Drawing and outreach lead

Drawing School and Outreach Lead is a creative and multifaceted role within Messums Creative charity. This role will join the Messums Studios West team in Chilmark and will operate across Messums West Galleries, Messums Studios, and occasionally collaborate with Messums East.

The role will drive community engagement work, it will lead, deliver, and carry on developing regular 2D art classes for adults and children at Messums Studios West, focusing on drawing, painting, and print, collaborating with visiting artist tutors. Furthermore, this role will develop and foster community relationships through driving engagement with the gallery's exhibitions, programmes, and events. It will hold the responsibility for composing and delivering creative learning experiences for schools, educational institutions, and community groups. This role will work supported and managed by The Head of Messums Studios, and will work closely with Messums Studios co-ordinators and volunteers. It will be further supported by the wider Messums West and Messums East teams.

In summary, the role of
Drawing School and Outreach Lead
will combine the educational delivery of 2D art with the development of our community outreach programme.

Key responsibilities:

Drawing School

• Ensuring a Positive Experience
  : Foster a safe, welcoming, and enjoyable environment for all students and artists who come to Messums Studios Drawing Classes, ensuring they have a meaningful and enriching experience. Assist with identifying and implementing drawing studio best-practice policy.
• Creative 2D Learning Programme at Messums Studios
  : Supporting the Head of Messums Studios, this role will be delivering and carrying on developing a programme of drawing and painting classes aimed at all ages and abilities, and will liaise with and support visiting artist tutors.
• Messums Studios Drawing School – operations:
  Take responsibility for operational and practical aspects of Messums Drawing classes running at Messums Studios, Messums West Galleries, other venues and plein air. Organising students exhibitions and supporting studio events. Always ensuring a clean and safe working environment.
• Take responsibility for securing necessary annual safety checks. Assist with identifying and implementing drawing studio best practice policy. Always adhering to Messums Creative's safeguarding policy.

• Exhibition Tours and Learning Sessions
  : Assist and/or coordinate guided tours, compose and deliver exhibition-related practical learning sessions for schools and community groups, ensuring visitors gain insightful information about the artists and the artworks on display.

• Feedback Collection
  : Collect and analyse visitor and student feedback to aid  the furtherance of the creative learning provision across all Messums sites.

2. Community Outreach and Relationship Building

• Public Relations
  : Serve as a liaison between Messums West and its various communities, including schools, cultural organisations, local authorities, local artists and other stakeholders.

• Education:
   Research, plan, and implement a programme dedicated to supporting primary school teachers with assets to deliver effective drawing lessons to children in KS1 and KS2. Facilitate secondary school and higher education organisation gallery visits enriched with hands-on creative learning. Establish out of school 2D workshops for young people.

• Partnerships
  : Continue to forge strategic partnerships with other galleries, institutions, artist collectives and businesses to expand the gallery's visibility and audience.

• Artist Relations
  : Act as a point of contact for local artists, facilitate and deliver workshops in collaboration with Messums Studios, organise critique groups and open call events.

3. Programme Development and Management

• Messums Creative Support
  : Collaborate with The Head of Messums Studios to develop the drawing offer of weekly classes, short courses and bespoke sessions at Messums Studios, and to expand the community engagement educational programme at the gallery. Produce regular content for the Creative social pages and provide support for Messums website learning pages. Actively seek funding opportunities for educational activity.

• Marketing Campaigns
  : Assist in promoting exhibitions, events and creative learning courses, where needed, through social media, email newsletters, and other channels to drive visitor traffic.

4. Audience Development

• Engaging New Audiences
  : Focus on building a diverse audience base by reaching out to underrepresented groups or expanding the gallery's presence in new geographical areas.

• Digital Engagement
  : Assist with online initiatives like virtual tours, live streams, or social media campaigns on behalf of Messums Studios and Messums Creative to engage audiences beyond the physical gallery space. Provide content to Messums Online Programming Manager.

Personal specifications:

Essential:

Excellent organisational, communication, and interpersonal skills

Passion for arts and imparting creative knowledge

University degree in visual art related subject

Experience in the delivery of community creative workshops

Visual arts practice which includes community arts 3 years minimum

Use of Microsoft and knowledge of social media platforms

Valid driving licence

Desirable but not essential:

Masters degree in art related subject

Experience of digital graphic design

Experience of film editing

First-aid trained

Training in safeguarding

Teacher training

SEN training

The successful holder of this post will be DBS checked