Assistant Programmer at University of Warwick

University of Warwick – Warwick Arts Centre

Warwick Arts Centre has an exciting opportunity for an Assistant Programmer. They are on a mission to create a dynamic, relevant, and artistically ambitious and sustainable arts centre and we need more great people to help us achieve our plans.

They are committed to creating an environment where everyone feels they belong, a place of fairness and equity and to be an organisation that reflects the diversity of its city.

If this sounds like somewhere you would like to work, we would like to hear from you.

Warwick Arts Centre’s Programming Team develops and delivers exceptional participatory, audience and visitor experiences with the following priorities in mind:

• Delivering a creative learning and audience development programme made and co-designed with communities and schools in areas of low engagement with the arts locally.
• Delivering a wide programme of participatory events which includes off and on-stage activity at Warwick Arts Centre, involving local communities, schools and students.
• Delivering a programme of activities and events with, by and for residents and creatives which animate our foyer spaces and transform it from a transitioning space to a vibrant social hub – a venue for all our communities.
• Programming artistic work across all artforms to cater for and respond to local and national audiences and visitors. Ranging from work requiring investment to commercial, high risk to mainstream, young to seasoned and to include local, national and international.
• Supporting talent development at all levels/stages. Providing free space, advice and guidance, networking, skills and knowledge exchange opportunities. Partnering with associate producers and other partners to provide artist and new work development opportunities.

The Assistant Programmer will work alongside our creative learning, live programming, visual arts and cinema and screen teams to develop and deliver artistically ambitious and financially sustainable events and activities which engage as wide a range of people as possible. You will work closely with our Audience Development Officer to develop and deliver programmes of work with and in target communities. You will work across the live programme with responsibility for the family and Young People strand.

This is an exciting opportunity for a candidate with a passion for the arts looking to develop their programming skills in a building-based organisation. If you have some experience of programming events, this might have been as part of a small festival team, in a building or your own independent one-off events then please do consider applying.

We are looking for someone who works well independently and as part of a team, who can keep themselves motivated and is interested in developing relationships with artists and creatives, audiences, and participants.

You will have a strong attention to detail, and not be afraid to take ownership of an important area of work whilst working collaboratively with colleagues across the Arts Centre.

Warwick Arts Centre is the largest multi art form arts centre outside London. We are one of the region’s leading learning, visual arts, cinema and performing arts venues. We work with exceptional artists and creatives from the city, region and globally delivering a programme that reflects our local and global context. As an arts centre on a university campus our ambition is to develop programmes which speak to and reach our audiences on campus, in the city of Coventry and the wider region. Our city is one of the most ethnically diverse and youngest in Europe our goal is to reflect this through our work and the people we employ.

As part of our commitment to increasing the diversity of staff within the Arts Centre we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from groups that are currently underrepresented, including people from the Global Majority*.

*Global Majority is a collective term that refers to people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or, have been racialised as ‘ethnic minorities.’

Duties and Responsibilities

Programming and project management

• To develop, deliver and manage the Families and Young People live programme (these are live, ticketed events).
• To co-ordinate and manage projects within the Families and Young People strand (these might be workshops and/or residencies leading up to a live ticketed event).
• To research and identify potential events for specific programming strands. To present costed proposals to the Creative Director and to support the planning and delivery of these strands.
• To provide assistance with pre-contract negotiations and manage drafting, sending and chasing of performance and hire contracts internally and externally.
• Programme co-ordination.
• To administer booking forms processing and inputting accurate information into the venue management software (Artifax) and liaison with the marketing team to ensure events are ‘live’ and on sale.
• To manage and co-ordinate visiting foreign companies’ requirements including visas, work permits/certificates of sponsorship, accommodation, per diems, hospitality, co-ordinate schedules and monitor budgets.
• To liaise with and respond to enquiries from agents, promoters and artists as requested by the Programme Manager and Creative Director.
• To work with audience development to identify target communities and community/statutory organisations and partners and marketing to plan targeted campaigns.

Administration

• To manage the event costings and approval process, supporting programmers in gathering data/information, chasing approvals and maintaining a register of proposals.
• To support the event costing process gathering internal costs and comparator data.
• To be responsible for collecting and collating reports providing material for producing reports to funders/investors, Key Performance Indicators, and any other evaluation of the live programme.
• To ensure all data and contractual information is accurately recorded and maintained.
• The postholder undertakes diary management for the Creative Director, organises travel arrangements, event tickets and books accommodation/meeting spaces as required.
• Any other duties commensurate with the post.

Skills and Experience

• General education to A level or degree standard and a minimum 12 months experience in an arts programming or producing context.
• Experience of working in an arts or cultural organisation as a freelancer or employee.
• Experience of working with and negotiating contractual arrangements with artists and performance companies.
• Excellent organisational and administrative skills with meticulous attention to detail.
• Experience of working independently using own initiative and as part of a team.
• Project management experience and skills.
• Experience of working in a target driven environment within a complex organisation.
• Broad knowledge of contemporary performing arts practice and working knowledge of programme planning processes.
• Budget management and administration experience and skills.
• Ability to manage high level relationships.

Note to Applicants:

Please give examples of how you have exhibited these behaviours in your previous role(s). It is essential you address each of these on the application form on the section for supporting information.

Be as specific as possible, we cannot guess or make assumptions, but will assess your application solely on the information provided.

How to prepare you application:

• Please review the Job Description and the Person Specification.
• Think about all the different types of roles you have had or work that you have done as a freelancer / independent programmer, producer or administrative.
• For each of the essential criterion, provide evidence/an example of what you have done that demonstrates that you have the experience, skills or knowledge we are looking for.
• Remember to tell us why you want to work for Warwick Arts Centre. So, do your research. Look at our website https://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk to make sure that you understand the range, scope and scale of our work. Explore our context. Our role in the city of Coventry is very important to us so make sure you understand the demographics and have a view on what that means or should mean for us and you as a programmer. Think about how you are going to help us to create an arts centre open to everyone and tell us.

To find out more or to arrange an informal conversation about the role, please contact: jonathan.fogarty@warwick.ac.uk

Interviews will be held week commencing 12 February 2024.

Full details of the duties and selection criteria for this role can be found in the vacancy advert on the University of Warwick’s jobs pages. You will be routed to this when you click on the Apply button.