Fairfield Independence At Risk

Being a charity and a company all board members are fairly equal.

Not at the Fairfield… the ‘new boy’ Jon Rouse (Croydon Council CEO) formally joined the company board and within a week was not only interviewing for the new Fairfield Chief Executive but spent 20 minutes with each candidate before being interviewed.

Is this the end of the Independence of Fairfield?

• Fairfield has a short(ish) lease of only 60 years left.
• The landlord is Croydon Council.
• The Fairfield lease has a ‘rent clause’ in it that if enforced by Croydon Council would lead to closure.
• The Council ‘grants’ Fairfield £200,000 a year for ‘maintenance’ – it is understood that this money just about keeps up with legal requirements. Not a penny is spent on the Fairfield for proper investment in a building that is almost 50 years old.
• Given how dependent the Fairfield is on Croydon Council, (as landlord, funder and forgiver of rent) is it appropriate for the Council CEO to be appointing the CEO of the Fairfield?

• Who will the new Fairfield CEO respond to? a) the board b) Croydon Council

The Charity Commission has the following to say : (link)

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Nominated trustees can be a valuable asset for a charity because they can bring an outside viewpoint to the charity preventing a trustee body from becoming too inward-looking. However, nominated trustees will need to be aware that having two roles may bring conflicting demands, especially where the nominated trustee is also a member of the outside organisation that nominates him or her. For instance a trustee nominated by the local authority will need to recognise that the interests of the charity and its beneficiaries may not be the same as those of the local authority and its tax and rate payers. It is not the role of the nominated trustee to represent the interests of the organisation which nominated him or her. All trustees must act solely in the best interests of the charity.

Where a potential conflict of interest for a trustee arises on a particular issue, he or she should not take part in the discussions or vote on that issue. For example if you are a local councillor and also a trustee of a charity which is negotiating the sale of land to the local authority for development, you should not vote on the issue and should withdraw from any meeting at which the proposed sale is considered. You may also need to consider, with the charity’s legal advisers, whether on such a major issue we should be asked to authorise such a transaction. Without that authority, the presence on the trustee body of trustees with conflicts of interest may lead, in some circumstances, to the transaction being invalidated.

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Given the behaviour of the Council over the last few years (developing a scheme to renew the Fairfield and then cancelling it in 2007) and the Council proposing to employ more consultants to ‘look at the future’ of the Fairfield (yet again) and the Council CEO now directing the recruitment process for the new Fairfield CEO.

Are the trustees (individually and collectively) of the Fairfield Halls now able to act solely with the best interest of the Charity in mind?

Rouse Takes Seat

The Croydon Guardian has been following up the story about Jon Rouse, CEO at Croydon Council taking on the role of a board director at Fairfield Halls.

It is understood from council papers that this is so he can appoint the new CEO at the Fairfield Halls.

Croydon Guardian Story

The Guardian reporter has done a lot of work on this, helping to shed light on this murky appointment.

More soon…

 

 

Takeover Chief Executive: No comment

We emailed the Chief Executive to find out information, as promised in the previous post.

“what this appointment means for the Fairfield is currently unclear. We will email the Chief Executive and ask him.”

We did, the emails are below.

However, although we did not get anywhere the Croydon Guardian did. A report by Mike Didymus, Senior Reporter sheds some light on the subject:

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Email to Mr Jon Rouse, Chief Executive, Croydon Council

Dear Mr Rouse,

I understand that you have been appointed a Director of the Fairfield Halls (Croydon) Ltd.

A blog post has been put up on this subject.

It is such an unusual move, I wonder if you would offer your reasoning and your intentions in taking up this post. Could you also clarify if it is remunerated.

Do you hold any other similar posts / directorships in Croydon or elsewhere? Does Croydon Council not have an Arts person who may be able to put more time into the role?

Yours sincerely,

The Croydon Arts team.

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Reply:

Sir/Madam

I am happy to reply to you if I know who I am replying to. I don’t respond to anonymous e-mails or letters.

However, I would make one factual correction which is that I have not formally been appointed by the Council to the Fairfield Board at this time. And if I am appointed there will certainly be no remuneration.

Jon Rouse

Chief Executive

Chief executive’s office

7th floor north east quadrant

Taberner House

Park Lane Croydon CR9 3JS

Tel: 0208 726 6000 ext: 65623

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Croydon Chief Takes Over at Fairfield

In an extraordinary move, John Rouse, the Chief Executive of Croydon Council (Croydon Council is the Landlord of the Fairfield) has taken a seat on the board of the Fairfield.

His intentions in so doing are unclear, but he joins fellow Council appointees Councillor Dudley Mead (Deputy Leader of Croydon Council and Chair of the Fairfield Board), Councillor Helen Pollard and Councillor George Ayres.

