Cultural Services Annual Report 2012/13 The four service delivery areas are: The four main service delivery areas are now: Ÿ Halls and Music Development Ÿ Fine and Applied Art Ÿ Museum Services Ÿ Learning and Engagement Cultural Services provide the operation, management, development and promotion of arts, heritage, cultural and science services throughout the city through access to high quality educational resources, promoting inclusion in delivering outreach activities. Facts and Figures Ÿ The Caird Hall continues to deliver a varied programme of performances, conferences, events and graduations with 380 taking place. The total attendance of the Caird Hall was up for the third year with 147,916 a 9% increase on the previous year. Ÿ The McManus attendance figures were 168,173 which was 7% above last year. Ÿ Cultural Services hosted Ten Drawings by Leonardo – A Diamond Jubilee exhibition from the Royal Collection in The McManus and the second in a series of four partnership exhibitions with V&A London Selling Dreams: One Hundred Years of Fashion Photograph. Ÿ The Creative Learning programme delivered 334 events and activities to 5,205 children, young people and adults. Ÿ Museums Galleries Scotland funded “Driving Dundee Forward: The Dundee Transport Collection” to research and document transport related objects in the museum collection. www.leisureandculturedundee.com/culture Caird Hall The Caird Hall is Dundee's major arts, entertainment and conference venue staging a wide ranging programme of events throughout the year. The building is Grade A listed and has a four star theatre grading awarded by Visit Scotland. Despite being in the midst of a recession the bookings for the Caird Hall continued to be buoyant as well as attracting new event promoters to the city. In total we hosted 380 events with an audience figure of 147,916. The Caird Hall is critical to the cultural mix of the City bringing additional business and revenue to the local economy. It is also used by local event organisers and promoters, schools, universities, churches etc. The Caird Hall is on the national touring circuit for major concerts, conferences and events. The programme is constantly changing to ensure engagement with an ever demanding local and national audience. The year opened in April with Scotland's best loved play – “The Steamie” celebrating 25 years, with six performances. The Show provided so many memories for the members of the audience a number of whom had been to the local steamie with their mothers. Dundee Football Club held a Dinner celebrating with the members of the original team, VIP guests and over 650 fans, the winning of the Scottish League 50 years ago. A grand night for all. Other highlights included Resurrection Day, Madama Butterfly, The Boys' Brigade Brass Band Competition and the Order of the Eastern Star and Jehovah Witnesses Spring Conventions. The Indie Rock Band The Vaccines rocked May followed closely by the Solid Solver 60's Show, 80's Mania and Ladies of Country. The first fundraising Concert by Dundee Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra was warmly welcomed by the audience. Other events included the Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers, Nor' East of Scotland cat show and Tayside Contracts Awards dinner. The Educational Institute of Scotland held their AGM in June and the Guiding Association celebrated their Jubilee. Jimmy Carr returned with his Gagging Order Tour to a full house. His Holiness the Dalai Lama delivered the 2013 Margaret Harris Lecture on Religion as part of the University of Dundee's Annual Graduation celebrations. It was truly a wonderful event for the Caird Hall to host and one for the history book. Presentations for local schools and football associations ended the month. The people's tenor Alfie Boe delighted a sell-out audience and the Dundee Weavers celebrated their 500th Anniversary with a tea party in the Marryat Hall. Dare Protoplay extended their event from the Caird Hall to include a Marquee in City Square providing fantastic opportunities for gamers of all ages and abilities. The Church of Scotland returned www.leisureandculturedundee.com/culture to Dundee with the Guild AGM and over 1800 delegates attended from all parts of Scotland. Alterative comedians were the highlight of the Autumn Series including Rhod Gilbert, Stewart Francis, two nights of Frankie Boyle and an amazing four sell-out shows by Scotland's own Kevin Bridges. Deacon Blue returned to the Caird Hall on their tour Celebrating 25 years of the Raintown album, a real nostalgic gig. The Baptist Assembly of Scotland held their Annual Conference in October. An all star cast appeared in the major touring production of the Calendar Girls with eight performances and the end of 2012 saw amazing Concerts by Mumford & Sons, The Proclaimers and Dundee's own The View all with capacity audiences. One Night in Vienna welcomed 2013, the sparkling Strauss spectacular. Anton and Erin, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Boogie Nights the Concert