Director

Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre and one of the UK’s top five visitor attractions, occupying a 17 acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day.

The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to four Resident Orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and four Associate Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain).

Initiated in 2016, the ACC’s National Partners Programme (NPP) provides support for a network of three museums and galleries to respond to and exhibit works from the Collection.  Playing an important role in developing new partnership models for the sector, the NPP scheme serves to widen the reach of the Collection and to connect the Collection with communities in new ways.   Participating galleries for the first three-year cycle were the Towner Gallery, Eastbourne, The Walker Gallery, Liverpool, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Birmingham Museums and Galleries. Following on from the success of round one, a new cohort of partners, Firstsite, Colchester, Newlyn Art Gallery/The Exchange, Penzance and Culture Sunderland is in place for round two, which will run up to March 2022.

We are seeking a Director of the Arts Council Collection to build on its success in delivering its objectives to develop a diverse collection that reaches the widest possible national audience.  The postholder will lead the team to deliver ambitious goals in terms of collection development, partnership working, outreach and education, digital engagement, and income generation, as well as overseeing the operational work of the collection.

This role will collaborate across teams at Southbank Centre, including HR, Marketing and Communications and Finance, and will explore ways of collaborating with Hayward Gallery Touring.  In addition, the Director will seek ways to leverage ACE core investment with externally funded partnership activity and new streams of earned income.

The successful candidate will have significant experience of managing an art collection at a senior level, including collection development, public engagement and operational management.  They will have experience of implementing a programme of collection-related activity, overseeing the curation and organisation of exhibitions and working with partners. A thorough knowledge of British and international modern and contemporary art is essential, as are excellent people leadership and relationship management skills, including experience of working with government bodies.  Strong financial and project management skills are essential, as is a commitment to diversity with a proven track record in maximising the diversity of a collection.

This is a hugely exciting role requiring an exceptional individual who is able to lead the ACC team; publicly represent the Collection; maintain dialogues with ACE leadership; and deliver ambitious projects as well as continuing to build new regional partnerships.  We are looking for an innovator with new ideas about the Collection can reach more people, whilst also leading on developing new ways to make touring collections more environmentally sustainable. In addition, this role will need to deliver the upcoming project of reconfiguring the Collection’s storage facilities.   In return we can offer a supportive, stimulating work environment with a talented and motivated team, together with a competitive salary and benefits package.

This role will be based at Southbank Centre. The majority of the ACC staff are based at Southbank Centre, and at a store in South London which houses the collection’s 2-D works, and a smaller team is based at Longside at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) to manage a sculpture storage facility and Longside Gallery, which is shared with YSP for a programme of alternating exhibitions.

We present work for everyone and we welcome applications from everyone. We particularly welcome applications from people from a BAME background or those who are Deaf or disabled as they are currently under-represented in our workforce.  If you wish to discuss reasonable adjustments for this role please indicate this on your application form and we will be in touch with you.

By attracting people to work for us from a broad range of backgrounds with diverse attitudes, opinions and beliefs we can continue to look at the world with fresh eyes and find new ways of doing things.  We offer a stimulating and professional environment in which to work – and the pace and scale can be breathtaking. This is a remarkable place to work and our people require the ability to work in The Southbank Centre Way – to think, act and learn with speed and agility.

Contract: Permanent, full time

Closing date for applications: 23:45, Friday 13th March 2020

Interviews: w/c 23rd March 2020

We reserve the right to close the advert early if enough applications are received.