Work with us: Arts Administrator
Arts Administrator for West End in Schools
Contract: Full time, fixed term from Monday 6 January 2025 to Friday 4 April 2025.
Salary: £25,642.50 per annum, plus pension entitlement and 28 days holiday pro rata.
Perks: Employee Assistance Programme with access to advice and counselling. Discounts, and special viewings at Somerset House, where there are multiple cafes, restaurants and bars on site.
Location: Part work remotely, part work from the creative co-working space in Somerset House in the West End.
Why West End in Schools?
We believe that every child’s imagination should be inspired by the arts.
West End in Schools' mission is to use the skills of the professional theatre to provide highly creative cultural experiences for children which they will remember forever. Each year we deliver dance, drama and Shakespeare workshops and perform musicals and pantomimes in well over 1,000 primary schools - to hundreds of thousands of children - all over England, Wales and Scotland.
We are a purpose driven, independent, unfunded company. 100% of our income is earned through visits to schools. Nearly all (95%) of our visits are to state schools, weighted towards those serving the most disadvantaged communities.
Schools choose to book and pay for our work because it is an affordable and effective way for them to enrich the lives and education of their children. Our visits help teachers improve educational outcomes. For many of the children we work with, our visit will be their first in person arts experience: plenty will remember our visit to their school for ever, and for a few it will be a pivotal point in their lives.
Join us and gain unique insights into both the theatre industry and the education sector as part of our HQ team of 10 people.
You can get a feel for our work in schools by watching our short highlights video.
Work you can believe in
Inspire the next generation of humans and theatregoers.
Deliver work to a huge, diverse audience, cutting across barriers of access and wealth.
Create high quality work grounded in our experience as an Olivier Award winning production company.
Develop your arts admin skills.
Bring your best skills and do your best work.
Make friends, and make a difference.
Our work places
Our base is in Somerset House in the heart of the West End. Most of our team work from Somerset House two days per week and from home for three days per week - unless we are working from rehearsal rooms that day.
Remote working, and working from the most appropriate place each day, is made possible using a range of software including Google Drive, our customer management and scheduling systems, chat and telephone apps running on a Mac laptop which we will provide.
When working from our homes we are in constant contact with each other. To make remote working fun and productive you need to be a good communicator and confident with using IT.
Our values
Efficiency.
Creativity.
Well structured work, creating the maximum benefit in the shortest time.
Fairness - including being the first theatre company to sign up for the London Living Wage.
Continuous improvement.
Our culture
Openness.
Honesty.
We have time for each other and have fun together.
A desire to do things the best possible way.
We acknowledge and share our own mistakes before they cause a problem. We do not blame other team members for theirs.
We work together to find creative solutions to problems when they arise.
About the Role
We are looking for someone who:
Is inquisitive, curious and creative, and has a 'how do we make this work' attitude.
Writes fluent english with attention to detail.
Is numerate, analytical and computer literate.
Has an engaging telephone manner and communicates precise information in a friendly way.
Loves and believes in the value of live performance.
Has a good sense of humour.
Our business is small, and so by its very nature everybody does a little bit of everything!
Your Role
You will get to know our customers, our range of work and how we do things.
The majority of communication with our customer and prospective customer schools is by email and telephone, and much of your time will be spent dealing with schools. In this context you will:
Work alongside a team of colleagues to respond to initial enquiries from schools in writing and by telephone.
Helping manage the interface between schools and our teaching artists.
Our team of over 100 teaching artists - actors, dancers and facilitators - need looking after too! We try to put in place simple systems to structure this work wherever possible, and tasks could include:
DBS checks for teaching artists.
helping teaching artists to send expenses claims correctly, and processing their expenses.
Helping the Workshop Coordinator with arrangements for rehearsals, training sessions and visits to schools.
You will facilitate the smooth running of the company, ensuring that we run efficiently and as if we were all based in the same office every day. This could include a myriad of tasks from across the whole company. This role is often a “filling in the gaps” job, which means it is interesting and varied and you get to experience and participate in everything that we do whilst still having your own areas that you look after.
You will get a fascinating insight into the worlds of theatre and education - and how they interface.
Your working day
Our office team works a 37.5 hour week from Monday to Friday. Your hours will be be a little different from day to day with start times ranging between 08.30am and 10.00am depending on the Workshop Coordinator’s hours that day. This will be planned in advance.
You will be one of a small team on a rota sharing responsibility for answering occasional out of hours phone calls from teaching artists having difficulty fulfilling their engagements - for example if they are stuck in traffic or unwell. This will require you to have your phone on from 7.30am until 8.30am on certain mornings, and until 7pm on certain evenings (though as we use an app your personal phone number will be kept private.)
Typically where you are covering out of hours in the morning then you will start your working day at 8.30am, and where you are covering it in the evening you will start at 9.30am or 10.00am.
There may be a handful of long days as we prepare for the busiest period - but this is really rare and we usually complete everything within working hours.
Who would enjoy this work?
If you are well organised, love solving unexpected problems, have great attention to detail, and enjoy people then you will enjoy this job, do good work, and make a difference. If solving unexpected problems at short notice stresses you out this isn’t the job for you! We want to be a place where you feel you are doing your best work.
The application process
1. Initial application
To apply please:
Re-read the information on the company and the role and check this feels like a good job for you.
Fill out our online application form, attaching your CV as a PDF.
Please apply by 9am on Monday 4 November 2024. Earlier applications would be appreciated.
2. Video call Interview
If your application is successful at this stage you will be invited to meet us online on Wednesday 13 November.
This will consist of two short video call interviews and a short written exercise.
3. In person Interview
After this stage, we will schedule 1-to-1 interviews as appropriate, most likely on Tuesday 19 November.
Please do not call the main office number or email CV's other than as directed above - applicants attempting to apply by these routes will not be considered.
All applicants will receive a response from us, even if we do not invite you for interview.