committee and we really welcome ideas and suggestions. At the meeting I will say a word about other upcoming events.

Our holiday trip to the Lake District was successfully organised and run by Gill Ashley-Smith. This was the last trip of this sort that Gill has organised after doing so for many years. This has been a substantial achievement, both in terms of enjoyment (artistic and social) and also for the revenue it has generated. We are all extremely grateful to Gill for this memorable contribution.

Our first venture abroad, an organised tour to Antwerp, will take place just before the Annual Meeting but after I have issued this report. The job of selecting the tour operator and devising the programme has been led by Dianne Page and Sandra Clowes with much support from Brian Phillips and Odette Himpe. 26 members are taking part.

ARTLOOK

ARTLOOK is a central part of our offering and a key channel of communication. None of the other local arts organisations have a comparable high-quality offering. Thanks again to Dianne Page for her enthusiasm, drive and creativity. She has confirmed that she is happy to remain as editor. As always she welcomes contributions, large and small, from members.

Producing ARTLOOK is a significant task. From this year the magazine will be published quarterly rather than bi-monthly.

 

Our website

We have, I believe, a good website which is steadily being updated and improved, entirely thanks to Brian Phillips. We are also grateful to our consultant, Jason Liversidge, who looks after the site from his base in British Columbia!

Finances

Receipts and payments for 2024 are set out in a separate schedule. They show a surplus from activities of £4170 and a balance of £6380 carried forward – much the same as in 2023. The sum that we were able to spend on Awards was £6715 compared with £12,910 in 2023. This reflects a more conservative view about our future finances, based on the fact that we will no longer be running in-house tours like those organised by Gill Ashley-Smith. In the past those tours have been easily the most profitable of our activities and 2024 was no exception, with a surplus of £2437.

The upcoming tour to Antwerp is organised by a commercial operator and its finances will not flow through our books. The income from this venture is likely to be much less. By the time of the Annual Meeting the tour will have taken place and we hope to have positive feedback to report.

I am very grateful to Marianne Pitts for taking over impressively from Sue Yeomans as Treasurer and Membership Secretary. Thanks also to John Goodman who has acted as Examiner following the sad death of Paul Preston.

Awards

In brief we seek to make awards in the following main fields:

  • Art as therapy. It is well-established that art can help people with a variety of conditions, especially in mental health.
  • Art as a contribution to community development.
  • The promotion of art and the appreciation of art.
  • Support for individual artists and groups of artists. This can, for example, take the form of supporting programmes to help artists with the skills they need to reach their customers effectively.

I am grateful to Faith Matthews, Chairman of Awards. Her report is attached separately. Thanks too to the two other members of the Awards Committee, Veronica Cutler and Brian Phillips. Veronica will be taking over as Chair of the Awards Committee in place of Faith.

Membership

Thanks to everyone who has renewed their membership and paid the new subscription of £25. At the time of writing the number of paid-up members stands at 147, compared to 145 last year. We have an excellent leaflet and we urge your help in distributing it further. Even so, the best recruitment method remains word of mouth.

The Committee

Many thanks to those who have served on the committee during the year – Gill Ashley-Smith, Sandra Clowes (Secretary), Dianne Page, Marianne Pitts, Sue Yeomans (to September) and Ann Tollett. They have all worked hard and made a good team.

Ann is standing down from the committee and we thank her for her contribution. I am glad to say that Angela Cresswell is offering herself for election. The same is true of Gill, Sandra, Marianne and Dianne.

Last and not least, I will be standing down as Chairman after three and a half eventful and enjoyable years. As you all know, Faith Matthews has offered to take over for a two-year period. I wish her every possible success.

And finally, thanks to you all for your support and friendship.

David Howells

March 2025