Assistant to the Artistic Director (0.5)

(Maternity Cover)

Candidate Pack

The Little Prince, Luca Silvestrini’s Protein Dance, photo by Jane Hobson

About The Place

The Place is the UK’s premier contemporary dance centre, based in central London. Since its inception in 1969, The Place has been a driving force for contemporary dance in the UK and Europe and one of the world's key resources for dance development. It has pursued a global vision for a world with more dance and is a world-leading centre of artistic excellence, creating an ecosystem for dance unlike any in the world. 

The Place offers conservatoire education and training through London Contemporary Dance School; a busy programme of boundary-pushing performances in our theatre supported by innovative audience development activities; an extensive professional artist development programme; a growing producing and touring house; and learning and participation opportunities for all ages and skill levels. The commitment to artistic development underpins a portfolio of residency, workshop, training and commissioning projects for professional artists from the UK and the rest of the world. Our reputation in the field of contemporary dance reaches beyond the borders of the UK. 

As an organisation, The Place is involved in the entire lifecycle of dance – from education and training to the creative process that leads to new ideas and conception of new work, through to its creation, production and performance. 

Our mission...Powering imagination through dance 

We do this by fostering a learning culture which promotes innovation, deep human connections and critical thinking; by developing dance opportunities which span a lifetime and by creating experiences through dance that make us more alive. 

The Place receives funding as an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. Annually, it commissions over 45 professional artists and supports over 100 artists. In addition, the theatre and artist development team present over 120 performances to audiences in excess of 25,000 in London with 77,000 audiences reached nationally and internationally through the touring programme. There are over 2,000 learning and participation sessions with engagement from 6,000 pupils from local schools, whilst there are over 30,000 participation sessions primarily for adults, via the highly popular evening and weekend programme of classes and courses.  

Job Description

Assistant to the Artistic Director (0.5 Maternity Cover)

The Role

To provide support to the Artistic Director with effective organisation of correspondence, schedules and administration enabling a warmly efficient and professional working environment within The Place and with colleagues and artists outside.

The post requires someone with excellent interpersonal and communication skills. You’ll need to be administratively organised and a confident problem-solver. You’ll be happy to work independently but enjoy the fun of working within a wider team. You must love culture, the arts and possibly dance.

You’ll thrive when working in a busy, fast changing environment, and be prepared to support an extremely busy colleague whilst anticipating and overcoming challenges.

Responsibilities

The role will support the Director through:

Diary Management

· Proactively scheduling meetings, phone calls, evening and weekend events/performances, UK and overseas travel and desk /preparation time in balance with the Director’s personal commitments.

· Liaising with colleagues in theatre team, the rest of The Place and externally to ensure the Director is available in a timely way to support them and their work.

· Scheduling appraisals and regular line management catch ups

Administration

· Managing itineraries and requirements for UK and Overseas Travel – booking travel, hotels, arranging per diems and currency, visas and booking performance tickets for the Director and from time to time other team members.

· Screening emails, telephone calls and post and updating resulting prioritised to-do lists on a daily basis for/with the Director

· Proactively responding to/redistributing emails/telephone and written correspondence as appropriate

· Arranging for a refund of the Director’s expenses on a monthly basis

· Maintaining an efficient filing system for the Directors emails/documents/correspondence and digital media

· Updating the Director’s contact lists

· Ensuring the Director’s IT is working effectively

· Proactively preparing papers/briefings for scheduled meetings

· Processing payments/invoices/credit cards as necessary within The Place’s finance systems

· Taking meeting minutes and producing agendas and action points as required

· Proof reading papers and documents

· Conducting research for the Director

Communication

· Maintaining timely, efficient and joined-up liaison and communication both internally and externally

· Handling sensitive issues with confidentiality, discretion and diplomacy

· Supporting the Director in maintaining excellent working relationships with artists and producers

· Supporting the Director in maintaining excellent working relationships with other arts venues and stakeholders

