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Finding Jobs &
Careers Reading List
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Finding Jobs & Careers Reading List
Careers
1. Finding Jobs – Listings of Vacancies and Guidance on Applying
For the most comprehensive arts jobs listings, subscribe free to the Arts Council’s ArtsJobs service which details current vacancies and opportunities in the arts community. As it is free and to those advertising as well as those looking for jobs, this really is the largest listing. www.artscouncil.org.uk
Arts Professional is the leading UK magazine for arts managers and lists all its current job advertisements on its website. www.artsprofessional.co.uk
The Stage is the weekly newspaper for theatre and the performing arts and carries a range of job advertisements, all available on their website. http://www.thestage.co.uk/recruitment/
The Guardian Jobs:- http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/ lists all those arts management jobs from organisations able to afford national press advertising rates! This site also has advice on CVs, and the other stages of the process of applying for jobs.
For more information on Careers Guidance and job searching specifically in the arts (arts management and arts) visit Metier and Learndirect’s specialist website http://www.artsadvice.com or Freephone on 0800 093 0444 This service offers information on CVs, references, presentation skills and a list of recruitment sites.
Other sites provide listings of a smaller number of job vacancies, such as National Campaign for the Arts www.artscampaign.org.uk
Membership based arts organisations, such as Dance UK, The Place Dance Services, Independent Theatre Council provide job listings in their email bulletins and printed mailings.
A listing of these organisations is available on www.ksam.org.uk under Signposts and Resources, then Specialist Arts Organisations, and also on http://www.artsnetworks.net/.
There are also services you pay for, such as Arts Hub which describes itself as the UK's online home for arts workers. It is a subscription based service and aims to provide the UK's best arts jobs information service, and an authoritative and independent arts news outlet. www.artshub.co.uk
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2. Careers reading list – books that describe arts management work
A textbook on arts management that draws on management from business and arts specific contexts.
Art Management: Entrepreneurial Style
By Giep Hagoort
Eburon 2001 ISBN 90 5166 802 3 £19.50
Giep Hagoort runs the Master Programme of Art and Media Management at Utrecht School of the Arts. The book is truly international in its examples and suggests that arts managers need to develop a 'glocal' attitude. To let the start of Chapter 1 speak for itself: 'This book is about art management, entrepreneurial style. It is intended to give practical, theoretical and conceptual insight into the management of profit and non-profit cultural organizations. The combination of art, culture and management and of theory and practice will, we believe, provide a real aid to those who want to acquire knowledge about running cultural businesses. The readers we have in mind are people who are involved with educational programmes: students, participants, teachers and programme directors. The reader will find a lot of practical cases, case studies and learning questions, which will aid the understanding of the complexity of art and cultural management. We also aim to reach artists, leaders and team members of cultural projects, managers of cultural organizations and other professionals who are interested in linking general management issues to the art and cultural sector. Review
Art & People: A practical guide to setting up and running arts projects in the community
Christine Wilkinson et al
Pub Slough Borough Council 2003 2nd edition ISBN 0904164071 £12 [£14.88 inc p&p]
A nicely produced guide to the basics for those new to the field. Based on the experience of developing Community Arts Training in Slough (CATS), this has all been tried and tested in practice. Beautiful photographs of recent projects remind us of what is possible, and at the practical end of the scale, there are forms and templates including a sample budget and media consent forms.
Review
Guidance on street arts, carnivals and processions:
Setting The Streets Alive: A guide to producing street arts events
By Bill Gee, Edward Taylor & Anne Tucker
Pub Independent Street Arts Network 2004 ISBN 0954489225 £10 [£12.75 inc p&p]
This is a practical guide to creating arts and heritage education projects. Arts in education is another specialist area within arts management. In the book, the bits in the shaded boxes are case studies and make interesting reading:
Culture and Learning: Creating arts and heritage education projects
Pub: ACE 2002 ISBN 0 7287 0885 X
Free, available from SAM’s Books and downloadable from www.artscouncil.org.uk/news/publicationsindex.html or www.hlf.org.uk
Diverse Voices: Personal Journeys
Pub All Ways Learning 2005 ISBN 09549785-0-1 £12 [£14.75 inc p&p]
The first publication in the Collected Wisdom series, Diverse Voices: Personal Journeys is a series of interviews collected by Anouk Perinpanayagam and edited by Janet Summerton and Madeline Hutchins.
Eleven fascinating individuals describe the planned and fortuitous paths of their arts management careers. These are people who have made it their business to confront risk; seize and make opportunities; and gather important lessons along the way. Diversity is present here in a multiplicity of management experiences, artform backgrounds and personal approaches to the entrepreneurial edge.
This is a good example of the power of arts in social settings and reports on 10 case studies across Wales:
Creative Regeneration - lessons from ten community arts projects
By Tim Dwelly
Pub: Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2001 £12.95 ISBN 1 85935 065 8
This report shows how ten arts projects in Wales have made a major impact in their communities. It provides examples for other agencies across the UK to follow, by demonstrating that creative regeneration really does work. Review
The creative industries is a rapidly growing part of the British and world economy and a real success story. Creativity and ideas form the basis of the industry, and effective and innovative management plays a big part in it:
The Creative Economy: How People Make Money From Ideas
By John Howkins
Pub Penguin 2001 ISBN 0 14 028794 9 £8.99 [£11.83 p&p]
This book explores the importance of copyright and patents in creative products, and provides statistical analysis of 15 core creative industries – including art, crafts and performing arts, as well as views on managing creativity and how to treat creativity as your major asset.
One aspect of arts management is the development of cultural policies for a District, Borough, County or Country.
There are networks of cultural policy makers that exist across Europe and worldwide.
