Mission

Norden Farm’s Mission Statement

Bringing the community together through creativity.

Norden Farm offers a wide range of high-quality artistic events and participatory opportunities for the whole community and supports professional and community artists.

We believe the arts have the power to change lives. We create opportunities for people to come together, in real time, and take part in transformative and life enhancing arts activities.

We aim to reach the widest audience possible.

We deliver a regular programme of classes and activities for children, young people and adults together with special projects for the community, that we fundraise for, working in and outside of our building.

We aim to be as environmentally sustainable as possible.

Artistic Policy

Norden Farm presents a wide ranging, ambitious and popular live programme across music, theatre, comedy, spoken word, dance, film and visual arts.

We aim to introduce audiences to work that will inspire, provoke, delight and entertain.

The programme is designed to appeal to existing audiences and to reach out to new potential audiences, identified groups within our audience development strategy and special interest groups for specific works.

We find new work through seeing live and recorded work, for example at festivals as well as through our networks, e.g. Young Audience’s Programming Consortium and House Theatre, a regional venue network.

Education Policy

Through our education and outreach programme, we aim to provide a range of opportunities for our community to experience high quality, transformative and life enhancing arts events.

We deliver a regular programme of classes and activities for children, young people and adults together with special projects for the community that we fundraise for, working in and outside of our building.

Norden Farm is the heart of the community. We believe that the impact of our community projects is immense. Producing innovative, inclusive, exciting projects that bring together communities to create something truly memorable and beautiful, promotes social cohesion, magnifies civic pride and contributes to place making.

We know that participation in the arts promotes social connectivity. So we engage with isolated or disadvantaged groups, wherever possible, delivering workshops in a range of settings including town centre locations. We are passionate about the importance of reaching out to particularly unengaged groups to continually expand our reach.

We are passionate about connectivity between arts and health, and produce projects that impact physical and mental well-being.

We have a particular focus on working with children and young people. We provide opportunities for children and young people to explore their creativity, working with professional arts practitioners on exceptional projects that result in enhanced self-confidence, raised self-esteem and new outlets for self-expression.

Visitor Experience Policy

Norden Farm aims to deliver the best total visitor experience possible. We want every person to feel welcome and comfortable throughout their visit, as they take part in or attend inspiring arts events.

Inclusivity is essential to everything we do.

Equality of welcome is paramount to us and we work hard on the details of this. From gender neutral foyer announcements to well-appointed disabled toilets we want every visitor to feel at home at The Farm.

The building is fully accessible to everyone, whatever their physical abilities.

We continually monitor, evaluate and adjust our practice to make sure we deliver the best visitor experience we can.

Audience Development Policy

We aim to reach out to the widest audience possible, maximising the attendance and diversity of audiences for every event.

We use a variety of ways to engage with our existing audiences, working hard to constantly develop our relationship with attenders.

We strive to enrich the quality of the audience experience, through increased engagement with the programme in live and digital formats.

We have a significant focus on developing the cultural diversity of audiences to reflect the rich makeup of the population, currently less represented in attendances. We have a focus on developing younger audiences. By providing positive experience for children and young people we hope to distil a lifelong habit of attending and so secure future audiences for The Farm.

Environmental Policy

We strive to be an environmentally sustainable organisation. We save energy wherever possible, recycle at all times and aim to limit our pollution and waste across all areas of The Farm.

Operationally we replace our theatre lighting with LED alternatives and use our extensive solar panels to contribute to the grid. We believe in upcycling wherever possible. So we repair and recycle equipment from computers to seating as a first course of action before considering replacement. We consider the environment in our retail offer, avoiding one use plastic wherever possible. We promote green issues in our education and outreach work where appropriate.

Equality and Diversity Policy

We are committed to a policy of diversity and equality of opportunity in our programme, employment practices and in the provision of services.

No group or individual will be discriminated against on the grounds of race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, age, health, disability, employment status or religious belief.