CALL OUT: Creative Community Champions
Job Summary
COMMUNITY /kəˈmjuːnɪti/ Noun
1. A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.
2. The condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common.
Wye Valley River Festival CIC
The Wye Valley River Festival CIC is an innovative arts organisation, led by artists and communities, with an environmental focus. It supports and drives the growth of a programme of community engagement and cultural co-creation, culminating in a unique cross-border, biennial festival inspired by the landscape.
The Wye Valley River Festival brings local people, environmentalists, and artists together in an internationally important landscape, through creative explorations and celebrations. Collaboration is key to the success of WVRF and over the past ten years, partnership working has enabled the festival to go from strength to strength. Initially commissioned by the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and now a community interest company, we are building upon the positive energy of these tried and tested relationships to continue to bring high quality art to the landscape.
For more information please visit: https://wyevalleyriverfest.com/
If you have any questions or would like to receive the below job description in a different format, please contact Rachel Buchanan on rachel.wyevalleyfestival@gmail.com or call 07813 612033.
The Brief
After the successful 2022 pilot project employing four Creative Community Champions WVRF CIC is looking to appoint two new freelance Creative Community Champions, based in the Wye Valley region, for a new programme of work for the Wye Valley River Festival in May 2024. We want a vibrant and confident cultural offer for the festival 2024, one that amplifies voices and represents the hearts and minds of diverse communities from this unique area.
Creative Community Champions are an artistic enabling and developmental role. The role will require new co-producing relationships with local community members, environmentalists, educators, parents, children and young people. These networks will spread across the Wye Valley and rural hinterland to be able to produce creative and inspiring work with, and for, the community.
These roles will deliver targeted community arts engagement activity from the beginning of February 2024, towards a celebratory event in May 2024, based on the theme of the festival The Earth Beneath Our Feet. The contract for this role will be six months, initially. However, the roles have the potential to be extended and developed dependent upon further funding outcomes, with the hope that the project will continue to build momentum beyond the May 2024 festival.
The role will include producing and delivering workshops, facilitating events and being a conduit for our work with artists from across the UK and beyond, helping to establish a rich cultural ecology and building local skills in the area.
Who we are looking for
The Creative Community Champions will preferably be based in the heart of the Wye Valley community, with direct access to, and a lived experience of, the local area. They will be creatives with a passion for the environment and have a vibrant arts practice to share. They will have a strong community presence and ensure our work reaches those who may not consider the arts or environment for them.
As well as being skilled community facilitators, the Creative Community Champions will be an artist or a creative producer with a strong artistic vision, able to pollinate local areas and communities. Facilitating activity and hosting artists that inspire them, they will focus on a range of storytelling and creative methods using this year’s festival theme of ‘The Earth Beneath Our Feet‘ as stimulus.
The brief is deliberately open enabling co-creation and the candidates to bring creative ideas and suggestions to the table.
The Project
The roles are funded by Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’s Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) as part of the WVRF CIC’s development of a year-round programme of events and activities for audiences locally, and further afield. The project aims to focus its work with communities from across the Wye Valley, covering Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Monmouthshire.
Storytelling and creativity are at the heart of this cultural offer, and artists, environmentalists, cultural organisations, libraries, schools, community groups and activists, are all invited to work together in new ways, to create an innovative programme for WVRF 2024.
Creative Community Champions will seek out partners who have expertise in engaging groups that we haven’t reached yet and will ensure as many people as possible benefit from this opportunity. Through this embedded period of engagement, we aim to widen access to the festival and its activities, ensuring more people have a voice in the development of the event and its programming as co-creators of content.
We embrace Arts Council England’s Creative People & Places strategy and Arts Council Wales’ ‘Create’ and Welsh Governments ‘well being of future generations act 2015.
The Role
Main Duties and Responsibilities:
Develop and facilitate delivery of a cultural project as agreed with WVRF CIC Directors and team across identified areas of the region, working with local artists and organisations to co-develop high quality activities and creative programmes suitable for communities of either the local area or of collective interest
Develop good relationships with communities and local artists to grow their ability and confidence to host and eventually co-programme/produce work that enriches communities.