Culture Policy Note No. 4 Balancing Act: 21 Strategic dilemmas in Cultural policy
By Francois Matarasso and Charles Landry
Pub Council of Europe 1999 ISBN 9 2871 3862 1 £6.50 [£8.91 inc p&p]
This little policy note tackles a big subject – the development and management of cultural policy. The authors suggest that this is one of the most complex areas of modern government, a kind of balancing act between competing visions of the role of culture in society. 21 strategic dilemmas are outlined including demonstrating the extremes of the issue and then you, as reader, are asked to choose on a scale where you would position your current policy or its ideal position on the spectrum between the extremes. There are both ‘framework’ dilemmas dealing with underlying conceptual issues and strategy, as well as dilemmas on tactical decisions of how to put policy into practice. Thought-provoking, possibly inspiring.
Culture at the Crossroads: Culture and Cultural Institutions at the Beginning of the 21st Century
By Marc Pachter, Charles Landry
Pub Comedia 2001 ISBN 1 873667 13 2 £9.00 [£11.72 inc p&p] Review
Cultural Policy: a short guide
Pub Council of Europe 2000 ISBN 9287143013 £7.50 [£10.25 inc p&p]
Art Matters - Reflecting on Culture
by John Tusa
Pub Methuen 2000 £9.99 ISBN 9 780413 750600
A series of reasoned reflections on the current state of the arts in Britain as seen by John Tusa - broadcaster and now General Manager of the Barbican Centre, London. There are three sections - Beliefs, Politics and Actions, and the titles of the essays reveal something of their contents - "I'm worried about Tony", "The Cart and the Horse, which came first the market or the arts?", and "When I hear the word culture, I reach for my identity." They are personal, passionate and sometimes provoking. The A-Z of Running an Arts Centre is an interesting account of the key issues for arts management today. Review
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3. Arts Managers talk about their work for those considering arts management as a career:
What my job entails…
My main job these days is with a touring theatre company called Watershed Productions.
We tour theatre productions all over the country - each production tours for 20 to 30 weeks, playing for one week in each theatre. In your area, we visit theatres including The Hawth, Crawley, The Ambassadors, Woking, The Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke and Brighton Dome.
We mostly do productions which appeal to family audiences, children and schools – such as The Borrowers, Charlotte’s Web or, recently, stage adaptations of Jacqueline Wilson’s novels. Right now, we’re about to start a tour of Jacqueline Wilson’s Midnight.
We’re quite a small company – there are two of us, with a part-time administrative assistant all year round and then we bring in teams of people (director, actors and stage management etc) for each production. Because it’s a small company, we’re quite flexible and take on a lot of different roles.
I look after negotiations with different theatres and sorting out our financial arrangements with them and also I look after marketing. Because it’s the theatres that do the marketing to their audiences, my role is mainly to advise and assist the theatre’s staff, providing them with information they need to promote the show.
But it’s very varied – as I write this, I’ve taken a little time from working on articles to go in the programme for the production and my next job is to plan some newspaper interviews for Jacqueline Wilson and to liaise between the person who has written our teacher’s pack and our website manager.
What I enjoy most about my work…
I enjoy the variety. In my last job, when I was in charge of a fairly large theatre with about 100 staff, there were people with specific jobs in all the different areas. With Watershed, because we have fewer staff, we’re more hands-on – and I like that. It makes a change.
I enjoy working with people. That sounds odd in that I work mostly from home, on the telephone and by email – although I do go out, to rehearsals or to have meetings with people in theatres we’re going to visit. But even by ‘phone, you can develop good working relationships with people across the country. Each theatre we visit is different and each needs a different relationship with me – I enjoy working that out and delivering it.
I enjoy the overview I have as a manager. I’m involved in all key decisions from “what play shall we do next year” to “what should the poster be like” to “if we have a performance in Dublin on Sunday afternoon, can we open in Buxton on Tuesday?” and I can make links, in my mind, between all aspects of the project – linking production with marketing with finance with personnel in, hopefully, the most effective way.
Finally, I enjoy the end result. It may seem odd but, for me, the end result isn’t actually the production. Of course, it matters that the production is good but what matters most is the audience reaction.
What drew me to arts management…
When I was a child, I was very interested in theatre, both going to theatre andbeing involved, at school and in amateur dramatics. I never wanted to act and didn’t really know enough about the other options to consider it a career. I went to university and while there used to work, part-time, in the local theatre – I got talking to the theatre manager and “discovered” the whole idea of arts (well, theatre) management. Somehow it felt right – even though then I knew very little about it (I still knew more than my careers teachers).
What I think is special about arts management…
At school, we got divided up into being good at arts or maths (or sport or…) and that can mean you don’t explore a wide range of possibilities. Arts management crosses those barriers – and is doing so increasingly.
What you should know about arts management if considering it as a career…
There’s no substitute for practical knowledge. My early experiences in box offices, front of house and wardrobe have always been useful. In a world where management is a relatively new profession, it can still be regarded with suspicion and you have to be able to prove you know what you’re talking about.
It’s not a good profession to be in if you don’t like change. Unless you’re very lucky (or possibly if you live in London) you won’t get very far unless you’re prepared to move – and quite often, especially when you’re young. There’s usually only one theatre in a town so, to get a promotion, you may have to move to the other end of the country.
It’s not ‘arty’. You must care about, and know about the art, but if you can’t add up, think logically, write clearly and grammatically, then this isn’t the profession for you. Personally, I enjoy swapping from thinking intuitively to planning logically and back again – but they’re of equal importance.
You must care about the art and the audiences. If you don’t, you won’t do it well and you won’t be happy.
See the website for more information about the company www.watershedtheatre.com
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