It is understood that this is the first time ever that a council officer has been a council nominee. Traditionally in Croydon, board members are Councillors sent to the Fairfield in rough proportion to their political grouping.

What this appointment means for the Fairfield is currently unclear. We will email the Chief Executive and ask him.

 

Culture and Sport Partnership Strategy 2009 – 2012

Is the puzzle is now coming together…

The ‘Culture and Sport Partnership Strategy 2009 – 2012′ is going to Croydon Council Cabinet this evening (12 October). This also brings into question how you can have a strategy for a year that is almost finished. It would have been better to call it a 2 year strategy?

You can read the cabinet papers here

New proposals include a ‘Theatres Consortium’ to replace the much hyped ‘Arts Trust’ only problem with this is that it only includes the Clocktower and Fairfield. So in other words it looks like the Council is trying to extend its reach to control the Fairfield. What other purpose would a Consortium be formed for containing only one independent Charity and the Council?

These papers also shed light on the £100,000 feasibility study that the Council is going to pay for on the Fairfield. Once again the council makes the mistake of putting money into external consultants without investing in the existing organisations. Will the council still stump up the £200,000 a year maintenance that the Fairfield desperately relies on if they are planning to spend £100,000 to see what an external consultant wants to do with the place? We will have to wait and see on this one.

Once again we see a paper written that is void of any solid commitments, but full of buzzwords and laudable aims.

Why can the council not articulate what it wants from the Arts in Croydon, or sit down in an old fashioned workshop with the Fairfield, Warehouse and London Mozart Players and work out ways of developing the Arts for the 360,000 residents that the Council is meant to serve.

£100,000 award for Fairfield Halls

According to committee papers issued by Croydon Council (Appendix 2, of Corporate Services committee on 16.09.09) Croydon Council is going to issue by 20 January 2010 a fresh contract worth £100,000 for the Fairfield Halls.

Good news? or just another consultants report?

IF all the money that has been spent on Consultants reports for the Fairfield Halls over the years had been gifted to the Fairfield, they would be very wealthy indeed!

The text of the spend says “Options Viability study – Fairfield Halls appointment of consultants”

This of course from a Council that had a detailed scheme worked on from 2004 – 2006. Ditched in 2006, and then silence. Is this £100,000 (a year off the local elections) an opportunity for the Council to claim it is actively doing a lot to revitalise the Fairfield Halls?

Of course, sense would say you need to sit down with the people who actually run the Fairfield to find out how they could improve the Fairfield Halls first. But we all know that the Council wants to set up an ‘Arts Trust’ that has very little to do with the existing arts provision in our Town.

Will employing more expensive consultants actually help?

Will employing more expensive consultants improve our Arts offering in Croydon?

Fairfield takes another step towards closure

The revelation in the Croydon Guardian that the Fairfield Halls has sacked 20 volunteers to save cash is a very sad day for this important cultural venue.

The board believe that by using existing staff to sell programmes they will up sales and save the £6,000 commission paid to the volunteers to cover their expenses.

The downside of this approach is that once again the Fairfield is cutting off its links to the community that it needs to survive.

Sure the Fairfield will be a bit better off in the short term, but the long term future?

On a busy night how many people actually run the Fairfield? 3 at the box office, a couple at the cloak room, a general manager and a couple of security guards?

Suddenly the Fairfield has a little less ‘life’ to it. When will the Core of Stewards be sacked? They already have security guards, at what point will we see students paid the minimum wage and wearing bright red T shirts emblazoned with Fairfield across their chests showing us to our seats?

The Fairfield is run on a show string (without revenue support from Croydon Council or the Arts Council). Finances must be getting tight to take this action. This might be the ‘right’ thing to do from an accountants point of view, but it is one more step towards closure.

Reviews

The Croydon Advertiser published a ‘review’ of the Sign Dance Collective production at the Warehouse Theatre that read as if it had been written by someone who had never written a review in their life. It failed to properly tell what the production was about or describe it in terms that could be understood. Instead it took aim and fired a broadside.

Strange then that on opening TimeOut I found a very favourable review from a few days later. This time the reviewer understood the task in hand and enabled the reader to decide if it was for them.

A local newspaper has to be very careful in choosing who to review local theatre. The reviewer needs the dual skill to understand what they are watching and what their readers will want to know. The Croydon Advertiser reviewer appeared to condemn Croydon to be happy with only middle of the road productions, without touching on the obvious question of theatre by people with differing abilities (or disabilities). Challenging theatre is not for everyone, but it is great to have such a diverse company presenting their work in Croydon.

Time Out Review

Sign & dance

A new production from the signdance collective showcasing at the Warehouse Theatre through to Sunday 12 July.

I will be off to see it soon, but it does promise to be one of the best offerings in Croydon this year.

