Support Us

Support Quay Arts

Quay Arts is an independent registered charity, sponsored and managed by the Steve Ross Foundation for the Arts Charity Reg. No. 272007.  The foundation is in memory of Lord Ross of Newport, long serving Member of Parliament for the Isle of Wight and founder member of Quay Arts.

Quay Arts Trading Company is made up of the café, craft shop and conferencing facilities and is the trading arm of Steve Ross Foundation for the Arts. It exists for the sole purpose of supporting the charity and its mission.  Hence any surpluses generated return directly back into the charity.

Who Funds Quay Arts

Quay Arts receives regular funding from both the Isle of Wight Council, and Arts Council England, both of whom play a very important role in ensuring our financial stability. But have you ever wondered what percentage of our annual income we receive from these public bodies in order to employ staff and provide all our various artistic activities?

How much of our annual budget is regular funding?

In fact regular grant funding (from Arts Council England, IOW Council or anyone else) only provides around 15% of our annual budget.

What about the other 85%?

The commercial arm of the organisation Quay Arts Trading Company brings in much needed revenue through our Café, Conferencing and Craft Shop activities.

We also raise some money from ticket and art sales as well as other related forms of income, including some very valuable support through sponsorship relationships with both The Isle of Wight County Press and Red Funnel. However, we rely on our commercial activities and fundraising to provide the vast majority of our income.

So the real answer to the question “who funds Quay Arts?” is that you do. Whenever you spend money at Quay Arts, whether it be on food and drink or art and craft, you are helping us to continue to provide exhibitions, live events, classes and workshops, kids' activities, work with schools and everything else we do.

What about Fundraising?

Fundraising helps us to sustain, develop and expand our work. Some recent examples of this include: -

• Providing more kids art projects and gallery education opportunities
• Helping to support and promote Island artists
• Providing unique cultural and artistic experiences
• Helping to source and develop new studio spaces
• Providing an opportunity for young people to learn film making
• Creating more opportunities for everyone to participate in the arts

Fundraising is a key part of fulfilling our ambition to be a thriving independent arts organisation, providing high quality exhibitions, live events, courses, and creating opportunities for everyone to take part in art activities. If you would like to find out more about our fundraising work, or to make a donation, please contact reception on 01983 822490 or email info@quayarts.org.

How You Can Help Us - You can make a difference

Quay Arts is sponsored by the charity Steve Ross Foundation for the Arts, Charitable Reg. No. 272007.  Its mission is to bring a varied and enriching arts programme to the Isle of Wight and be a centre of artistic excellence within South East England.  Your donation will help continue to deliver a high quality programme of live events, visual arts, adults and children’s workshops and film to the people of the Isle of Wight and south coast.

If you would like to make a donation to help support Quay Arts provide arts for all, please contact Sally Cole s.cole@quayarts.org

Thank you. Your support means so much to so many people.

The Muriel Godfrey Bequest

Occasionally Quay Arts receives bequests from people who have had a lifelong interest in the arts and who decide they would like to make us the beneficiary of an amount of money in their wills.

For example, in August 2002, we received a £17,450 bequest from the estate of Muriel Godfrey (a local teacher on the Island) with the request that the money be used to fund activities to benefit participator arts activities and necessary equipment. Some of the things this money funded include:

• A range of children’s activities in our Learning Curve Gallery
• A robot fashion workshop for young people
• A Paper Boat Regata as part of the Exhibition Rite of Passage
• The first ‘Wight Words’ Literary Festival
• A bursary to enable performing arts student Daniel Stotesbury to pursue his artistic ambitions into higher education
• Open studios & Arts Directory including an Art Map commission for the Arts Directory
• The Big Draw ‘Picasso People’ project for schools
• 15 Sturdy easels for our Life Drawing Class