British Council Nigeria Recruits Arts Manager

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We work in over 100 countries worldwide to build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people.

The British Council in Nigeria is looking for a suitable candidate to fill the below position:

Job Title: Arts Manager
Job Duration: Fixed Term till 31 March 2016

Location: Lagos

Job Purpose
To work with the BC Assistant Director Nigeria and senior team in Nigeria to deliver programmes, audiences and partnerships which contribute to the British Council’s cultural relations programme through the arts and creative industries in the lead up to and during Nigeria 2015.

Context and Environment

1.) The British Council in Nigeria works in three strategic business areas; Arts, English, Education and Society. The post will work directly to Assistant Director Nigeria who is responsible for our work in the Arts. The Arts programme delivers in excess of 25% of our overall programme impact.

2.) As part of a global programme of big seasons of arts activity in the organisation, Nigeria will have a big ‘season’ in 2015 (Nigeria 2015). This season will aim to strengthen artistic exchange and collaboration between Nigeria and the UK in key arts sub sectors.

3.) The post will also work with Assistant Director Nigeria to develop close relations with BC Regional Arts Manager based in South Africa, Arts colleagues based in the British Council HQ in London and with key arts stakeholders in Lagos and more generally in Nigeria to deliver Nigeria 2015.

4.) Arts staff work to develop international opportunities in specific priority areas:

• Building creative partnerships and collaborations
• Showcasing the UK in Nigeria and vice versa
• Developing skills and leadership in the creative sector
• Harnessing the power of arts in achieving international development goals

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties

1.) Provide market intelligence and information, maintain and develop close understanding of and links with the sector in Nigeria

• supporting Assistant Director Nigeria, the post holder will maintain and expand knowledge of the Nigerian arts sector and to develop and sustain relationships with key practitioners and organisations, both established and emerging talent;
• represent our work in arts to external partners and stakeholders;
• Provide advice to UK organisations, artists and professional networks on the international development of their work.

2.) Develop digital channels for the delivery of arts projects in Nigeria

• provide content for BC online platforms on high quality new work and new content in Nigeria;
• develop new digital platforms for expansion of access to BC Nigeria arts work
• Provide content for communications materials  for distribution in Nigeria, the region and UK

3.)  Develop audiences and maintain networks for BC arts activity in Nigeria

• Proactively identify and pursue opportunities for developing new physical and digital audiences for delivery of British Council arts projects in Nigeria
• Develop and deliver marketing communications activity to support delivery of new audiences
• Assess and report on the effectiveness of audience development / marketing activity against objectives, implementing contingencies where necessary and making recommendations needed improvements

4.) Maintain and develop relationships with managers

• oversee progress against project plans;
• provide professional advice to colleagues in UK and Nigeria on artists and the sector;
• provide input and support to regional and UK staff with an arts brief, in consultation with Assistant Director Nigeria.

5.) Manage people and finances

• manage agreed members of programme team to British Council standards
• manage agreed budgets to British Council standards

Key relationships:

• Assistant Director Nigeria, Arts Project Team Nigeria
• Nigerian venues, programmers, producers, artists and performers in all art forms and the wider creative industries.
• Arts colleagues in the SSA region and Headquarters
• Key arts journalists in the arts and creative industries

Other important features or requirements of the job

• Regular attendance at evening and weekend events are a normal part of the job.
• Significant knowledge and experience in the Nigerian (and UK) and wider African arts and creative industries sectors is essential.

Skills and Knowledge

• Specialist and up-to-date knowledge of - and a broad network of contacts in - the Nigerian/African/UK arts and creative sectors.
•  Evidence of an ability to make and articulate clear and insightful artistic judgements on new work.
• An understanding of the educational, developmental and creative industry opportunities of arts activity.
• An understanding of the opportunities for cultural relations through the arts within an international context.
• Good experience of using various ( including email marketing tools, social media platforms, web analytics software, Microsoft Office) to create and grow audiences in an arts context

Qualification/ Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree
• At least three years’ recent professional experience of working in a creative, producing, programming or management capacity in the Arts sector in Nigeria, ideally with international links.

Remuneration
N 6,026,239 gross per annum. This includes allowances.

Application Closing Date
28th December 2012

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should Download and complete the application form.The completed application form should be sent to: [email protected]

Note: Only applications received on the British Council application form will be considered and only short-listed candidates will be contacted. We will not accept CVs.