Studio Manager & Producer (Women-Centred Practice)

Company Description

Idle Women is an arts, environment and social justice collaboration founded by artists in 2015. We create projects that reach beyond the horizon, co-creating transformative spaces that cannot be cut, closed or taken away.

Our artworks are spaces: a boat, a garden, a rave, an allotment, a website. They are created through collaboration and built to last, to be animated and inhabited by women.

Our first endeavour was to build Narrowboat Selina Cooper with women living in a specialist domestic violence refuge. Over two years we travelled the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, seeding friendships and meeting women who continue to shape the Idle Women community today.

In 2018 we crowdfunded, investing in a strip of canalside land in Nelson, which women transformed by hand into the UK's first and only physic garden for women. The Physic Garden is a living artwork dedicated to women's health, providing permanent access to nature, knowledge and beauty.

Today, through our partnership with Humraaz and a broad community of collaborators, we create artistic productions across diverse forms and make innovative digital work. We offer year-round creative programmes, paid traineeships, and specialist outreach work with women navigating complex circumstances.

We understand art making and transformation as a daily process. We work with women's strengths, create spaces of possibility, and support one another to imagine and build different futures.

For us, administration, maintenance, growing, making, organising and caring are creative acts. This understanding sits at the heart of how we work as an organisation.

Role Description

Fixed-term (18 months)

30 hours per week with flexibility in working patterns

£28,000 per annum (£35,000 FTE)

Based in Accrington, Lancashire.

Idle Women are seeking a Studio Manager & Producer to support the coordination of the organisation’s programmes, partnerships, participants and day-to-day operations. This role sits at the intersection of project production, studio management and women-centred support work. We are looking for someone who can bring organisation, care, good judgement and collaborative working to a small, dynamic women-centred arts and social justice organisation.

We are creating this role at a moment of strategic transition for the organisation, ensuring that the work, relationships and care practices at the heart of Idle Women can continue sustainably.

At Idle Women we often use the word caretaking to describe the work of holding projects, people, spaces and possibilities. This role is a Studio Manager & Producer position, but the spirit of the work is one of collective caretaking.

Working closely with our small team which includes trainees and collaborating artists, you will support the coordination of day-to-day operations, projects, partnerships and women-centred spaces that make up Idle Women. You will move between practical administration, project planning, participant support, safeguarding-aware practice, financial administration, artist liaison, and the care of our physical spaces.

You will take ownership of many aspects of day-to-day organisational and project coordination, working closely with the Directors while exercising autonomy within agreed priorities and responsibilities, and supporting practical problem-solving as issues arise.

The role requires someone who is comfortable working across practical, relational and organisational tasks within a changing environment. We are looking for someone who is organised, practical, and resourceful; someone who can manage detail while holding sight of the bigger picture, and who understands that administration, sweeping up, care and creativity are all essential forms of work.

This is a hands-on role that requires regular in-person working across our studio, garden, boat and community project sites, including occasional lifting, carrying and practical setup tasks.

This is an 18-month fixed-term role funded through a combination of project and organisational funding. We are committed to seeking opportunities to sustain and extend the role beyond the fixed-term period where resources allow.

What you'll be doing Studio Management

• Coordinating the day-to-day running of the studio and project spaces
• Maintaining shared systems, records and communications
• Supporting day to day finance administration (petty cash, expenses and receipts)
• Managing schedules, meetings and organisational logistics
• Coordinating maintenance, supplies and practical resources
• Contributing to the development and improvement of systems and ways of working that support the long-term sustainability of the organisation and the wellbeing of the people within it.

Project Production

• Production support for artistic and community projects from planning through to delivery
• Coordinating artists, facilitators, partners and participants
• Managing project logistics, equipment, travel and accommodation
• Supporting the administration of monitoring and evaluation
• Monitoring project budgets and timelines

Participant Support

• Contributing to a culture of welcoming, supportive relationships with women participating in projects
• Coordinating access and practical support needs
• Organising registration forms and communicating information about sessions.
• Providing practical and administrative support for trainees running sessions.
• Working within safeguarding and confidentiality procedures
• Supporting women to navigate practical barriers to participation and connecting with specialist support where appropriate.
• Contributing to a culture of care, inclusion and mutual support

Who this role might suit

You might have experience in:

• Arts production or project management
• Community development
• Women's services
• Participation or engagement work
• Social justice organisations
• Education, youth work or adult learning
• Cultural organisations or grassroots community projects

We are interested in transferable skills and lived experience as well as formal qualifications.

You do not need to have worked in all of these areas.

This is a busy, hands-on role where no two days are the same, and where priorities may shift in response to the needs of the organisation and the people we work with.

What we're looking for

We're looking for someone who:

• Is highly organised and able to manage multiple strands of work
• Is comfortable working in a small team with shared responsibility
• Can balance practical delivery with strategic thinking
• Communicates clearly and kindly
• Understands the importance of boundaries and sustainable working practices
• Is confident working with a range of people and partners
• Can respond thoughtfully to complexity and uncertainty

Important information

Access: We work across sites with limited wheelchair accessibility. We do our best to adapt to all barriers - to discuss access please email ***email_hidden***

Driving: A UK driving licence is necessary to work across our different sites, access to a vehicle is desirable, a company vehicle is also available for project work.

Probation period: there will be a three month probation period with this appointment.

DBS and Safer Recruitment practice: Idle Women is committed to safeguarding women, children, young people to support the creation of a safe culture, particularly for Black, minoritised and migrant women and children survivors of abuse and violence.

As part of our safer recruitment practice proof of identity will be required, as well as a Disclosure and Barring Service check. Applicants must complete, in full, and return a signed application form and provide two references, one of which must be from the applicant’s current and most recent employer, this will be taken up before the final selection stage so that any discrepancies may be discussed during this stage of the procedure.

Women only post: This post is open to women* only (*exempt under the Equality Act 2010 Schedule 9, Part 1)

How to Apply Application Deadline: 20 July Interviews: 3 August

Please complete

This online application form where you will be asked to provide:

• A CV (maximum 2 pages)
• A short application statement (maximum 1,000 words or 2 sides of A4) responding to the three questions below:

1. Tell us about your experience of coordinating projects, programmes, productions, people or organisational activity. What aspects of this experience feel most relevant to this role?
2. This role involves balancing practical administration, project delivery, sweeping up, participant support and relationship-building. How do you approach managing multiple responsibilities while maintaining quality and attention to detail?
3. Idle Women’s work is rooted in care, collaboration and sustainability. What do these values mean to you in practice, and how do you maintain healthy boundaries in your work?

Applications will be assessed against organisational and coordination skills, communication, ability to manage competing priorities, understanding of boundaries and sustainable working practices, and relevant experience or transferable skills.

We welcome applications in alternative formats, including audio and video submissions. (see section 4 of the online form)

If you wish to apply directly by email, contact us at ***email_hidden*** so that we can send you the full questions required for applicants.

Please also consider completing an Equal Opportunities Monitoring form (the information collected is optional and annonymous)

Discussing the Job

If you’d like the option to discuss the job in a call there is availability from 10am-7pm on: 30 June, 7 & 17 July

You can book a 30 minute call here

Alternatively send us an email: ***email_hidden***

https://www.idlewomen.org/jobs.html