Annual Report 2020
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Image: DarylGroves GASWORKS ARTS PARK ANNUAL REPORT 2 0 2 0 GASWORKS ARTS PARK CHAIR'S REPORT After a wonderful start to 2020, summer ended I thank our voluntary board for responding so and the constant motion of past decades well to the additional challenges of 2020. We abruptly changed. Rolling restrictions due to welcomed new members Geoffrey Shaw the pandemic highlighted how integral (Treasurer) and Suzanne Fermanis, and gatherings are, to the practices, income and thanked Kirstin McIntosh for her astute community benefit of artists and arts service as she stepped down at our 2020 organisations. AGM online. I am also personally indebted to board members who stayed on beyond their Indoor space closures and movement intentions prior to the pandemic, offering restrictions throughout Melbourne meant less additional stability as I stepped in as new work was available for our casual staff, resident chair. artists were often isolated from their studios and materials, and the main theatre’s new A great web of support enabled Gasworks seating bank waited idle from March until Arts Inc. to work intelligently within 2020’s November’s Fringe Festival. We were able to constraints and plan for a refreshed future. continue the Gasworks Farmers Market as an We are deeply grateful on many fronts. On essential source of fresh air food shopping and behalf of the Board I offer particular thanks neighbourly connection. A walk to the Priscilla to the experienced and adaptable Jones Cafe coffee window on the edge of the management team and staff, ably led by beautiful Gasworks park became a welcome Tamara Jungwirth. And to City of Port Phillip refuge from zoom doom. Meanwhile the Council for our new 10 year partnership and management team worked online on future- lease agreement. To our state and federal focused projects across operating systems and governments for pandemic-specific financial processes, digital and outdoor artistic subsidies and grants. Equally importantly, to programs, and enhancing the aesthetics, local residents for your renewed appreciation comfort, safety and practicality of theatre for the public Gasworks parkland. And finally spaces, courtyards, amenities and studios. to Gasworks Foundation board and patrons for your visionary support, including the magnificent Graham St gate. May it be the portal through which we all walk together in recognition of shared creative endeavours being essential community services. Philippa Devine Chair ANNUAL REPORT 2 0 2 0 Image: Ben Storch PAGE 2 GASWORKS ARTS PARK TREASURER'S REPORT I am pleased to report that Gasworks Arts With the lack of public activity in the theatres Inc. has made a surplus for 2020 and is well and reduced public activity in galleries and placed to deliver to the community across workshop rooms, the opportunity was taken to all parts of its operations in 2021. use staff for work on installation and maintenance including upgrading the As foreshadowed in the 2019 Annual Report, performance space and stage management the declaration of the COVID pandemic and systems in the main theatre, and on completing the Victorian State Government's imposition the commissioning of the new seating bank. The of strict restrictions from 22 March 2020 new kiln was purchased and installed, our two have materially affected Gasworks Arts Inc.'s outdoor seating areas upgraded and installation operations for the year. Prompt action by of the new outdoor toilets was finally completed. Gasworks management and, staff, and their support from the Board, have been vital in In 2021 we plan to use the surplus from 2020 as managing the situation, and in ensuring a part of the COVID recovery at Gasworks. As well healthy financial position. as mounting as many productions as possible, even at a deficit where necessary, there will be Total income excluding grants was down by assistance to other theatre productions from over 36% compared to the previous year, but favourable hire rates, and from providing staff as with the continuing grant from the City of Covid marshalls to assist in safe operation and Port Philip, support from Gasworks best use of the spaces. Foundation, and the many state and Federal government COVID support programs, total As Treasurer I would like thank all who support income actually rose by 5%.Principal among the finance function, and in particular the government support was JobKeeper subsidy, Finance & Personnel Manager Aggie Kaczmarski, which enabled Gasworks to retain many whose accurate and timely reports are so helpful valuable and skilled staff. to management and to the Board. On the expenses side, the main effects of The plan for 2021 is to use the surplus from 2020 COVID restrictions were to reduce many of to support a