Art Gene is recruiting a new Programme Associate to join our talented team Demonstrating creativity alongside proven curatorial, critical writing and project management skills, the post-holder will play a central role in supporting Art Gene’s core contemporary visual arts programme, ensuring high quality delivery. It's an exciting time for Art Gene: we have a range of exhibitions planned for 2026/27, including our 25th anniversary programme in 2027/28.

Job description

Art Gene - Programme Associate (p/t or f/t)

Salary: £32,500pa fte

Terms: Fixed-term contract until 31 March 2028, with the possibility of extension (subject to funding). We will consider offering a full-time or part-time role to the right candidate(s).

Benefits:

3% employer pension contribution; 28 days’ statutory annual leave plus bank holidays (pro rata; holidays will need to be agreed in advance and should not clash with periods of intense project activity).

There is potential for some hybrid office/home working. Regular office and gallery-based work required, based at Art Gene, Bath Street, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, LA14 5TY. A company e-bike is available for shared staff and artist-in-residence use.

Art Gene is an arts charity and Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation.

This senior role is central to Art Gene’s approach to programming new visionary arts projects that engage people in their social, natural and built environment.

It is advertised at an exciting time as we plan for our 25th anniversary programme.

The post-holder will work on Art Gene’s REAL Barrow programme, examining the collisions of art, industry and nature, and engaging artists and communities in the uniqueness of this place in south Cumbria. 

The successful candidate will manage a portfolio of art and engagement projects – studio- gallery-, and landscape-based – all with a focus on artists working alongside the communities of

Barrow and Furness in an engaged way. They will be tasked with ensuring a legacy for the work we have supported and delivered.

Art Gene is based in the Nan Tait Centre, the historic old technical college in Barrow’s town centre, and now home to the Art Gene gallery, the Mezzanine gallery, artist studios, office and fabrication spaces.

We have also created and continue to develop an outside project space, Allotment Soup: the Isle of Walney community growing space, managed for organic food growing and biodiversity.

A third site of operation, an environmental centre on Walney Island, is in development subject to a funding decision.

We plan to develop projects, exhibitions, and events across all of our sites with freelance artists and other historic or natural environment specialists.

Always socially grounded in the issues that matter, our work is wide-ranging and has a national and international outlook.

In the past year, we have delivered Deluge (on saltmarsh, with Scottish and Dutch partners), See Me North (on homelessness, with the University of Northumbria), and Sea Like a Mirror (with Cement Fields, marking the 200th anniversary of the RNLI).

Current projects include Remember Nature, delivered with Tate Modern and the Serpentine, and MAS(S), focused on the refugee experience.

To support this work, we need a Programme Associate who is an organised, confident, self-starter who brings significant experience of:

• designing, planning and managing arts projects and engagement activity;

• supporting artists and mounting high quality exhibitions;

• in the context of artist promotion, legacy and funder accountability, writing up and showcasing artists’ work online and in print, including in occasional dedicated catalogues.

Demonstrating creativity alongside proven curatorial, critical writing and project management skills, the post-holder will play a central role in supporting Art Gene’s core programme, ensuring high quality programme delivery.

Recording projects in partnership with a range of organisations from arts companies to environmental charities will be critical.

The Programme Associate role will be supported by a team including our core administrative and support staff and will be led by Art Gene’s Artist Director, Maddi Nicholson. The Programme Associate will line manage our Project Manager, who works full-time.

Others in the team include the Workshop Manager (f/t), Futures Business Development Associate (f/t), the Finance Manager (p/t) and a wider creative network, including freelance artists, designers, architects, ecologists, historians and other specialists.

The role will be further supported by our trustees, volunteers and supporters who have extensive knowledge of the area - the urban landscape, local heritage and the communities who live across Furness.

Art Gene supports flexible working, and some home working when business needs allow. The role is office based at least two days a week (if full time) and during artist residencies or exhibition periods.

Project development and delivery, including events and working with the community, may need to happen outside our 10am-6pm working day, including occasional weekends.

We are an open and inclusive organisation.

Our small staff team and Board of Trustees is broadly representative of the population of Barrow.

We welcome applications from candidates who are under- represented in UK visual arts, especially disabled people, LGBTQ+ people and people from global majority communities.

The role is supported by Arts Council England and Westmorland & Furness Council.

For more information about Art Gene visit our website: http://www.art-gene.co.uk

Role description

Programme management

➢ Work in collaboration with Art Gene’s Artist Director to deliver the scheduled programme on time and to budget, and to plan for the future - within the Art Gene building, on the Allotment Soup site, or out and about around Barrow and the coast.

➢ Recruit, contract and manage freelance artists and delivery staff as required to deliver the scheduled programme safely and to a high standard.

➢ Assist with outputs that might be as varied as art exhibitions in the landscape or gallery, schools’ workshops, art, environment and history community conferences, artists’ online events, “Extreme Views” or “REAL Barrow” curated walks along the coast, artists’ commissions, or community work, for example, with recently arrived refugee communities.

