The final major achievement during the year was to implement the start of substantial upgrading and improvements to the Jerwood Space building in Southwark in London. We are hopeful that the refurbishment and enlargement of our rehearsal space in the building will be fully realised during the second half of 2024. There will be an enlarged and better placed reception area, better facilities, and most importantly an extension of the rehearsal studios and the hospitality areas embracing longer opening hours in the early evening after rehearsals have ceased. I am looking forward to seeing the improved entrance and visitor amenities. These will include a new attractive façade on Union Street and again this will assist visitors or artists coming to the Space. There will be better “visitor flows” as such put in place by the architects, Witherford Watson Mann, and the contractors, Romark. It will be the outcome of a combination of detailed consideration by the Directors and it was decided that our premier location and opportunities at Jerwood Space should be enhanced.

To sum up: my last year as Executive Chairman has been a fully active one taking into account the retirement from my executive responsibilities; a new chairman; the major capital grant made of the Hastings gallery building; the merger of the two registered charities under the one name Jerwood; the major capital expenditure as a grant to enable Jerwood Space to undertake the works which are currently under way.

I have to mark the sad news that the sculptor Nicholas Dimbleby was stricken with motor neurone disease at the beginning of 2023. In 2022 he created a sculpture commissioned by the Royal College of Physicians, and funded by Jerwood Foundation, to commemorate physicians who lost their lives during the covid pandemic.

I will end this review by marking the gratitude I owe to Rupert Tyler for taking on the chairmanship of Jerwood Foundation and the contributions now and in the future by the enlarged Trustee board.

In 2023 Jerwood Foundation was delighted to award a grant to The Courtauld to support a major new exhibition of work by British artist Claudette Johnson. The exhibition was rooted in the ongoing research, teaching and activities in the field of Black and Diasporic British Art by Dorothy Price, Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Critical Race Art History at The Courtauld and co-curated by Dr Barnaby Wright, Deputy Head of The Courtauld Gallery and Daniel Katz, Curator of 20th Century Art.  

Brixton Chamber Orchestra

Also, during the year the Foundation awarded a £25,000 grant to Brixton Chamber Orchestra to enable their Christmas and summer tours of housing estates in Lambeth. 

The estates tours are not ancillary outreach work – they are the centre-piece of our seasonal programme. With this kind of support from an organisation as respected as Jerwood, we are confident that this impactful project, which has already given over 500 people their first ever live orchestral experience, can be sustained well into the future - Matthew O'Keefe, Director

2023 has been an atypical year, in so much as any year at Jerwood Space can be regarded as typical.  Thanks to the generosity of Alan Grieve and Lara Wardle we had an opportunity to completely re-model the front of the building.  Naturally, we wanted to keep our closure period to the bare minimum, so, with careful planning, we mapped out how we felt we could best operate, whilst still remaining true to our non-profit model of applied subsidy, and decided that commencing the works in July would be the most advantageous, enabling us to maximise the available space for the first half of the year.

As ever, local companies were much in evidence during 2023.  The Young Vic rehearsed Nat Randall and Anna Breckon’s endurance feat The Second Woman, with Ruth Wilson as the titular character and The Globe returned for The Winter’s Tale, directed by Sean Holmes.  Southwark Playhouse were regular visitors throughout the year with Scooter Pietsch’s Windfall (dir. Mark Bell) and two new musicals: Freya Catrin Smith and Jack Williams’ Ride (dir. Sarah Meadows) and Christopher J Orton and Jon Robyns’ Then, Now And Next (dir. Julie Atherton), one in their new space at Elephant, and the second in their existing large auditorium.  We hosted Right Dishonourable Friend (written by Eoin McKenna & Phoebe Batteson-Brown, directed by Kayla Feldman) for The Vault Festival, perhaps the last time The Vault will be taking place, certainly in its current format and home.

Another organisation facing a critical period at present took space with us at the start of the year.  ENO persevered in the face of their financial adversity and we were pleased they rehearsed six shows reflecting their eclectic output in Rheingold (dir. Richard Jones), Carmen (dir. Calixto Bieito), Akhnaten (dir. Phelim McDermott), Dead City (dir. Annilese Miskimmon), Blue (UK opera debut by Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson, dir. Tinuke Craig) and Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (dir. Isabella Bywater), all within a three and a half month period.  At the other end of the opera scale, Operaupclose rehearsed their touring production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, in association with Manchester Camerata, with a new libretto by Glyn Maxwell and scored for an 8 piece chamber orchestra by award-winning composer Laura Bowler.

Recasts were much in evidence throughout the year, and large musical ones were particularly welcome to combat any potential building noise once demolition had started.  Amongst the many we housed were Disney’s Frozen, touring Aladdin and The Lion King, Rebecca Frecknall’s production of Cabaret (twice!), and the fifth cast change for Danny Robbin’s hit 2:22 A Ghost Story. Fantastically Great Women, directed by Amy Hodge, and adapted by Chris Bush, Miranda Cooper and Jennifer Decilveo, also returned before heading out across the country.

Touring continued apace, and we took, amongst others, the Mark Gatiss-directed The Way Old Friends Do, which toured nationally, as did Theatre Royal Bath’s production of Charlotte and Theodore, directed by Terry Johnson.

Alexander Zeldin’s The Confessions went on a European tour, before heading to the National Theatre and Sheffield Theatres and Lyric Hammersmith’s hit show Accidental Death of an Anarchist (dir. Daniel Raggett) returned for further rehearsals prior to opening in the West End for a short spell at Theatre Royal Haymarket.

Chichester moved in en masse for their revival of The Sound Of Music, helmed by Nottingham’s artistic director, Adam Penford, and also rehearsed their two hander Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles? by Adrienne Kennedy, directed by Diyan Zora.

We were also pleased to welcome Hope Mill Theatre for the first time, with their production of To Wong Foo, written and directed by Douglas Carter Beane.  I’m grateful for their ability to work through the continuing construction.

In total, we were able to offer subsidised space to over 40% of the companies that booked with us throughout 2023, quite an achievement amidst all the disruption.

I’d like to extend my thanks to all of our staff and clients who have endured the trials and tribulations of the building work with a commendable stoicism so far.  We’re looking forward to the next iteration of the building which will hopefully extend our ability to continue supporting the wealth and breadth of talent from both the commercial and subsidised sector for many years to come.