Manchester Jewish Museum

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Current Vacancies

Creative Producer (Schools & Families)

Salary: £23,000 – £25,000 (pro rata)
Contract Type: Permanent
Hours: 21 hours per week (0.6 FTE)*

*This is an in-person role. We would be open to discussing how these hours may work across the week. This role does require occasional weekend and evening work.

Accountable to: Programmes Manager
Accountable for: Volunteers (supporting schools programme)
Deadline for applications: 8th March 2024, 10am
Interviews: Tuesday 19th March 2024

The fundamental aim of the role is to take the lead in the production of original and innovative work for schools and families that reflects the museum’s vision, values and programming themes; and for embedding the scratch process and co-creation across the organisation.

Working as part of the programming team you will support the development and delivery of our core strategic aims: Becoming a more diverse and inclusive organisation; Creating bold, ambitious, and innovative work; Establishing ourselves as a place for research and creative learning; Supporting and growing our museum community; Reducing our environmental impact; Building a resilient business model.

This post is advertised as an in-person, part-time position (a total of 21 hours), with occasional weekend and evening work. We would be open to discussing how these hours work across the week. Please get in contact with Gemma (Programmes Manager) at gemma@manchesterjewishmuseum.com if you’d like to discuss any aspects of the role.

What we need you to do

As a small team, we all lead on certain areas and support on others – planning and budgeting, press & PR, audience research, evaluation, social media, database management, etc. This role will lead on all areas of school and family programming, with the following responsibilities:

Audience development and engagement

To contribute to the transformation of the museum’s audiences, brand and profile, focussing on community, creativity and diversity, with storytelling at its heart, so that it is relevant to existing, new and diverse audiences locally and regionally through:

  • Leading on the development and delivery of programming for schools and families, scratching new ways of working whereby audiences and educators help to inform programming decisions.
  • Leading on data collection and analysis to capture impact of programming on schools and families.
  • Supporting the museum’s marketing & communications strategy, sharing content with the Marketing Team to support the development and delivery of programming for school and family audiences.
  • Delivering externally funded projects for schools to ensure that objectives and targets are met. This includes leading on the exciting development of a new school session focused on Holocaust stories from our collection for students. It is also an exciting time to support the shaping of the museum’s new NPO project from 2024 – 2027.

Programming ambitions

To be a vital part of the development of the innovative scratch programme, so that all programming explores stories of journeys, communities and identities, past and present; and collaborative, creative working processes are embedded across the organisation, through:

  • Working with Programmes Manager to devise, manage and deliver a high quality, innovative and risk-taking programme for schools and families.
  • Design and deliver family workshops in school holidays that connect visitors with collection stories through food and craft activities. Help devise self-led activities for families to explore the collection and museum displays across the week.
  • Lead on the delivery and design of our school workshop offer for all ages, allowing students to explore the stories and spaces of the museum through engaging, imaginative and bold programming.
  • Develop a new Holocaust school session that draws on the museum’s values and aims, based on stories from Manchester Jewish Museum collections.
  • Continue to build upon and grow our teacher advisory group for local educators to co-create workshops for students, design CPD opportunities for teachers and to support the work of the Programming team.
  • Build and maintain relationships with learning institutions, sharing best practice, and exploring opportunities for partnership working.
  • Working with CEO and Programmes Manager to embed collaborative, creative working processes (such as Scratch) across the organisation. This will include the use of co-creation with audiences in the design of workshops for schools and families.
  • Working with staff and volunteers across the organisation to ensure programming for all audiences embodies the quality principles of originality, excellence, and risk.
  • Attend cultural events and participatory activities at other venues and institutions, and in doing so maintain knowledge of ground-breaking programming for schools and families.

Resilience and entrepreneurship

To support the strengthening of the museum’s future financial stability through:

  • Capturing and interpreting evaluation data and record KPIs for schools and families in line with the museum’s evaluation framework.
  • Managing delegated school and family budgets and ensure all work is completed within agreed time and financial constraints.
  • To deliver administrative tasks relating to school and family programming, including streamlining booking processes and answering enquiries.
  • Work with the museum’s Finance Manager to support school invoicing.

Organisational Change & Governance

To support the creation of a flexible and empowered organisation so that the contribution of staff and volunteers is maximised through:

  • Championing the vision for the creative scratch approach so that all staff, volunteers and trustees are engaged.
  • Working effectively within a small team, attending staff meetings, contributing ideas, offering colleagues support and helping with the general upkeep of the museum site.
  • Acting as Duty Manager, including key holder responsibilities, welcoming visitors, managing till floats and supporting the general running of the museum.
  • Supporting the strengthening of the Trust and Trustees, so that the Trust meets its Charitable Objects.
  • To promote equal opportunities so that there is equality of access in the workplace and in delivering services.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Experience

  • Demonstrable experience of first-hand facilitation of creative activities for a diverse range of participants and ages, with a focus on schools.
  • Proven experience of leading on the delivery and support of a school’s programme in an arts, heritage, or cultural setting.
  • Experience of administration processes, such as booking schools, groups or workshops and replying to general enquiries.
  • Significant experience of working with culturally diverse communities.
  • Experience of collecting and interpreting evaluation data.

Skills

  • Strong organisational skills with proven experience of working to time constraints in a high-pressure, rapidly changing environment.
  • Warm, open and confident with strong communication skills and a demonstrable ability to work successfully with a wide range of people – staff, volunteers, artists, funders, partner organisations, audiences etc.
  • An enthusiastic, energetic and pro-active team player.
  • A commitment to ‘get stuck in’ and make things happen in a small museum with very big ambitions.
  • A proven self-starter with the drive and determination to take advantage of the opportunities for development that come with this exciting role.
  • Computer literate with significant experience in the use of common PC software such as Outlook, Word and Excel.

Knowledge

  • Passionate about arts and culture, committed to the values of the museum and driven by a desire to reach new audiences.
  • Strong understanding of collaborative creative working processes, particularly iterative processes such as Scratch.
  • Committed to engaging young people in heritage, arts and culture and passionate about providing them space to create and shape future programming.
  • Ability to work some evenings and weekends.
  • Strongly committed to diversity, access and inclusion.
  • A strong understanding of current trends in informal education in museums
  • Experience of working with volunteers.
  • Experience of CRM / ticketing systems

DIVERSITY

Manchester Jewish Museum prides itself on being a welcoming and inclusive organisation, actively celebrating diversity and promoting acceptance and inclusivity. We value the benefits that diverse perspectives bring to our work. We recognise we currently under-represent Black people, People of Colour, disabled people and those with intersecting identities in our workforce. We are actively working to address this and encourage applications from these backgrounds. While the successful candidate will be selected purely on merit, in the event of a tie between two candidates with equal experience, we may select a candidate who helps us better represent the communities the museum serves.

APPLYING

Please apply for the above role by 8th March 2024, 10am by submitting:

  • an up-to-date CV
  • a completed Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form
  • and a Covering Letter (or a three-minute video) outlining how your skills and experiences meet the needs of the role as outlined in this document

to Gemma Meek, Programmes Manager: gemma@manchesterjewishmuseum.com. If you have any questions about the above role, please contact Gemma on the above email address or telephone 0161 834 9879. Interviews will take place in person, in Manchester, on Tuesday 19th March 2024.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL ROLE DESCRIPTION

Volunteer With Us

Whether you’re interested in learning new skills, giving something back or just making new friends and being part of a team, why not get in touch? We’re always looking for new volunteers, so if you have energy and love working with the public then please get in touch! Students welcome.

Read about volunteering at MJM here