CAM DECORATIVE AND FINE ARTS SOCIETY

 

Registered Charity No. 1103509

 

Member of the National Association of Decorative & Fine Arts Societies

(No. 304)

 

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING HELD ON

11 APRIL 2011

 

This has been another good year for the society:

 

          We have had interesting and varied lectures and stimulating trips

          We had an outstanding special interest day

          We held a successful concert jointly organised by the 4 Cambridge societies

          We continued with our support for Young Arts

          We have initiated Heritage Volunteer projects

          We have maintained our membership just below 200

          We have managed our finances in accordance with our policy of slowly reducing the           reserves

                   

During the last twelve months lectures have examined the skills of veneering and marquetry, discussed new interpretations of modern art, explored why British impressionists were better than the French, looked at Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement, taken us to Southern Spain to understand the rise and fall of Islam and many more. They have been well attended with numbers in the range of 50% and 65% of our membership. Colette Auton has been our programme secretary for nearly four years and has managed to create very appealing and exciting programmes. In January of this year Colette handed over the baton to Fiona Ewart.

 

Valerie Collis, our visits secretary has, once again, organised some great trips. In May 2010 we made a trip to Lincoln to the Cathedral and to the old city. In January 2011 we went to London first visiting the Cabinet War Rooms and the recently completed Churchill Museum and afterwards we toured the Supreme Court Building. Finally, in March of this year our outing was to Oxburgh Hall and St Mary's Houghton on the Hill.

 

After the success of our special interest day last year when we visited the British Museum's Moctezuma exhibition Valerie organised a trip to the Paul Gauguin exhibition at Tate Modern in November 2010. In the morning we had a lecture about the artist and his work and then in the afternoon we visited the exhibition itself. This event proved to be very popular.

 

Over recent years, and every three years, the Cambridge societies have organised a joint event. This year it was Cambridge dfas' turn to lead the arrangements. In February, a concert was held at West Road Concert Hall at which Tom Poster was the piano soloist in a programme arranged by the City of Cambridge Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Lovett. Prior to the concert we had a short talk by Leon entitled 'The seeds of Romanticism in music'. The event was well attended and broke even financially.

 

This year we have been fortunate to have had Lynne Hartland as our first Young Arts Representative. She has been able to devote considerable time and energy in developing the society's involvement in the Young Arts programme promoted by NADFAS. Through her, contacts made through the Cambridge Arts Theatre with two drama teachers working with young people have been continued. They have been instrumental in setting up drama workshops with Thongsley School near St Ives and Arbury School and Queen Edith's here in Cambridge. Our schools have many children who do not perhaps have opportunities of visiting the theatre on a regular basis, or even at all, and these workshops are designed to stimulate interest in drama and the staging of plays and musicals.

 

The response from Thongsley School was tremendous. Both staff and pupils were thrilled by the experience. It is hoped that the workshops at Arbury School and Queen Edith's which take place next term, will meet with similar enthusiasm. In all these events will reach about 700 children, aged from 7 to 16.

As will be disclosed in the annual accounts, the grants for these activities are approximately equal to the tax rebates we receive through our charitable status.

CAMdfas committee is always looking for interesting ideas to sponsor their Young Arts projects and if any members have contacts with individuals or organisations who might be interested in some funding, Lynne would be delighted to hear from you. The scope is quite wide and could involve anything from music to pargeting, from sponsoring individuals to whole schools. 

The membership of the society has been about 190 throughout this year which, though a slight drop from 2009/10, is still very pleasing.

As was mentioned in last year's report, during the first ten years of the society's existence we managed to create significant financial reserves. However, both NADFAS and the Charities Commission suggest that societies should be mindful of the level of reserves they maintain and so we are slowly reducing them to figures which we can easily justify. Roderick Ashby-Johnson, our treasurer, continues to do a grand job in ensuring that the society's finances remain sound.

This year we have been exploring for the first time the possibility of the society's members becoming involved in Heritage Volunteer Projects. This activity has been undertaken by Wendy Walford, our Heritage Volunteer Organiser, and we are most grateful for all of the research she has undertaken for this purpose. As you may know many NADFAS members are assisting art, library and museum collections all over the country. To date there are 75 projects up and running, many of which will make available to scholars and researchers unseen documents of enormous historical importance.

 

We are delighted to tell you that our society is now able to offer members similar opportunities through assisting two important Cambridge institutions in the conservation and accessibility of their books and papers. They are:

 

The Balfour and Newton Libraries at the Department of Zoology and

The Twentieth Century Archives Centre at Churchill College.

 

Conservation training will be given to volunteers.

Details are available from Wendy and from our website.

 

I should like to take this opportunity to thank the other members of the committee whose hard work and dedication helps to ensure that society continues to flourish. On behalf of you all, I wish to particularly thank those committee members who have decided to stand down. They are Christopher Gravatt who first joined the committee in 1999 as treasurer and, following three years in that post, was then our chairman for the next three. Colette Auton our former programme secretary joined the committee in 2005. Keith Humphreys our vice chairman joined in 2007. Jon and Penny Pither joined last year.

 

The society is also indebted to Martin Gienke whose presence is so valuable prior to and during lectures in dealing with any problems with sound and picture.

 

Please do not forget that information for members can be found on our web-site www.camdfas.com.

 

Finally, I should like to take this opportunity of thanking you, our members, for helping to make CAMdfas the enjoyable society which I think it is and for your considerable support at our meetings and on our visits.

 

Robin Fox

Chairman

28 March 2011