Author: sdac2020

Grants Awarded – August 2017

Sorry for the delay in anyone waiting to hear from us in the last few months – but we’ve successfully had a meeting and can confirm the committee has agreed to fully fund the following grant applications:

  • Adbaston Choral Society’s Autumn & Winter concerts
  • Stafford Folk Dance Callers Forum
  • Konnektiv Arts

a further application is having to be considered by e-mail but will be resolved asap.

We now have a new complement of money for the support of arts groups in the Stafford Borough – details of how to apply for grants are on our website

 

 

SDAC Wardrobe Sale – £1325 raised

The council would like to thank the Sdub Cooperative (who have been working on the community wardrobe since 2014) in organising the sale that was held on July  8th 2017.

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The sale attracted local community arts groups, school drama productions, inspiring maths teachers with plans to make the best algebra lesson ever, people hunting fancy dress items for parties, or dressing up boxes and general lovers of vintage clothes.

The sale worked on a pay-what-you-want donation system and raised £1325 that will be fed back to the SDAC funds to help future arts events in Stafford.

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SDUB would also like to thank the Headmaster of the Chetwynd Center in her help with organising and preparing for this sale and the subsequent clear up.

SDAC Community Wardrobe – Public Sale

You may be aware that the Chetwynd Center in Stafford is being sold off in the near future – you may not be aware that the Stafford District Arts Council (https://stafforddistrictartscouncil.wordpress.com/) houses a community wardrobe in the building. With nowhere to rehouse the wardrobe SDAC have decided to sell as much of the clothes in the wardrobe to community groups as is possible

The Wardrobe is an eclectic mix of items of varying quality and use – we warmly invite you to come, browse the collection and pick what you wish to take – and pay what you want – with all proceeds being returned to the Stafford District Arts Council so we can continue out work in facilitating the arts in Stafford borough.

Any questions please contact us at staffsdub@gmail.com – You can see examples of some of the items on our social media sites:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/staffsdub/photos/ & http://staffsdub.blogspot.co.uk/

We hope you can make it. feel free to pass this invite onto other arts groups that you think might be interested.

https://www.facebook.com/events/363173187414203/

Grants Awarded – Jan 2017

We’ve been busy sharing some of the arts organisations in Stafford we’ve helped fund events and projects for the last year on our facebook page – we’ve also helped fund events and projects for Adbaston Community Concert Society & Stafford Folk Players among others.

If you are part of an art group in Stafford and you’re looking for a grant to help towards costs of your event or project then drop us a line and we might be able to help.

Stafford & District Operatic Society take on Meaty Challenge with Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd

Stafford and District Operatic Society is tackling gothic musical Sweeney Todd for its latest production, which opens at the Gatehouse Theatre on Tuesday October 13th.

A dark tale of love, intrigue and bloody murder, Sweeney Todd tells the tale of a skilled barber, falsely sentenced to hard labour, who returns from exile to London to exact revenge on the man who destroyed his family and ruined his life.

But the bodies begin to mount up, so Sweeney Todd teams up with pie shop owner Mrs Lovett to cook up a delicious scheme to dispose of his victims.

Calum Robarts who is playing Sweeney Todd, said: “Since learning Stafford Operatic were going to do a production of Sweeney Todd, I have been incredibly excited. The works of Stephen Sondheim have always been a passion of mine and Sweeney is, in my personal opinion, one of the best.

The complexity of the music is incredible, as well as being very tricky, and it is a very brave choice for any group, professional or otherwise. However, under the musical direction of Bill Moss, the society is sounding fantastic and are proving more than a match for even the trickiest moments!

“The part of Sweeney is one I’ve always wanted to play, so landing the role was a dream come true. He is a very complex character, with many different levels, not just the razor swinging maniac everyone thinks of. It’s been many months of hard work, but with the great direction of Rachel Millar, everything is now coming together and it promises to be an excellent show.”

The show runs from October 13th to 17th and tickets are available now by calling 07817 215420 or emailing tickets@staffordoperatic.org.uk. or order direct by visiting www.ticketsource.co.uk/staffordops

 

Chair’s Report, AGM 2015

Rowan Draper

As this is my first Chairman’s Report I want to start by thanking all of the members of the committee who’ve regularly attended our meetings and in particular Ray Braziel, who has acted as secretary for many years, Andrew Baker our vice chair and Rod Grealish our treasurer who have led the organisation in my time with the Arts Council. Their work is often very complicated and time consuming and enables chairing our meetings, an easy task.

We continue to give grants to support traditional local societies, which are of a very high standard and often have activities which reach large audiences, we have been particularly interested in events which reach new audiences, children and people who would not usually be affected by arts events.

SDAC awarded grants totalling £11,032 during the financial year 2014/5 to nearly 20 groups within the Borough: Adbaston Community Concert Society, Andrew Baker, Castle Players, Chanteuse Chamber Choir, Dress up Box, Eccleshall Festival, Sustainability Matters, Friends of St. Mary’s, Konnectiv Drama, Musical Youth Theatre, Stafford Folk Players, Stafford Lancers, Stafford Music Festival, Stafford Operatics, Stafford Orchestra, Stafford Photographic Society, Stafford Players, Stone Choral Society, and Unity Fest.

I feel this year demonstrates more than ever that the grants awarded by SDAC are an essential part of the Arts in Stafford. The funding can clearly be seen to be affecting the lives of an ever increasing number of local people. The support for the Arts has a direct effect on the well-being of the community and I hope SDAC can look to the future and continue to develop its role in supporting and encouraging the Arts in new ways and to new audiences.

By demonstrating the impact of the grants which Stafford Borough Council allocates through an independent SDAC we hope we will be able to argue for the importance of our work and to continue for the next few years. Our Service Level Agreement was extended for an additional year, due to the elections in May, and we will be approaching a review with the Council for a new SLA within the year.

We have attempted to drive down costs as much as possible taking on VAST as our independent auditors and reducing expenditure on our website.

Over the last year we have reviewed our policies on our reserves, our constitution which will be up for discussion later in the meeting, and how we deal with Grant Aid.

We are always, as any organisation is, on the look out for new committee members, especially when the AGM comes along. Anyone who sees the Arts as an important aspect of life has a chance to be on the team. Stafford is a very creative place. There are many talented people with new outlooks and interests in new audiences.

Please consider putting yourself forward later on in the meeting and please do spread the word to your members about how they can get involved.