Annual Review 2011 – 2012

Annual Review 2011 – 2012 improving deaf and disabled people’s access to live music Chair’s Review In 2011/12, Attitude is Everything became one of the Arts Council’s National Portfolio Organisations (NPO). We were awarded an increase because of the strength of our partnership work and vision of improving Deaf and disabled people’s access to live music. Arts Council would have an excellent strategic organisation in Attitude is Everything; its track record, vision and “ commitment for inclusion of Deaf and disabled people in mainstream arts opportunities warrants support for this unique, specialised, disabled-led organisation… From our Arts Council England NPO application assessment. ” This was the first year of the implementation of our Strategic Plan 2011 – 2015 and I am delighted to say that it was extremely successful, with the organisation exceeding the majority of its targets, despite 11% funding cuts across all projects. I thank Arts Council England and in particular, our Relationship Manager, Milica Robson, for their strong belief in, and continued commitment to Attitude is Everything. In addition I am grateful to all our donors and sponsors, but in particular, Glastonbury Festival and Festival Republic for their donations. The continued support from Michael Eavis and Melvin Benn is not only financially beneficial but also assists Attitude is Everything to be recognised by other live music organisations as the leading experts in access issues. In addition to what Festival Republic donates to us, this year, Melvin also agreed to fund an additional Access and Training bursary for UK Festival Awards winner in the Best Grassroots Festival category – this went to YNot? Festival. They have also signed up to Attitude’s Charter of Best Practice. One of our Trustees, Parker-Jayne Isibor, completed a Fundraising Bike Ride in September 2011 and our Patrons Drugstore raised funds through the Pledge Campaign for the recording of their album ‘Anatomy’. Thanks to everyone who donated to both fundraising campaigns. 2 I would also like to thank the family and friends of Bob Hamilton who donated to us in memory of Bob. He was a fabulous volunteer and very much missed by the staff and volunteer team. Matthew Hancock MP really championed Attitude is Everything this year. Matthew and his Parliamentary Team not only supported us to launch our State of Access Report in the Attlee Suite at the House of Commons in December 2011, but also lent further support by debating the subject of access for Deaf and disabled people to live music in the UK in the House of Commons, with the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries Ed Vaizey in January 2012. I am immensely proud of how the Minister regards us: …The reason I describe (Attitude is Everything) as a stand-out charity is that its attitude is entirely right. It is “ an attitude of encouragement, rather than lambasting, and of providing solutions, rather than simply highlighting problems ... My sincere thanks go to Matthew” Hancock MP for his support to us in 2011/12; for raising the profile of Attitude is Everything and the State of Access Report, and for an immensely successful and enjoyable launch which was attended by many of our funders, supporters and partners in the arts and music industry. The continuing debate on access to live music and whether access will eventually become a condition of licence gives Attitude is Everything an important profile in Parliament; Parliament is also where the voices of Deaf and disabled music-lovers need to heard. Five Trustees resigned from the Board during the year, and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of them for their work with us. At the same time, I am immensely grateful to the remaining Trustees for their continued support in maintaining the strategic direction of the organisation. They all bring considerable and invaluable experience in governance. We are currently working to develop our Board of Trustees and I feel confident that by the end of the next financial year, we will have a full Board. 3 I would also like to thank the rest of our Patrons for their continued support; also the Steering Group and Subcommittee members, office volunteers, Mystery Shoppers, Information Tent workers and stewards who devote many hours of their free time to us. Our freelancer Web Editor Fred Williams also retired after more than 20 years service working for both Attitude is Everything and our former host organisation, Artsline. His loyalty and dedication to us has been admirable. Finally, we would not have Attitude is Everything without the staff; once again this dedicated and passionate team have exceeded many goals during 2011 /12 and they are invaluable as ever. Stephen Reid, Chair Stephen Reid 4 Achievements in 2011 - 2012 Despite the 11% decrease in funding that all Arts Council Organisations received in 2011/12, we exceeded most of the targets set for us by our main funder, Arts