Developing Leader

Operasonic, Newport 3 days per week PAYE Fixed term 12-month contract (potentially to be extended with further funding) Salary £26,000 per year pro rata (which means that under current tax rates, the salary will be £1300 per month before tax) **A welcome from our Executive Producer**: My name is Beth House (she/her, sign name: hoop earrings), and I am the Executive Producer at Operasonic. At the moment, this role is 2.5 days per week and there are no other permanent staff members, so as you can see, we’re a micro team Operasonic is a music charity based in Newport, South Wales. We develop projects and events for people of all ages, creating opportunities for everyone to get experience or make music in some way. Our exciting recent and ongoing projects include: - launching a choir for homeless people in Newport - a regular choir for our local Roma families - 9 free fun sessions around Newport over the summer for tiny children and their families to enjoy music, singing and stories - 4 Sonic Sessions for teens exploring beatboxing, DJing, music production and djembe drumming - a project exploring how we might adapt our lullaby process for families with a Deaf baby - and lots more. We also recently took 3 young musicians to a conference in Paris to support their networking and career development opportunities; nurturing the next generation of musicians and arts leaders is really important to us. We’re a small company with the ambition to make a lot of good things happen **The job**: We are excited to announce that, thanks to a recent grant from Comic Relief, we’re now looking for a Developing Leader to join our small team 3 days per week. This Comic Relief funding is allowing us at Operasonic the time to explore how a small organisation might challenge existing models of leadership, progression and succession in the arts. The person we are looking for will have an arts admin background of some sort, preferably with some experience in music. They will potentially have some producing experience in their field. They will be an aspiring leader, interested in progressing in the future to take on a leadership role. We are looking to support someone in this role who feels they have had an alternative route into arts administration or management. Perhaps they perceive that their experience or background is not reflected currently in the arts leadership landscape in Wales. **What you would be doing**: If you were to join the team as Developing Leader, you would spend some of your 3 days per week (we envisage 2 days at the moment; but this may take some tweaking as we go) in supporting our projects. This would include: - Liaising with, booking and supporting freelance artists - Liaising with venues and other hosts like schools - Arranging equipment - Attending and supporting creative sessions (e.g. choirs, workshops etc) - Creative input into project design and development - Supporting fundraising efforts, for example by collecting participant feedback or providing "on the ground" insight into projects - Meeting project partners and potential future collaborators (with the Exec Producer) - Contracting, scheduling etc (with support if required) - Supporting social media, website and mailing list output (e.g. potentially planning and writing tweets and posts, potentially planning a quarterly newsletter etc) The remaining 1 day per week would be spent working alongside Beth and developing your own leadership skills. This aspect of the role will look very different depending on who we recruit and what their experience is, but safe to say it will be an experience tailored to fit the person we take on. It could include shadowing Beth and/or another creative leader or mentor, attending relevant training sessions or networks and so on. This day per week will be set aside to develop you. **Our promise**: At Operasonic we promise to: - Provide a safe and equipped office space for you to work in - Be clear about what we expect - Approach everything with openness, kindness and positivity - Identify and provide relevant and required training and support - Continue to support your development **Who are you?** - You will have a passion for the arts and culture - You will probably have some experience in arts administration, producing or similar relevant experience - You will have at least an interest in music and may have some musical background - You will be someone who wants to learn and develop into the role with a positive outlook in this respect - You will have good IT skills such as experience of Word, Excel and social media (twitter, Instagram and Facebook). We use Google Workspace and Airtable so if you have any experience using these platforms, that would be positive too. - You will be a good communicator (whether you use spoken language or BSL) - You may have some Welsh - You will be willing to work alongside other people (such as freelance artists, audiences and participants) - You will also be wil