Programme Coordinator

Warwick Arts Centre has an exciting opportunity for a Programme Coordinator. We are on a mission to create a dynamic, relevant, and artistically ambitious and sustainable arts centre and we need more great people to help us achieve our plans.

We are committed to creating an environment where everyone feels they belong, a place of fairness and equity and to be an organisation that reflects the diversity of its city.

If this sounds like somewhere you would like to work, we would like to hear from you.

The Programme Coordinator will work alongside our Live Programming team, assisting them with the administration and management of the live events programme, the systems that support this, and contractual arrangements.

This is an exciting opportunity for a candidate with exceptional administrative, organisational and systems management skills with a passion for the arts. If you have some experience of organising events (this might have been as part of a festival or events venue or department or your own independent events) then please do consider applying.

We are looking for someone who works well independently and as part of a team, who can keep themselves motivated and is interested in developing relationships with artists and creatives, audiences, and participants.

You will have a strong attention to detail, and not be afraid to take ownership of an important area of work whilst working collaboratively with colleagues across the Arts Centre.

Warwick Arts Centre is the largest multi art form arts centre outside London. We are one of the region’s leading learning, visual arts, cinema and performing arts venues. We work with exceptional artists and creatives from the city, region and globally delivering a programme that reflects our local and global context. As an arts centre on a university campus our ambition is to develop programmes which speak to and reach our audiences on campus, in the city of Coventry and the wider region. Our city is one of the most ethnically diverse and youngest in Europe our goal is to reflect this through our work and the people we employ.

Duties and Responsibilities

Programme Administration

• To assist with pre-contract negotiations and manage the drafting, sending and chasing of performance and hire contracts and deal memos (Booking Forms.)
• To liaise with and respond to enquiries from agents, promoters and artists as instructed by the Programme Manager and Creative Director.
• To provide calendar availability support to our Creative Director and Programme Manager, dealing with visiting company directly where directed.
• To deal with and encourage repeat bookings for artistic hires.
• To develop and maintain internal and external contacts for the department.
• To co-ordinate meetings, organise show tickets and make travel/accommodation/dinner arrangements for the Creative Director and Programme Manager..
• To administer and co-ordinate VIP events and pre/post show talks for WAC including preparation of guest lists, invitations, tickets and hospitality.
• To take minutes for internal meetings and share with relevant parties.
• To ensure invoices are submitted and processed appropriately being a key point of contact for WAC’s finance team.

Programme co-ordination

• To coordinate all ‘on sale’ arrangements for the live programme, ensuring events are put on sale in a timely manner, liaising between external companies and internal colleagues within marketing, box office, website and communications.
• To support the live programme team with advancing events as requested. Duties may include: arranging rehearsals, accommodation, per diems, supporting with visa arrangements and work permits/certificates of sponsorship, transport, coordinating schedules, arranging hospitality, requesting and filing technical and backstage riders, making arrangements for accessible performances such as booking BSL interpreters.
• To supervise day to day maintenance and administration for Artifax (our venue management software), liaising with colleagues to ensure efficient and effective internal processes across all teams.
• To be a chief point of liaison with WAC’s off-site Artifax team, keeping abreast of software updates and distributing knowledge accordingly across internal teams. The postholder will also seek ways to innovate internal processes via Artifax and other software platforms such as our CMS (website management) and Spektrix (box office management), working closely with relevant colleagues and working with the Operations Director to ensure all development supports the wider IT delivery plans.
• To administer and co-ordinate VIP events and pre/post show talks for WAC including preparation of guest lists, invitations, tickets and hospitality.
• To lead on gathering and uploading content for our foyer digital screen.

Additional Responsibilities

• To be an ambassador for WAC, our vision and mission “We’re here to share our love of the arts”, and to provide excellent customer experience to all staff and external companies.
• To demonstrate an enthusiasm for cultural events and contribute to creative discussions on an ad hoc basis.
• To represent the live programming team on internal committees such as our Equality/Diversity/Inclusion, Gen Z or Green Champions working groups, reporting back on findings and contributing ideas for integrating these principles into the live programme model.
• Monitoring data regarding visiting companies to support funding reports, as requested by the Creative Director.
• To represent the live programming team at external events where directed.
• To understand, adhere to and promote University of Warwick and Warwick Arts Centre policies and procedures.
• Supervision/training of new starters or casual workers, where required

Person Specification

Essential

• Educated to a minimum of GCSE or equivalent, grade A-C in English and Maths
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to maintain good contacts and relationships inside and outside of an organization.
• Experience of dealing with people from a broad range of backgrounds.
• Experience in diary management and coordinating meeting/travel/subsistence arrangements
• A demonstrable interest and enthusiasm for the arts
• Ability to work without supervision and to use own initiative.
• Time management skills and ability to work to tight deadlines.
• Excellent organisational skills: ability to prioritise workload whilst dealing with conflicting demands.
• Budget management skills (non-professional examples can apply here)
• Excellent IT skills including the ability to adapt new software programmes

Desirable

• Previous experience of project or event management or other arts administration (non-professional examples can apply here).
• Previous experience using event database software programmes, eg Artifax

What we Offer

We will provide you with a great range of benefits, which include an attractive pension scheme, 26 days holiday plus customary & statutory day allowance. Potential overtime and BECTU get out payments. Excellent learning and development opportunities, and savings on a wide range of products and services. We offer a generous maternity/paternity/adoption/parental leave policy, and onsite childcare facilities.

We are proud to say that we are a Living Wage employer.

Our Commitment to Inclusion

Warwick is committed to building an organisation of mutual respect and dignity, promoting a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive working and learning environment. We recognise that everyone is different in a variety of visible and non-visible ways, and that those differences are to be recognised, respected, and valued. Where possible, we go beyond legislation to provide a place where everyone can thrive, supporting all staff to achieve their full potential. We aspire to remove economic, social, and cultural barriers that may otherwise prevent people from succeeding.

As part of our commitment to increasing the diversity of staff within the Arts Centre, we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from groups that are currently underrepresented, including people from the Global Majority*.

We therefore welcome and encourage applications from all communities regardless of culture, background, age, disability, sex/gender, gender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion/belief, or sexual or romantic orientation. To find out more about our social inclusion work at Warwick visit our webpages here.

The University currently holds a Race Equality Charter Bronze Award, Athena Swan Sliver Award and a Disability Smart Bronze Award. The University of Warwick is also one of the six founder institutions of the EUTOPIA European University Alliance.

*Global Majority is a collective term that refers to people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or, have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities.'