An update on QUAD

Dear QUAD customers,

I’m aware I have been a little quiet over the past year, but there has been lots of planning and hard working behind the scenes to get to where we are today. With so many positive advancements, I wanted to address them and let you know the status of the organisation and our future.

Over the last few weeks, we have announced a new membership scheme and re-opened QUAD on Thursday & Friday daytimes. These are exciting steps into our future and are the result of a tremendous amount of work undertaken by the staff and board over the last 10 months.

As you may remember, a statement went out in early July last year about QUAD’s very real financial difficulties. I began as CEO at the end of that same month. With the support of our stakeholders, we made some pretty radical changes to our structure and opening hours to ensure our survival and remain the cultural centre for Derby that we have always been.

It has been a hugely challenging time, and I cannot stress enough how proud I am of the entire team at QUAD, past and present, who have been incredible in their efforts to make QUAD the special place we know it to be. To all our loyal and passionate supporters and customers, I realise that some of the necessary changes have been challenging, and I appreciate your patience, support and feedback across this time.

We have continued to be open and showing great films, from popular new releases to our fantastic all-day events such as Kaiju-A-Go-Go, not to mention our new QUAD Essentials seasons, showcasing curated films that are a must see on the big screen; followed by a discussion with fellow film fans.

We also saw our FORMAT photography festival return in March with exhibitions, talks and events across the city. These include shows here at QUAD, with incredible work from Felicity Hammond, Sujata Setia, Lo lai lai Natalie and of course all of the young people who submitted works for Young FORMAT from across the UK. Work from our own Derby Moor, Pear Tree Primary, Horizon sixth form and BFI Film Academy programmes, which were also in the spotlight.

Today, we are more than 6 months into our changes, and I am really pleased to say that we can now see a more sustainable future going forward; we have been waiting until we were in this position to increase our opening hours and launch new memberships.

Similarly, we are as passionate as ever about our charitable aims on this journey; all of our income goes back straight into sustaining QUAD to deliver them. We’re really excited to continue our education and participation programmes, offering them in a careful and thoughtful way.

However, as mentioned in our statement last July, it’s not news to say that the cultural sector is still facing an incredibly challenging time. There is so much more that we need to do, and we need more resilience against those unexpected events. So, whilst things are improving, we do need your continued support; if you value QUAD, then I ask you to please come and have a drink in our bar & lounge, buy a ticket, consider a membership, donate, or come and explore our gallery spaces.

In return we will continue to listen, adapt and keep to our mission of providing the best in film, photography and new media art for the people of Derby and beyond. One immediate example of this is turning our attention to our website in the coming months and committing to improving customer experience.

Thank you for your patience and ongoing patronage.