Facilitate artistic activity that nurtures and inspires confidence and skills amongst key stakeholdersWork alongside environmental staff and contractors to support communities to co-create and co-produce ideas,
Broker relationships with communities and key artists, arts and cultural organisations, schools and other community organisations so that long-term relationships are in placeMaintain information systems and processes to facilitate progress monitoring and reporting. (These will be provided with support from the WVRF Directors)
Undertake relevant research and data searches in order to demonstrate changes in practice resulting from the project (with support from external researcher)
Ensure that relevant information and data analysis is provided to the Directors to support progress monitoring
Work with WVRF team to best deliver, promote and market the initiative\
Person Specification
Experience:
Have at least 5 years’ experience working in a community arts environment
Be a specialist in at least one or more art forms
Experience of developing collaborative projects and events
Experience of working with communities, children, young people and families in either a formal or informal an arts setting
Experience developing and maintaining strong working relationships with a range of cross sector stakeholders
Good knowledge and understanding of an identified local area, organisations groups and networks
Experience of nurturing and facilitating others through a creative process
An understanding of the evaluation and monitoring of projects
Interest and understanding of working in an arts & environments context
Good understanding of access, equalities, and social inclusion issues
Personal skills
Passion to bring about social change through the arts
Highly skilled at inspiring and enabling people from a variety of cultures, ages, and backgrounds to engage with the arts and /or the environment
Strong communication skills – including verbal, written and non-verbal
Self-starter and ability to take own initiative
Multitasker, who can prioritise and juggle a varied workload
Reliable and trustworthy
Ability to work alone and collaboratively as part of a creative team.
The successful candidate will live within the Wye Valley, Forest of Dean, Monmouthshire or
Herefordshire region with a robust knowledge and understanding of the locality
Driver’s licence, with access to a vehicle
Contract Terms
Fixed term contract
The contract is offered on a freelance basis and the successful person will be responsible for their own NI and tax.
This is a fixed term contract for a period of six months starting at the beginning of February 2023 and running until July 2024.
Fee and Hours
The role is offered at a fixed fee of £5,000 (inclusive of VAT and basic expenses). Further expenses may be covered, in agreement with the WVRF Directors.
We anticipate the role to involve approximately one day of work a week, across the six-month period and times will vary. There will be periods of flux, where there will be more working hours necessary to deliver the brief.
Exact delivery times will depend upon the nature of the projects and how they are developed. This will be arranged in discussion with the successful applicants.
There is likely to be some weekend and evening work required.
Responsible to:
Wye Valley River Festival CIC Directors will oversee the project. It will be managed by the WVRF CIC Company Manager.
Work alongside:
Other WVRF CIC Directors, the core festival team, wider Advisory Board members, local community groups, artists and performance companies, education establishments, and young people led groups.
Base:
Home based, with the ability and flexibility to travel for sessions, meetings and workshops.
Insurance:
The successful person should have Public Liability Insurance to a minimum value of £5 million and a current Enhanced DBS check (or be willing to apply for this).
How to apply:
Please send CV and artist statement along with an Expression of Interest (maximum 2 sides of A4 sides), or a short film, to include the following information:
Examples of your work, showcasing your artistic practice and how it is relevant to this project.
The development of artistic ideas with others
Your ability to inspire and enable others to engage and stay engaged
What you envisage to be the challenges of working rurally in communities and engaging people
Which communities you are interested in working with, and why
If you have a specific project that would interest you to deliver please elaborate.
Please send your application by email to:
Rachel Buchanan, Co-Director Wye Valley River Festival CIC
rachel.wyevalleyfestival@gmail.com
Deadline for applications:
Tuesday 12 December 2023 at 10.00am.
Shortlisting:
Shortlisted applicant will be informed by 21st December.
Interviews:
Interviews will be held during the second week January 2024 at a venue to be confirmed in the Wye Valley, or online if necessary.
Please let us know with application if you have specific requirements to interview.
Wye Valley River Festival CIC is committed to flexible and inclusive working practices.
We are equal opportunities employers and recognise the value of diversity in the workforce.
We actively encourage applications from those with less visibility in the arts.
If you have any questions or would like to receive this job description in a different format, please contact Rachel Buchanan on rachel.wyevalleyfestival@gmail.com or call 07813 612033.
Thank you for your interest and good luck applying!
The Wye Valley River Festival Directors.
We are very grateful to our funders UKSPF fund and Sustainable Development Fund for these roles.
w: wyevalleyriverfest.com/local-projects/ccc/
fb: www.facebook.com/wyevalleyriverfestival
Image Credit: Gemma Wood
Alt Image Text: Bystanders and a dog look at a puppet on the street