History - Part 5
Branching Out
Having fulfilled its primary aim, to establish a community-based Arts Centre, the WAA Management Committee (Mancom) now became responsible for maintaining, and continuing to improve, the building, including a small office capable of responding to a wide range of community needs. These would be quite varied in character; the Business Plan had recognized that financial solvency would require letting the premises for business promotions, private celebrations or group activities with purely recreational purposes; in a typical year hire charges accounted for about a sixth of operating revenue. Preference would always be given to the arts, and this was recognized in fixing hiring rates, though there were some complaints from local groups which needed long rehearsal time.
To run the centre, besides continuing to make great use of volunteers for such routine duties as front of house and refreshment service, WAA employed a number of part-time staff. A series of enthusiastic young women gave good service as administrators, but from 2001 there was more continuity in the person of Jane Summers. Other part-time office staff had responsibility for publicity and for financial book-keeping, with a good deal of collaboration within a team of three. The work of the caretaker and his assistant also involved more than the title suggests, including duties of stage management. Throughout this period Alec Robb's skills as a carpenter were often used for the improvement as well as the maintenance of the building.
Mancom periodically made attempts to provide catering facilities, which would enhance the attraction of the venue (and might eventually improve revenue). After the re-opening these were at first provided by contract with a private firm, which among other things simplified the problem of licenses for the bar. Later, Leys Estate considered building a separate but adjoining restaurant, to be operated by a private company. But these plans failed to materialize, and in 2005 it was decided to improve the small serving kitchen, so that it could comply with increasing statutory requirements for the preparation of food. Thanks to the expert advice and hard work of Jennifer Martin, and the generosity of the MacRobert Trust, cooking can now take place on the premises, though hopes of providing regular caf' services remain deferred.
Once the completed development programme had provided a flexible arts space available for use throughout the year, the challenge was to use it to provide a diverse and imaginative arts programme. Since there were no funds to employ a full-time artistic director, WAA had to improvise and depend upon creative initiatives by its supporters. Mancom could promote fund-raising events, like the series of Craft Fairs held between 2000 and 2003, which besides offering local artists and crafters a useful showcase realised a modest profit. It could collaborate with other bodies, as in two story-telling workshops run in partnership with the Elphinstone Institute of Aberdeen University. It could occasionally promote an artistic event directly, as when Evelyn Glennie gave a concert and workshop at the time of the millennium (subsequently becoming a Patron of the Association). But it always had to work with an eye on operating revenue. From 1999 its problems were eased a little when the Aberdeenshire Council was able to begin contributing an annual revenue grant, initially at the rate of '10,000 annually. Nevertheless there was still a gap in its financial plans of some '20,000 per annum which could only be bridged by appeals to the generosity of public, charitable, corporate or private sponsors.
Mancom delegated the task of programme development to an informally constituted Arts Committee. Sometimes this had opportunities to accept proposals for performances by touring companies, if there seemed a reasonable prospect of attracting a sizeable audience (or a guarantee against loss, which might sometimes be provided by the North East Arts Touring (NEAT) syndicate of local authorities. Better still, artistic initiatives might come from local groups. There had always been people interested in using the Barn to promote traditional music and dance, but this impulse was greatly strengthened after the arrival in Banchory of Fiona and Sandy Petrie. They organized last-Friday-of-the-month 'Session Nights', with visiting musicians and audience participation, and greatly extended the number of traditional music performances to the delight of a varied and growing audience.
To promote autonomous initiatives by members with specific interests, the Arts Committee encouraged them to set up subsidiary groups with their own officers and constitutions, who could plan their own programmes, and seek sponsorship or other mean of financing them. The Woodend Music Society was founded in 1998, and in the same year supporters of community theatre, inspired by Kate Johnston, founded Sideline Multi Arts ('The SMA' Company). To encourage wider use of the gallery space which had already been provided in the former byre, the Lang Byre group was formed in 2000 and formally constituted two years later. In 2002 the Third Stage project, to provide a range of artistic experience for older people, received a three-year grant from the SAC. In the appendices to this history these grandchildren of the Crathes project are briefly described by some of their god-parents. There are also brief essays about WAA's record in promoting drama and dance, two fields in which no subsidiary groups have so far been established.
Meanwhile the enduring problems of administration and finance have not prevented the Association from contemplating future uses of its Woodend premises. In October 2001 two hours of 'brain-storming' produced a long list of areas of public policy to which a local art association may have something to contribute: ecological development, environmental improvement, cuisine, diet, and public health. Preliminary indications of how such ideas may be developing, together with much additional material, may be consulted on the Web.
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