➢ Ensure all public facing events are properly and safely staffed, occasionally by yourself but most often coordinating others.

➢ Manage materials and production budgets in collaboration with the Artist Director and wider team.

➢ Manage artists’ accessibility riders, as required.

➢ Line manage and contribute to the development and training of the Project Manager to ensure effective administration of the programme and its promotion across our communication and social media channels.

➢ Oversee the design and copy (with the Artist Director) of promotional materials such as flyers and our regular Newsletter (currently using i-Contact); produce written copy, for example, for local press releases.

➢ Work with freelance journalists and marketing specialists to achieve national and regional coverage for Art Gene’s work when appropriate.

➢ Attend all planning and delivery meetings as required. Act as a representative for Art Gene and our work externally.

➢ Produce and maintain project reports, to support the evaluation work of the Business Futures Development Associate. Ensure all activity is evaluated and data is collected in line with Art Gene processes.

Exhibitions

➢ Work collaboratively with the Artist Director to manage all aspects of delivering up to three group exhibitions per year, in the Art Gene main gallery, Mezzanine gallery or at Allotment Soup. This will include the 25 x 25 exhibition in February 2027 marking Art Gene’s 25th anniversary.

➢ Conduct research and develop networks to inform current and potential future exhibitions.

➢ Lead on writing clear, high quality exhibition copy, catalogues for exhibitions (where applicable), interpretation, film subtitles, labels or navigation aids, as required; potentially producing audio guides.

Curatorial writing and legacy work

➢ Lead on the writing and production of digital/physical publications linked to Art Gene’s exhibitions or advocacy.

➢ Proactively manage the artist, project and exhibition pages of the Art Gene website, writing copy on each project as it develops, and on completion.

➢ Retrospectively write up and/or edit any Art Gene projects delivered since 2020 to ensure they are properly represented on the website ahead of our 25th anniversary.

Additional

➢ Work as part of the team to develop future programme strands, Art Gene’s online shop and to support future funding applications.

➢ Contribute to keeping the Art Gene Board briefed on programme news.

➢ Play a role in implementing Art Gene’s commitment to the environment and mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss.

➢ Undertake any other tasks as required to support the development, delivery, and evaluation of the Art Gene programme.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Education in the arts to degree level and/or significant demonstrable experience of management and delivery in the arts/a creative workplace. 

Skills, Abilities, Behaviours

• A self-starter with the ability to initiate, plan, and implement their own workload.

• A friendly, down-to-earth individual with a can-do attitude, a sense of humour, and strong communication skills.

• Able to work in a hands-on manner, flexibly and responsively, to meet the demands of the role and the occasional challenges offered by working in a small organisation - a practical, adaptable approach will be essential.

• Enthusiastic about Art Gene’s practice, and equally comfortable working in an office, or studio/gallery space, as outdoors in the landscape.

• An ability to adapt one’s communication style to different audiences: communities, local government, artists, funding partners and other stakeholders.

• Able to represent Art Gene and funding partners in a professional manner.

• Committed to a reduce, reuse, recycle policy in exhibition design and every-day operations.

Demonstrable experience of:

• Making a positive contribution to a visual arts or design organisation.

• Playing a leading role in project and exhibition planning and implementation.

• Initiating, managing and leading a range of concurrent projects.

• Managing staff and/or freelancers, enabling them to deliver their best work.

• Managing budgets and risk.

• Planning and writing appealing content.

• Research and information-gathering to ensure exhibitions and programming are well informed and up-to-date.

• Collecting and managing data and contributing to evaluative reports.

• Working successfully in both community and professional contexts, ideally with some experience of working with volunteers or community groups.

Knowledge

• Project planning and art-appropriate project management tools.

• Engagement methodologies and understanding of current thinking around ‘engaged practice’.

• Understanding of accessibility issues and knowledge of how to make printed and digital content available to as wide a range of people as possible.

• Social media, email marketing and promotional tools and techniques.

• Publishing with Wordpress, or ability to learn.

• IT systems (Apple Mac, Office and Google are used at Art Gene) including preparing presentations and using spreadsheets.

• Data handling and GDPR compliance, including handling sensitive data.

• Understanding of Arts Council England reporting.

Further

• DBS Checked, Enhanced disclosure (can be applied for after the role is offered).

• Able to work occasional evenings and weekends as required by the demands of programme.

How to Apply

Supply a full C.V. and a letter of application stating how your experience and knowledge, and your skills, abilities and behaviours will bring added value to Art Gene’s team and the Programme Associate role as specified in this job description.

Please state whether you propose to work full-time or part-time and state your preferred working pattern.

Deadline for application: 10am Monday, 13 October 2025.

Shortlisted applicants will be invited for interview in person or on Zoom within two weeks of the deadline.

Interviews are likely to take place in office hours on 23 and 24 October, please hold some time. Do inform us of any access requirements when arranging an interview.

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