Community Manager

The Old Vic; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 32,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

The Old Vic in London is seeking a Community Manager to lead Education & Community projects such as Theatre Club, Community Choir, and OV Community Network. You will shape future community activity with the Education and Community Director and manage freelance artists to deliver high-quality participatory work.

Hybrid role: home working with a minimum of three office days at The Old Vic, plus involvement in our intergenerational 12 Choirs project and Backstage Building opportunities.

Qualifications

• Significant experience delivering community theatre projects.
• Experience designing and delivering large-scale community theatre initiatives.
• Excellent organisational and project management skills.
• Experience working with diverse groups.
• Proven line management experience.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Budget management experience up to £50K–£100K.
• Attention to detail and knowledge of best practices in community arts.
• Experience with evaluation design, analysis and reporting.
• Experience in theatre or arts organisations.

Responsibilities

• Project manage and oversee Old Vic community projects (Theatre Club, Community Choir, OV Community Network).
• Collaborate on the intergenerational 12 Choirs project and future community strategy.
• Manage freelance artists and facilitators; coordinate with Education team.
• Support workshop content creation and marketing materials in line with branding.
• Contribute to annual reporting and data provision for supporters.
• Build and maintain relationships with participants, partners and stakeholders.
• Engage with local community organisations and develop referral routes.
• Represent The Old Vic at events and in staff meetings.

Skills

Community theatre

Project management

Stakeholder management

Line management

Budgeting

Job description

Department/Team: Education and Community

Responsible to: Education and Community Director

Contract: Permanent

Location: Mix of home working and from The Old Vic, 103 The Cut, London, SE1 8NB (min 3 office days to include Monday and Tuesday)

Hours: Full-Time, usual working hours are Monday–Friday, 9.30am–5.30pm with some out of hours work (e.g. evenings and weekends)

Salary: £32,000 - £35,000 depending on experience

Your Team

The Education & Community department is led by the Education & Community Director and also includes the Head of Education and Community, three Education Managers, the Participation Manager, the Participation Coordinator, the Education & Community Coordinator and the Education and Community intern. This team is supported by a network of Education Associates and freelance artists.

Areas of responsibility

As Community Manager, you will project manage, develop and oversee The Old Vic’s community projects including Theatre Club, Community Choir, OV Community Network and collaborate on the delivery of our intergenerational project 12 Choirs. You will also work alongside the Education and Community Director to develop future strategic community engagement activity, taking advantage of the opportunities presented in our new Backstage Building. You will work closely with the Education and Community Coordinator on the delivery of the projects.

These projects will serve particular strategic objectives as defined in The Old Vic Business Plan. You will also contribute to organisation-wide initiatives from an Education and Community perspective.

Programme Content

• To project manage, develop and oversee key Old Vic Community projects including Theatre Club, Community Choir, ensuring that they meet objectives, reviewing this regularly and ensuring projects are kept to budget and evaluated thoroughly
• To collaborate with the Education Manager on the development and delivery of 12 Choirs, taking responsibility for community groups engagement
• To support the Education and Community Coordinator in the delivery of the OV Community Network and wider community projects as required
• To support the creation and delivery of workshop content in collaboration with facilitators
• To support the Education and Community Director in the delivery and development of the community strategy including supporting on consultations and evaluation
• To recruit, maintain and develop strong relationships with participants for Community projects
• To maintain strong relationships with all stakeholders from participants to supporters to professionals involved in the department’s activities
• To research, develop and maintain strategic links with local community organisations developing referral routes for participants
• To contribute to the development and content of wider Education and Community initiatives

Operational Activity

• To manage freelance artists and facilitators working on community programmes
• To act as a point of contact for community participants
• To update and maintain our database of community organisations
• To work closely with the marketing team to create marketing material for our projects, in line with Old Vic branding guidelines
• To support annual reporting through provision of data and interpreted evaluation reports
• To support the Development department by providing data for reporting purposes and ensuring supporters’ needs are met, and information is available in a timely and appropriate fashion
• To maintain an awareness of best practice in community arts participation settings

Company-wide Activity

• To attend Development events as requested
• To contribute to regular all staff meetings, sharing information and connecting staff with activity across our projects
• To represent The Old Vic at various events and ensure its reputation is maintained

This is not an exhaustive list of duties and the Theatre's management may, at any time, allocate other tasks which are of a similar nature or level.

Person Specification

Essential

• Significant experience of facilitating, and delivering high-quality community theatre project or similar
• Significant experience in the design and delivery of large-scale community theatre projects or similar
• Excellent organisational and project management skills
• Experience of working with people from diverse backgrounds
• Proven line management experience
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Budgetary management experience of up to £50K - £100K
• Acute attention to detail
• Robust understanding of best practice and new developments within a community arts context
• Experience of evaluation design, analysis and reporting and experience of writing copy for content and marketing materials
• Experience of working within a theatre building or arts organisation

Equal Opportunities

We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We are particularly keen to receive applications from people of the global majority, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse and disabled candidates.

We may take positive action, in cases where candidates are equally qualified, to increase the employment of under-represented groups at The Old Vic.

In the event that we ask you to attend the theatre for a conversation and you are struggling financially, we may be able to reimburse you for any reasonable travel costs.

We partner with a range of inclusive organisations, to find out more please read our FAQs.

FAQs

Read our recruitment and selection and equal opportunities FAQs here.