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Project Manager Role with NRTF
Job Vacancy Advertisement
Project Manager (P/T)
Application out 13 January 2020
Application deadline 24 January 2020
Start date ASAP
Job Description
Position: Project Manager – National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF)
Responsible to: Director, NRTF
Contract: 22.5 hours per week / 3 days a week
20-month minimum contract with the possibility of extending
Start date – date during February 2020 to be agreed
Travel will be required with some evenings and weekends
PAYE preferred but will consider freelance
Salary: PAYE – Between £26,000 and £29,000 pro-rata, depending on experience
Holiday: PAYE – 28 days including Bank holidays
Location: The NRTF has no fixed office. The post-holder may work from home or own office.
Probationary Period: Three months (extending to 6 months if necessary), two weeks’ notice required by both parties
Notice Period: 12 weeks from both parties
Identity checks: Ability to provide official documents to confirm they have the right to work in the UK and undergo a check with the Disclosures and Barring Service
Role Context
The National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF) is looking for an experienced and skilled Project Manager to lead, coordinate and deliver on a new and exciting project while supporting the Director to deliver NRTF ambitions and outcomes. The principal responsibility of the postholder will be to manage the new ‘Libraries and Rural Touring Arts’, commencing in March 2020 and funded by Arts Council England. The role will need to be undertaken by someone with experience in working with artists and arts organisations, and the successful candidate will have excellent organisational, managerial, administrative and communications skills. They will need to be comfortable working with a broad range of people, organisations and relationships.
The Project Manager will be part of a small but ambitious team and be responsible to the NRTF Director, helping to deliver the wider visions of NRTF. The postholder will be required to bring a willingness to muck in and undertake a variety of tasks within the organisation, including supporting the work of the Communications Manager with the general membership and event coordination for the NRTF Conference and a range of festival panel talks.
About the ‘Libraries and Rural Touring Arts’ Project
Public libraries have an appetite to increase toured-in product but often lack support, skills, capacity, networks and confidence to achieve this. NRTF will audit the sector and work with Rural Touring Schemes and venues to learn from and expand on projects and activity that is already in place.
The primary outcomes include understanding the language of libraries and identifying what is needed in the sector to create appropriate resources and to provide developmental activities, including bursaries and an investment pot to encourage librarians into programming live arts and performance in their spaces.
‘Libraries and Rural Touring Arts’ – maximising the potential of our nation’s libraries
National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF) to support touring into Libraries in a new national project funded by Arts Council England.
New figures reveal almost 800 libraries have closed since 2010. National spending has dropped, as has visitor footfall and the number of paid librarians. Libraries also face numerous external challenges, such as the growth of e-books and people increasingly purchasing low-priced books online. Despite this, the 3,618 public libraries in the UK are still visited 233.1 million times annually and 77% of people believe that libraries are either essential or very important to their community (The Reading Agency 2018). Research by the Arts Council of England found that library attendance is positively associated with well-being and has even related to NHS savings of up to £27.5 annually. One way to address user numbers is to increase the opportunity to participate in touring and overcoming embedded sector obstacles of lack of budget, capacity, skills, knowledge and networks.
The Libraries and Rural Touring Arts project, managed by National Rural Touring Forum, is about understanding the challenges library services face in engaging the public and generating new audiences. Programming live art is one way to diversify users and engage the wider community.
“This is an important strategic project for NRTF. We look forward to identifying and responding to the needs of librarians who have the potential to programme work. It is also a great opportunity for artists and performing companies who will potentially have a new set of venues and touring spaces to show their work” Holly Lombardo, NRTF Director
Public libraries have an appetite to increase toured-in product but often lack support, skills, capacity, networks and confidence to achieve this. NRTF will explore and audit the library programming sector, working with library’s, Rural Touring Schemes and venues to learn from and expand on projects and activity that is already in place.
The project aims to create resources and developmental activities, including bursaries and an investment pot to encourage librarians into programming live arts and performance in library spaces. NRTF and ACE want to instil confidence, though training, and identify what is needed to utilise and build on librarians’ strengths and priorities to make the most out of cultural events. This is a fantastic opportunity for libraries and artists.
Download the full job description below.
