Engagement and Participation Lead

Salary: £52,545

Closing date: Sunday, 9 June 2024

Contract type: Permanent

Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library exploring health and human experience, where you can enjoy exhibitions, museum and library collections, public events, and a vibrant shop and café. We also publish books and online stories.

This is a great time to join Wellcome Collection as we embark on an exciting period of change. Wellcome Collection has recently introduced a new ten-year strategy and this role will play an important part in bringing to life our vision of a world where everyone's experience of health matters.

Wellcome Collection is part of Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation that supports science to build a healthier future for everyone. Wellcome Trust plans to spend £16bn over the next ten years, funding new discoveries in life, health, and wellbeing, and taking on three global health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate and health.

These challenges need the bold science we support, but they won't be solved by science alone.

We are looking for an Engagement & Participation Lead to join our team on a permanent basis.

Where in Wellcome will I be working?

You'll be joining Wellcome Collection's Live Programme & Participation team, part of the Curatorial & Public Practice department. Engagement & Participation is a new team within Live Programmes & Participation, created to lead and support participatory work with our priority audiences and share best-practice across Wellcome Collection. It includes the team running our existing youth programme.

What will I be doing?

From the start, you'll be line-managing the team of producers running our existing youth programme - a busy, creative programme providing opportunities for young people age 14-19 to engage with health, our collections and social justice in school time and independently.

As we implement our new strategy for a world where everyone's experience of health matters, you'll work with senior colleagues to define the direction of our new commitment to participation in a way that's meaningful, sustainable, and equitable. We're building towards an environment where our priority audiences (including racially minoritised people; D/deaf, disabled and neuro-divergent people), shape what we do - from how we collect, describe and research the items in our care, to the work we create for a wider public in our spaces and beyond.

Your oversight of engagement and participation practice will extend across the organisation, so you'll work with key colleagues to lead and influence work across Wellcome Collection, developing ways to share what we learn to inform our practice.

We are looking for someone who can:

• Provide oversight and joined-up thinking for engagement and participation work across a busy cultural organisation with an active approach to developing and researching its collections.

• Bring expertise of co-production and help to establish relationships and partnerships with audiences who are currently underrepresented in the museum and library sector.

• Develop and lead programming with a core team (including Wellcome Collection's youth programme) managing planning, budgets, content development and delivery and line managing programme producers.

• Support and influence teams to develop their approaches to participation and advocate for participatory practice across Wellcome Collection and Wellcome.

• Embed evaluation, reflection and creative learning practices so we learn from our work and can demonstrate its impact within and outside of the organisation.

• Contribute to a diverse and inclusive culture across the organisation, collaborating across departments.

Is this job for me?

We recognize the need for Wellcome Collection to work in partnership, and in dialogue, with as many people as possible in order for our spaces, collections and programme to meaningfully reflect the interests and needs of society. Building on our work with young people and our ongoing commitment to anti-racism and anti-ableism, we are now seeking an Engagement and Participation Lead to develop a new approach to participatory practice across Wellcome Collection. You might already be leading participatory practice in an arts or cultural organisation like a museum or gallery or be involved in participation and advocacy work in other parts of civil society government or education.

You'll understand the challenges and opportunities of helping large organisations respond authentically to the communities they serve and be able to switch between strategic and operational activities to help make it happen.

We are looking for somebody who:

• Has experience of a range of approaches for engaging audiences within a library, archive or museum context.

• Can work equitably with people able to represent the views of our priority audiences (racially minoritised people; D/deaf, disabled and neuro-divergent people).

• Brings an understanding of the power structures that shape museums, the barriers they create for different audiences, and the strategies to overcome them.

• Has a proven ability to devise and deliver inclusive engagement programmes for a range of audiences, including young people.

To apply please upload your current CV and complete our short application.

Interview dates: Week commencing Monday, 1 July 2024

You can view the full job description on our website.

You can read more about the benefits we offer our employees on our website

Our Hybrid Way of Working 

We understand that our colleagues have commitments and personal interests outside of work and we strive to build a flexible working environment, in which people can perform at their best. We are currently working 2 days per week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) from our Euston Road offices (as part of our hybrid Ways of Working) with the remaining 3 days working either remotely or in the office.

From 1st September 2024 we will move to 3 days in the office (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) with the remaining 2 days working either remotely or in the office.

Diversity and Inclusion is at the heart of everything we do

Diversity and Inclusion is a priority at Wellcome. We are committed to cultivating a fair and inclusive environment, where everyone can be themselves and thrive. We are happy to discuss flexible working options for all roles. We work to ensure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible to everyone. This includes making adjustments for people who have a disability or long-term condition. Please visit our website for more information on adjustments and accessibility, or contact us at .

Exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (subject to a Standard/Enhanced DBS)

This position is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. This means that, upon a conditional offer being made, the successful applicant will be required to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (or equivalent) criminal record check. This will require disclosure of any 'unspent' convictions or conditional cautions and any 'spent' convictions or adult cautions that are not protected (i.e., that are not 'filtered out') as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020).

For further guidance on the disclosure of criminal records please see this UK Government Guidance. You can view our Policy Statement on the Recruitment of Ex-offenders here. You can view our Privacy Statement here.

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