· Ensuring efficient working when Director is out of office and managing the process of communicating/updating effectively at these times

General

· Booking meeting rooms

· Meeting visitors and responding to phone/email enquiries in polite, warm and professional manner

· Attending meetings as agreed with Director

· Providing administrative assistance to the Director of Operations and Strategic Projects and rest of theatre team when needed

· Supporting other departments from time to time

· Acting as an ambassador for The Place by attending/assisting with some VIP events and opening nights

Any other responsibilities as reasonably requested by the Artistic Director

Person Specification

Essential

Desirable

Experience of working to support a busy individual or team

Experience of working within arts organisations

Excellent administrative and organisational skills

Experience of creating administrative systems

Passionate about arts and culture

Interested in contemporary dance

Confident communicator in written and spoken English and comfortable communicating with many different people

Experience of drafting reports and papers

Advanced IT skills

Ability to utilise IT systems to improve efficiency

Experience of working under pressure to deadlines and prioritising workload

Proactive problem solver and trouble shooter

Happy to work both independently with limited supervision and as part of team

A discreet and diplomatic individual

Experience of supporting senior staff

Salary, Hours of Work and Benefits

Salary

0.5 of £25,600 per annum = £12,800 per annum.

Salaries are reviewed in August each year when any cost of living increases are made. No salary changes are made until the post holder has successfully completed their probationary period and six months service.

Contract

This is a part-time 0.5 fixed-term, maternity cover contract running from early March 2020-Feb 2021. Ideally, candidates should be available for some days in February 2020 for a handover with the existing postholder.

There will be a three-month probationary period in which the notice period will be 2 weeks. Once this period is successfully completed, the postholder will be confirmed in post and the notice period will be eight weeks if the contract is to be terminated before the agreed end date. No increases are paid until six-months service has been completed.

Hours

This is a part-time role 0.5 (20 hours per week), to be worked at The Place over 4/5 days per week. Hours are recorded annually to reflect fluctuations in workload. Your hours of work will be agreed with the line manager.

Occasional evening and/or weekend work will be required for which Time off in Lieu will be given.

Pension

All employees will be automatically enrolled in our pension scheme after three months service. We offer two contribution levels for both employee and employer, an entry level where you contribute 5% and we contribute 5%, or a higher level in which you contribute 6% and we contribute 9%.

Holiday

The Place’s full-time holiday allowance in 25 days plus 8 bank holidays per year. The annual leave allocation runs from January to December each year, holiday entitlements will be pro-rated for postholders starting in the middle of the year.

Other Benefits

· Interest-free season ticket loan (after three months)

· Theatre ticket allowance of up to £100 per year

· Free and discounted access to The Place’s evening classes (subject to availability)

· Subsided café and bar prices

· Salary sacrifice scheme for the purchase of bicycles and related equipment

· Subsided staff yoga/Pilates and staff choir

Applications and Interviews

How to Apply

Completed applications should be returned to jobs@theplace.org.uk by 12 noon Mon 27 Jan 2020.

Equal Opportunities

The Place is committed to equality and diversity and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

In accordance with our Equal Opportunities Policy, we ask that each applicant complete our Equal Opportunities Monitoring form, this can be accessed here. Monitoring information is collected and processed separately to applications, if you do not wish to disclose this information please return a blank monitoring form.

Interviews will be held 4 and 5 Feb 2020 at The Place.

The Place is an equal opportunities employer and we are keen to ensure everyone applying for employment has an equal experience when attending an interview. Should you have any queries about, or wish to make us aware of, any support required to attend an interview or to work at The Place or would like this pack in alternative format please contact Laura Naldrett, HR and Administration Manager who will be happy to discuss this with you in confidence on 020 7121 1002 or email: laura.naldrett@theplace.org.uk

We apologise that we are unable to respond to every application individually. If you have not heard from us by one month after the closing date, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful.

Thank you for your interest in The Place.

Jan 2020

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