and Carmina Burana were some of the highlights in spring. A new event for the venue was the Scottish Children's Book Awards, which took place in March, with over 800 primary schoolchildren attending and over 65,000 viewing the event on the Education Glow system. A long time ambition has been to have one of the original film projectors used in the Caird Hall in 1943-44 on display and this was realised in January when the restoration team from the Stockport Plaza, led by David Eve, visited the venue and completed the difficult task of moving the equipment to the foyer. The Friends of the Caird Hall Organ continue to stage fundraising events to assist in the promotion of the organ. The Silent Movie Night Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Second Organathon raised over £3,500. Dundee City Box Office Dundee City Box Office is the main ticketing agency in Dundee providing a professional service to promoters, venues, event organisers, amateur societies and charitable groups in the area. The Box Office continues to improve the quality of service provided to all customers with the AudeinceView ticketing system and the website and online booking facility is increasing in popularity. The Whitehall re-opened its doors and the Box Office provides the ticketing service for this venue. The total number of tickets sold was 116,003. www.leisureandculturedundee.com/culture Music Development The Soundbase Summer Slam and Soundbase Byte music workshops in July and November for 12 – 18 year olds once again proved successful and thoroughly enjoyed by all participants. The Dundee Musicians Awards received a large number of applications and the external panel of judges allocated funding to Sarah Harrop to attend an Estil voice training course as continuing professional development for Choir Leader, Nicole Vasey to audition and subsequently train at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Junior Conservatoire for professional voice training and local Dundee Band Mass Consensus to support the collaboration with the string section of the Edinburgh based The Tinderbox Orchestra on the new Mass Consensus Album. The music grants were administered on behalf of Dundee City Council providing support to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, Assembly Direct, Dundee Choral Union, Dundee Symphony Orchestra, Dundee Chamber Music Club, Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Music in Hospitals, Dundee Blues Bonanza and Children's Classics to further encourage the musical offering within the City. Scotland Sings in December, an initiative by 'Hands Up for Trad' saw a number of Dundee singing groups and choirs coming together to sing in public spaces, from the Caird Hall to the Wellgate and McManus Galleries. The Fest 'n' Furious Concert took place in February with RURA and the Lorne MacDougall Band to continue the promotion of Traditional Music within the City. World Music is embedded in the Caird Hall programme with concerts from Taiko Drumming from the Mugenkyo Group and New Orleans Jazz by Django à la Créole. A successful collaboration between Music Development and Tayside Health Arts Trust to provide 8 music workshops for the Speakeasy Group in February and March, culminated in a performance at the DCA. The Youth Music Forum continues to provide information to musicians and professionals working in music related professions, A total of 28 performances and events were staged with 1,195 participants. Burgh Halls The total attendance for the year for the Burgh Halls was 9,163 from 526 bookings. www.leisureandculturedundee.com/culture The McManus Exhibition Programme The McManus continued in the delivery of the temporary exhibition programme working with key national partners to bring work of national and international quality to Dundee with the delivery of three major partnership exhibitions. The year began on a high note as the successful partnership with the National Galleries of Scotland drew to an end. The McManus hosted the first in their three part Scottish Colourist Series - FCB Cadell. This show brought together all of the Cadell paintings in Dundee's public collections for the first time in many decades. There can be few people in the City who were not aware of the major exhibition Ten Drawings by Leonardo – A Diamond Jubilee exhibition from the Royal Collection. This ran at The McManus from August until November as part of a nationwide tour that attracted record numbers to every venue, surpassing all expectations. Exhibition curator Martin Clayton gave several lectures in the City and commented “For me it's the most rewarding kind of exhibition. We are putting on show some of the finest art in the world to a venue that has never seen a Leonardo drawing before… Dundee is transforming itself into a culture centre…. If Leonardo plays one small part in that then that's something extra.” The second in our series of partnership exhibitions staged as part of the V&A at Dundee's pre-opening programme was Selling Dreams: One Hundred Years of Fashion Photography.