THE search has begun to find a new director for the “massive, massive role” of leading Barnard Castle’s arts centre, town councillors were told.
The £60,000 Durham County Council bail-out combined with £42,000 raised by the public appeal means The Witham now has enough cash to see it through until next March.
Trustee Jill Cole briefed members of Barnard Castle Town Council’s partnership committee on how The Witham had got into its current predicament and the next steps in securing its long term future.
She said the full scale of the situation was made clear at the first meeting of trustees she attended after joining the board in April.
Following an initial honeymoon period after The Witham reopened in 2013 after a £3.2million renovation, there had been “a slight naivety” about how secure funding might be in the future and an assumption that the Arts Council would continue giving grants, she said.
“A lot of money had gone into investing into the programming of The Witham to get it into a position as being recognised across the North East.
“The Witham is really highly regarded and I think you can’t undervalue that. But a lot of money has gone into investing into programming that was quite high brow without having an eye on how that impacted on core funding.”
Ms Cole said the board had no option but to reach out to the community for support.
In addition to the successful public appeal, another spin-off had been an increase in footfall to the cafe leading to a rise in revenue from the eatery.
She conceded efforts to attract private and corporate sponsorship had proved less successful.
“It took longer to get off the ground and it is a harder thing to do. We just don’t have the businesses which can afford to support other businesses in the town.”
However, she said The Witham had received “significant” support from GSK, both financially and with the offer of staff commitment via volunteer days – although no figures were revealed to councillors. Ms Cole said the final effort in ensuring The Witham could keep its doors open was to secure Durham County Council support.
“We had to put together a case to the local authority for a lump sum to get us through the cash flow crisis.
“The meeting was a bit like Dragon’s Den. Thank goodness we got £60,000.
“That’s what we needed to ensure that we could get through to next March.”
The board of trustees will now attempt to recruit a new director to take charge of the complex.
Gaye Kirby, head of development strategy at Durham Cathedral, had been announced as the new director in June, but she subsequently declined to take up the role.
Ms Cole said this had come as a blow as Ms Kirby would have been “perfect” for the job.
“It is a really challenging role,” added Ms Cole.
She said the new director would be need to be totally committed to The Witham.
“They will need to believe in it, oversee the finances, manage the budget, approach funders and write funding applications and oversee the cafe.
“It is a massive, massive role for a salary scale that is not commensurate.
“We have got until March our house in order.”
Ms Cole said Shelagh Avery, the current unpaid interim director, would not carry on in the role after Christmas at the latest, so it may be the case that The Witham would have to find another interim director until the search for a new boss was concluded.