Council England and assisted 273 organisations and had audiences of 800 for Club Attitude events this year. We also worked all-year round on specific media projects with a dedicated PR Company. Working with Name PR has significantly enhanced our profile in the mainstream and trade press. Our key programme strands were: Charter of Best Practice Our groundbreaking Charter of Best Practice increased the number of Charter Venues and Festivals to 55 from 42 last year. Our existing Charter Venues and Festivals continued to make a commitment to reach the Bronze, Silver and Gold benchmarks of achievement set out for each stage of the award, whilst we provided full support and training to each venue through every stage. Through the Charter we are creating a network of more accessible venues and festivals which will enhance the quality of the experience for Deaf and disabled audiences and artists. Spaceships Are Cool with the Charter of Best Practice For more detail and to see who is signed up to our Charter of Best Practice, please click here: www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk/the-charter-of-best-practice Mystery Shopping Remaining at the heart of Attitude is Everything’s Vision and Values, the number of our volunteer disabled and Deaf clubbers and gig- goers expanded, and they continued to provide feedback on the accessibility and overall experience at not only the Charter Venues and Festivals, but also local music venues, clubs and festivals of their choice. 126 feedback reports were completed during 2011/12. Our biggest success to date for the Mystery Shopping Project was the creation of our first State of Access Report. There is more information on this in the Lobbying Section of the Review. 5 Disability Equality Training Specific Disability Equality Training modules based on each level of the Charter were developed on key topics such as making Outdoor Events accessible; and “open” sessions were made available for venues and festivals who only wish to train a small number of staff. In total we trained 567 people over 26 sessions for venues, festivals and organisations including HMV Hammersmith Apollo, HMV Birmingham Institute, HMV Edinburgh Picture House, Silverstone Events Team, Greenbelt and the Royal Parks Events Team. For the CREATE Young Hackney project, we provided a training session for young people between 14 and 19 years old, on making festivals accessible and we offered two volunteer placements to young students at our Club Attitude event at Village Underground. Volunteers observed a Disability Awareness training session and learned how we put on an accessible event. It is the first time that we have trained young people specifically on access issues. This was in preparation for a bigger partnership project that we hope to embark upon with the National Skills Academy from 12/13 onwards. Access Audits We completed 2 Access Audits and used our previous Access Auditing work to create online Case studies that give partners a better understanding of the end product of an Access Audit, and the impact it can have, on an organisation and its Deaf and disabled Customers. Club Attitude Club Attitude nights continue to showcase the talents of disabled and non-disabled musicians and DJ's, and to promote best practice by demonstrating to the industry how to put on a fully accessible club night. Glastonbury Showcase: 300 audience members attended the Glastonbury Showcase event, which was made possible by support from Continental Drifts. Band of Holy Joy headlined; Heavy Load and Captain Angelo played alongside DJ’s Deaf Rave, DJ Void and Stella OBE. Club Attitude at Village Underground: This was hugely successful and sold out, with 500 people at the venue on the night. Our high profile headliners were Slow Club who played on the bill with Spaceships Are Cool and Wildeflower alongside DJ’s 6 Ghostpoet, Stella Mortos and Pigpen. We also asked Pigpen to produce one of their comic strip features about our event and Eat Your Own Ears assisted us to market the night using their exclusive mailing list. We worked with a new partner, ticket agency We Got Tickets who featured us as their chosen charity event and enabled us to collect donations on top of ticket payments online. Additionally, a Radio 1 programme documentary called “Let Me Into the Music” about Deaf and disabled people’s access to live music, hosted by Nihal, chose to focus on our event and it aired to great acclaim in May 2012. Festivals 46 people took part in the Deaf and Disabled People’s Stewarding project, and we ran 6 Information Tents and/or Stewarding Projects at Glastonbury, Latitude, The Big Chill, Reading / Leeds and Liberty Festivals, in partnership with Festival Republic, Glastonbury Festivals, Oxfam and SFM Security Consultants. This project continued to create volunteer and employment opportunities for Deaf and disabled people at major music festivals in the UK.

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