Arts in Libraries Officer

The job itself

East Riding of Yorkshire Council is recruiting an Arts in Libraries Officer to support and coordinate ambitious plans to bring our libraries to life with a programme of creative and artistic events. The Library Service has been awarded National Portfolio Organisation status by Arts Council England. This new role will coordinate the NPO Programme, supporting delivery of new and existing events, working with artists, librarians and local community members.

We are looking for a dynamic person who is passionate about the arts, libraries and working with people to make a difference to the lives of East Riding residents. The post holder will be responsible for supporting and coordinating the programme of cultural activity working with the Arts Development team and the Library Service to develop existing projects and to create new exciting programmes of work that respond to local needs, prioritising people’s wellbeing and increasing cultural engagement.

The Arts In Libraries Officer, with support from the Arts Manager, will monitor and evaluate the project, report to the Advisory Board, organise marketing materials, monitor the agreed project budget and support development opportunities for staff and manage relationships with partners and stakeholders. The Arts in Libraries Officer will work collaboratively with colleagues in Arts, Libraries and Museums as well as other services where appropriate.

This is a busy role with the competing demands of multiple projects. The post holder will need to be an organised person that can prioritise and work to deadlines. This post requires someone who is flexible, there will be times when a project requires attendance at events outside of office hours on evenings and weekends. The successful applicant will also need to be a strong administrator, able to set up systems and processes for supporting a large-scale complex programme of work and meet the evaluation and monitoring needs with reports to the Arts Council.

The post will support the delivery of existing projects such as the Festival of Words, Children’s Festival of Words as they grow their ambition and quality as part of the Arts Council funded programme. The post holder will coordinate and facilitate the delivery of new events in Libraries in 2023 through new partnership work with Arcade Theatre, Mikron Theatre, ArtERY, She Productions and more. The post-holder be involved in creative programming and empowering staff and stakeholders to have a voice in new programming in future years.

The post is based at County Hall in Beverley but will require regular travel around the East Riding to venues and events, the East Riding is a large rural authority and Library programme is responsible for reaching all of our residents especially those with less opportunity to engage in the arts. There is some opportunity for home-working as the post allows, to be agreed with the Arts Manager.

This post is a fixed-term position tied to the three year funding period from Arts Council England, there is potential for extension if we are successful in our ambitions to secure further funding.