A really fresh take on theatre that you just will not be able to find without picking up your passport to head ‘out of Croydon’..

Here is the full SP:

Dances For A Lost Traveler represents an intense departure for Signdance away from the biographical framework of recent work and into something personal and from the heart. Drawing on collaborations with Sardinian director Ornella Dagostino from Carovana SMI, Primoz Bayzak from Slovenia’s Batontac Dance plus a range of musicians, film and dance artists.

“Coup de Teatre” Bucks Preview

“Incredible” Sardinia Preview

“The four pieces – Listen, Here, The Words and Travelling are passionate expressions of the Signdance oeuvre, using diverse styles and techniques to give an insight into the approach the Collective take to making work. This is performance territory akin to other styles of dance-theatre firmly rooted in Europe, but with little precedent here in the UK. There were similarities to work by Alain Patel’s Les ballets C de la B and the Seven Fingers, in that elements of the performers’ lives and personalities become intimately and dynamically woven in layers, into the construction of the work. What makes Signdance so totally unique, is that their lives are informed by disability and deafness – and so their approach is based on a process of how to incorporate those aspects into their work.” Colin Hambrook Dao Editor

These pieces are available for booking from April 2009. We can perform in theatres, at outdoor festivals, in gallery spaces and showcases.

Landscape and language are the two main themes running through Dances For A Lost Traveler.

‘Listen’ (23 minutes)

Based on David Bower’s experience of Tinnitus, this piece uses disability as a creative tool to inform the performance work. It is the most hard-hitting of the four pieces – giving the audience an intense visual and auditory experience. The stage is cast with a backdrop of high-pitched tones, which are translated through sound software to create a landscape suggestive of high tower blocks and flowers. Doves fly through this setting, immersing the audience. Against this cloth of sound and image, David moves rapidly and intently. It is as if he is enclosed, trying desperately to escape. He runs, paces sings and dances through a box-like structure conveying ideas about the connection between language and the inner landscape of tinnitus.

choreography : Isolte Avila
direction and music : Luke Barlow
film : Sarana Mehra

‘Here’ (25 minutes)

is lyrical – the movement consisting of a carefully dramatised piece of dance made up of signed dialogue. The performance takes place on the floor, with a live projection of David Bower and Isolte Avila onto the wall, telling the story of a relationship in flux. The detail is in the signing, but beyond that Here describes an emotional landscape – one that is again contained within a box.

choreography : Primoz Bayzak
music : Mark Holub & Frognal
film : Caglar Kimyoncu

The Words (20 minutes),

locates the movement in written and spoken language. Using a series of responses to architecture.. A random bucket of sentences is played and spilled like rain on the performers heads. They are pulled arbitrarily in front of a live camera and are signed furtively. The energy builds to a crescendo, describing the confusion, frustration and ultimately the beauty of language in its relationship to disability and deafness.

direction : Carla Onni
music : Alex Ward

Travelling (35 minutes)

tells the story of how it is to live a life of constantly crossing boundaries – geographical and physical boundaries as well as existential boundaries relating to disability and deafness. Isolte offers the audience a chance to go to ‘the Happy Place’. She takes on the role of a travel agent offering holidays in the sun. But how does the movement of peoples’ around the world, as tourists, migrants, or as artists, affect indigenous communities? How does political conflict affect the traveller? What does it feel like to live the nomadic lifestyle of the artist? The piece unravels with a series of journeys through film, dance and song. David Bower takes on a comic role inspired by his experience of officials at customs. He acts out the often-bizarre demands made of the traveller, who is forced to dance through hoops on in order to get permission to cross a border. Isolte plays out the dichotomies she has faced, having lived with a dual identity of being Cuban and Puerto Rican American. ‘Ultimately the piece leaves its audience with a powerful image of travelling through the palm of the hand. At the core of Signdance’s work is the beauty of using sign language as a form of dance and of expression. I hope Dances For A Lost Traveler gets taken on by venues across the UK’ Colin Hambrook DAO

direction : Ornella Dagostino Carovana SMI
music : Liran Donin
film : David Bower

New opening at Warehouse Theatre on Friday 15th

It is easy to get depressed about the state of the Arts in Croydon.

However we do have some light from time to time.

Friday sees a new play by Imogen Brodie described by the Daily Telegraph as ‘a little marvel of a play… quite beautifully performed’

2009 is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

This is the story of Pieter and Anna, a brother and sister
who are separated the night the wall goes up. Pieter is a drag artist who works in the West and he must make a choice: either return home and face
the restrictions of the East or find freedom in the West. Alone.

This powerful play sees past & present together on stage, as events either side of the wall conspire to dominate the rest of Pieter and Anna’s lives..

More details and to book online at www.warehousetheatre.co.uk