Producer — Arts, Refugees and Mental Health programme

Role Title: Producer, Arts & Mental Health

Salary: £37,000 FTE per year (pro-rata to 3 days per week)

Location: Hoxton, London UK

Deadline for applications: Sunday 24th November 2024

Shortlisting / Interviews: week commencing 25th November 2024

Start Date: December 2024

We are seeking a talented and highly organized individual with knowledge and experience of working with people with mental health issues or trauma and a knack for building collaborative relationships and partnerships to deliver creative projects and events, particularly in the arts and refugee sector.

Counterpoints Arts is a leading national organization in the field of arts, migration and cultural change. We are a small but dedicated and passionate team based in Hoxton, London and work nationally and internationally with a range of artists, creatives and institutional partners including The Southbank Centre, V&A, BFI and Tate.

Our Arts, Refugees and Mental Health programme is a relatively new strand of work that has been running now for one year, for which we have received funding from the Baring Foundation. It focuses on the intersection between arts, displacement, and mental health. As part of this strand, we are building on the learning and work of the creative organizations already operating in this field by developing stronger networks, learning opportunities and creative programmes that would connect with mainstream audiences. This work is currently focused on building new partnerships and links with other arts, culture and creative health organizations and networks as well as organising relevant events in this space. Some of this planning is already in place for 2025.

This new programme follows the launch in June 2023 of our recent report Creatively Minded and Refugees – arts, refugees and mental health, commissioned by the Baring Foundation as part of their ‘Creatively Minded’ series of reports, that examines the role of art in promoting mental health and wellbeing among refugees. The report draws on a range of organizations and projects that have utilized art as a means of generating therapeutic benefits to people from refugee backgrounds, including theatre, painting, sculpture, writing and other creative activities all across the UK and in some international contexts.

Counterpoints Arts aims to attract and retain talented people from all backgrounds to its team. We particularly welcome applications from those who have been historically excluded from the cultural sector, including people with lived experience of displacement, people of colour and other ethnic global majoraties, people who identify as LGBTQ+, disabled people and people from a working class background.

About the Role

Working collaboratively with the Counterpoints Arts’ team and advisors, the Producer will be responsible for project managing our new Arts, Refugees and Mental Health programme.

You will be the first point of contact for Arts, Refugees and Mental health programme and responsible for forging a range of conversations at the intersection of arts, refugee and mental health with a view to continuing to grow our partnerships / collaborations and identifying and leading on strategic opportunities to develop networks, creative programming, and funding opportunities for this network.

You will be proactive, highly organized, digitally literate, and have demonstrable skills in project management and budgeting. You’ll also have strong event planning and producing skills, and be able to prioritize a varied workload whilst working well under pressure to meet deadlines.

Essential to the role is experience or knowledge of working with / supporting people with mental health issues as well as experience or knowledge of refugee and displacement issues, with a commitment to the sensitivities and ethics around mental health and lived experience.

This is a new role and strand of work that we expect to evolve as a result of the interactions and connections arising from the work. As such, the role requires a level of flexibility throughout and an awareness of how it can be shaped over the next year, including opportunities to contribute and apply learning from this role to other areas of our work (for example projects around climate justice, PopChange, Refugee Week and other initiatives).

Details

• £37K per year, pro-rata to 3 days per week
• Good employee benefits, including flexible working, access to an EAP programme, individual wellbeing budget, 28 days leave including bank holidays (pro-rata) and a dedicated training budget
• November 2024 - November 2025 (one year), extension dependent on funding
• Must be based in London and willing to work from our Hoxton office at least two days per week
• Must have a current legal right to work in the UK

Responsibilities

The overall purpose of this role is to act as lead producer on our Arts, Refugees and Mental Health programme (under the guidance of the Director and Senior Producer), helping shape its strategy, longer term developments and funding opportunities. This includes:

• Build a new network of arts, refugees and mental health practitioners and organizations from across the UK;
• Identify and build partnerships with creative health organizations and networks in London and across the UK as a way of sharing learning and embedding the work within the wider mental health sector;
• Identify opportunities to commission or develop new collaborative projects across the arts, refugees and mental health sectors;
• Work closely with artists to ensure they feel supported when involved in commissions or the delivery of projects;
• Produce events revolving around the report findings within our recent report:
• Creatively Minded and Refugees – arts, refugees and mental health in locations across the country with high numbers of asylum seekers;
• Help embed mental health stories and approaches into other CA other public-facing programmes, including our Popchange initiative, Refugee Week festival and Platforma Festival;
• Work closely with the Senior Producer on Platforma 2025 to embed a thematic focus on mental health;
• Organise and attend adhoc events that help amplify the reach of this strand of work;
• Develop a new resource for the Refugee Week sector;
• Project manage all aspects of the programme, including outreach, network development, budget management, reporting to relevant funders, etc;
• Work closely with our Digital Producer to manage the communications strategy for the new programme;
• Be a collaborative member of the Counterpoints team, contributing to team meetings and strategies, including identifying opportunities for joined-up initiatives and opportunities to develop a shared language around mental health.
• Represent Counterpoints as a leader in the context of narrative change around migration and displacement.
• Be flexible in your approach to the role, by allowing space for the project to grow and in terms of responding to the wider needs of the organization, as required.

Required Experience

• Knowledge and understanding of mental health issues/awareness, especially as it relates to migration and displacement.
• At least two years’ experience producing events or commissions within the mental health, cultural or creative sectors.
• Experience and/or knowledge of working with people with mental health issues or trauma, refugee and displacement issues, with a commitment to the sensitivities and ethics around storytelling, mental health and lived experience.
• Evidence of working with, nurturing, and developing partnerships and collaborative projects to maximize reach and outcomes.
• Demonstrated project management skills with the ability to efficiently adapt to strategic directions and shifting priorities.
• Strong communication and written skills, with ability to produce and/or commission appropriate digital and communications content to market and promote the programme.
• A motivated self-starter who can work under their own initiative but committed to the wider values and collaborative spirit of the team.
• Digital proficiency and willingness to use collaborative team tools such as Slack, Google Drive, Calendars, etc.

Desirable Experience

• Lived experience of displacement and mental health issues
• Interest in / passion for arts and migration
• Experience in measuring and evaluating the impact of projects

How To Apply

Please note that applicants must have a current legal right to work in the UK (this job does not qualify for the UK Skilled Worker Visa).

Please send the following documents to annie@counterpoints.org.uk by email with ‘Producer, Arts & Mental Health’ as the subject, by Sunday 24th November 2024:

• An up-to-date, comprehensive CV
• Covering letter (max one page) outlining how you meet the role and person specification criteria
• A completed Equality Diversity Form. Please download, complete and attach to your application from: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ISpUfC_2FZer1yE3eWbwMN_N75amkSGx/edit

We encourage applicants to apply even if you don’t feel like you meet every criteria, and please contact on daniela@counterpoints.org.uk if you have any questions or would like to arrange an informal chat about the role.

We will review all applications w/c 25th November and hold interviews shortly after and we aim to recruit for this position by the start of December.