Some changes, good news and bad news.

Staff changes – Rob Shaw (Head of Development) is leaving at the end of the month. After a lengthy recruitment process and several interviews we have offered the job to Charlotte Spencer. Charlotte has been involved in much of the fundraising work over the last 2 years and so this move is quite natural, keeps continuity in the office and means there is time for a decent handover with Rob. In addition Matt Freeman (Development Officer) will have increased responsibilities.

We will update on Head of Learning & Participation as soon as possible.

Bad News – Cheshire East (previously Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council) have removed the funding which subsidises our series at The Lyceum Theatre in Crewe. We will do all we can to salvage something, however I think it is unlikely that we will continue there.

Good News –  Charlotte Spencer made an application to Arts Council ‘Grants for Arts’ for the funding to sustain our series at The Gatehouse. The application amounted to £140k, of which we asked Arts Council for £99k. The application was successful and means all of the work we do there can continue from 2010 – 2012.

Volume of work next year –  as we have been saying for some time, we have been concerned that the volume of work achieved this last 2 years would decrease. Although we do not have a full picture yet for 2010 – 2011, the demise of Crewe (and possibly Colne) is an indicator of how hard some local authorities are finding the financial environment. We will schedule a full orchestra meeting in April – Jo will send details to discuss this in more detail. Manus is working constantly on new work/projects and residencies, one or two of which we may be able to update on when we meet in April.