ARTRAGE Inc. 2020 Impact Report

ARTRAGE INC
2020 IMPACT REPORT
CEO WELCOME
Welcome to the first Impact Report
for the not-for-profit registered
charity ARTRAGE Inc, and my first
report as CEO of this valued
cultural organisation.
This Report provides insights from the more than
6,000 survey responses across the audiences of
Rooftop Movies, Girls School Cinema and FRINGE
WORLD Festival, which is the main activity
presented by ARTRAGE.
Particular highlights from my first twelve months
with ARTRAGE include launching the new Fringe hub
at Girls School in East Perth, enjoying incredible
movies at the stunning Rooftop Movies location in
Northbridge and working alongside the ARTRAGE
team to deliver audience growth programs including
user experience improvements to our Fringefeed
reviews platform and developing an incredible new
FRINGE WORLD App, to be launched in November
2020.
For over thirty years, ARTRAGE has developed
and presented numerous key cultural events and
festivals that enrich and evolve the culture of
Western Australia, including most recently; Rooftop
Movies (est. 2012), Girls School (est. 2018) and
FRINGE WORLD Festival (est. 2011). The organisation
has ambitions for more year-round activity that will
support our overarching vision and provide further
performance opportunities for artists’ work to be
enjoyed by the WA community and visitors alike.
Based on an 18/19 Annual Report analysis
conducted by Business News [1] ; in the State arts
and cultural landscape ARTRAGE currently ranks
1st for operating revenue and 2nd for total patron
engagement (behind the State Library). FRINGE
WORLD is the largest activity that ARTRAGE
presents, and the annual Festival is recognised
as the third-largest Fringe in the world. The 2020
Festival played host to more than 700 events at
over 150 venues spread across Perth City and other
metropolitan suburbs and regional towns in WA.
Attendance at ticketed and non-ticketed events
topped 820,000 and box office payments to
artists and arts companies totalled $9.4 million.
FRINGE WORLD is one of the largest avenues
through which Western Australians actively
participate in the cultural life of the state, and it
is the primary way that ARTRAGE contributes to
our community cohesion, arts engagement, city
vibrancy and civic pride.
Turnover was somewhat down for the Festival
compared with the previous year, primarily due
to a number of major show cancellations late in
the season, however a positive outcome across
the entire program was more affordable tickets
for customers. FRINGE WORLD is an expensive
Festival to present, and risks/incidents such as
show cancellations reinforce ARTRAGE’s focus
on expanding year-round programs beyond our
existing two cinemas to increase our financial
buffer.
COVID-19 has had an impact on ARTRAGE through
reduced income from season-shortenings of our
cinemas, but the greatest impact has been felt by
our artists who have had incomes decimated as a
result of the quarantine restrictions.
Our artists are at the heart of all our decisions,
and particularly our WA artists as FRINGE WORLD
continues to be their largest annual performance
platform in the state with 72% of our artists
hailing from WA.
For this reason our scope of the 2021 Festival
is centred on giving back to artists and venues
however we can, including removing fees where
possible, sharing risk and increasing flexibility to
register in these uncertain times.
The good news is that, thanks to the reserves that
ARTRAGE has built over the years, coupled with
cost-cutting and support from JobKeeper and the
Lotterywest COVID-19 Relief Fund, we have been
able to maintain operations, and to develop our
plan for the 2021 Festival.
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