deficit in 2021, so that in total the the costs associated with productions and two years are close to break even. The signs so other activities, including casual staff wages. far are good, with forward theatre and studio Administration costs were also generally bookings at promising levels. down as a result of reduced public activity. Total expenses were down by almost 8% Geoffrey Shaw compared to the previous year. Treasurer ANNUAL REPORT 2 0 2 0 Image: David Horne PAGE 3 GASWORKS ARTS PARK DIRECTOR AND CEO'S REPORT 2020 transpired in three sections: a short Our new software infrastructure included: period of normal activity before the advent of ·New website COVID in March, then what was achieved ·New venue booking system during the government restrictions on the arts ·New online exhibition viewing app, Smartify in Melbourne, then the return to a modest amount of public activity after the restrictions In 2020 we agreed and signed a new council began to lift in November. lease for 10 years, which was passed unanimously in the council chamber. We Artistic Highlights thank all the council representatives who ·You and I by Casus Circus transported and worked on this agreement with us; a notable moved audiences through a romantic pas de achievement while everyone concerned was deux on aerial trapeze working from home. ·When the Light Leaves dramatized the impact of the new voluntary assisted dying As restrictions on arts activity eased in legislation on a family November, we offered the first live ·Our International Women’s Day event, Best performance in a Melbourne theatre, with and Fairest paid tribute to professional Jude Perl’s I Have a Face. We involved over 60 Australian sportswomen through biographies amateur and professional painters in the live embodied by professional actors art park event, Paint Out, where painters had ·The Kitty Calvert exhibition showcased three hours to capture an impression of assemblage sculptures constructed from op Gasworks Arts Park for submission into a shop gems and vintage doll parts. gallery exhibition. We concluded a public fundraising campaign to fund a new outdoor Like everyone in Melbourne, life was far from trapeze show, Circus Under the Stars. And we normal but we focused on what we could do ended the year in the galleries with the to upgrade the site and our internal software superb exhibition of gleaming metal animal systems. Visual arts activity with exhibitions sculptures by Georgie Seccull. and our resident artists could continue until August, while theatre activity was closed for None of the above achievements would have much of the year. Arts organisations faced been possible without my staff, who while some of the most severe restrictions across all living with the many anxieties caused by covid business types, thankfully construction work lock-downs and other restrictions, focused on was still allowed so we renovated a number of delivering every project that was possible in spaces including: the circumstances. The Gasworks ·Custom made theatre seating with five management team was tasked with creating retractable settings and implementing COVID-safe plans as ·New stage in the Gasworks Theatre, and new government restrictions continually changed, technical operations position and our Finance & Personnel Manager re- ·New main gate in the shape of a tree, forecasted the budget many more times than sculpted by resident artist Benjamin Storch ever needed before, rolled out the Jobkeeper ·New café umbrellas program, and made sure we were financially ·New Terrace tables and umbrellas sustainable by the end of the year. ·New Terrace light sculpture by local artist Throughout a difficult year the board stayed Carla O’Brien focused on what was possible rather than ·New outdoor toilets impossible, and the Gasworks Foundation remained positive with eyes on the future. The new seating was custom-made in Together we ran two fundraising campaigns Vietnam with project management by the City that generated important funds for future of Port Phillip. We thank the excellent projects. During 2020 we transitioned our builders the Andreatta Group, the seating board Chair; I’d like to thank former chair Mike suppliers Profurn, and the funders: Creative Brett-Young and new Chair Philippa Devine Partnerships Australia, the City of Port Phillip, for their advice and support. Their wisdom and and Gasworks private donors. Thanks to all perspectives have been invaluable and much who shared our vision that the Gasworks appreciated. Theatre could become the most beautiful, flexible and useful mid-scale theatre in Tamara Jungwirth Melbourne. Director & CEO ANNUAL REPORT 2 0 2 0 PAGE 4 GASWORKS ARTS PARK THEATRE SEASON MOVING PARTS Moving Parts is Gasworks Arts Park’s season of professional theatre, circus and cabaret performances,