Art for all: careers in community arts
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Creating a community carnival, painting a mural for a local school, helping children with learning difficulties — community art jobs are diverse and rewarding. We explore what careers are out there and how you can find them. What do the jobs involve and what skills do I need? The range of jobs is enormous and the skills vary considerably between different posts. Whilst you don’t need a formal arts qualification for many of them, it can often be desirable. Whether or not you have a qualification however, you will need to be highly creative and have enough drive and inspiration to see your ideas through to fruition. You will need to have good networking, budgeting and fundraising skills, particularly because many community arts organisations are very small and rely on several "multi-taskers" who can generate the income to support and develop their own work. I don’t have a formal arts qualification — what can I do? Although not all jobs require an arts qualification, you will definitely need to prove your dedication and enthusiasm. The best way is to volunteer for an organisation near you — see our links for ideas of what’s out there and where to start looking. It’s also worth finding a local place who will host an installation or exhibition of any art or crafts that you have produced yourself. This will get you known and looks great on your CV. Also, you never know who will pick up on the story — maybe even the national press! What’s the pay like? The pay for community arts jobs isn’t huge and does vary greatly across the country and according to the type of work you are doing and the size of the organisation. An artist working directly with members of the community might make around £12,000 a year, whilst a development or marketing officer involved with creating new markets for craft products and forging relationships with sponsors might make at least £18,000 a year. The Inside Info: Pippa Bialey, artistic director for Oxford House, a community arts project in Bethnal Green, London, talks about her job and why it makes an exciting career choice. So what exactly is Oxford House? Oxford House is a multi-purpose community centre for the people of Bethnal Green. We have just received major funding to create a brand new visual and performing arts centre, incorporating performance spaces, galleries and a dance studio. Like many similar organisations, we have a very small but expanding team, including myself, a Somali arts development worker and an administrator. We also have 12 studio artists who are subsidised to have workspaces in the building and work directly on community projects. What does your job involve and what might a typical day be like? I am in the process of setting up all new projects and fundraising at the moment, so a typical day currently involves lots of desk work. I am also involved with many other things though, including being a theatre director, curator of exhibitions, raising sponsorship and working with sponsors and artists in a range of disciplines. What do you love most and least about your work? I love having the scope to work with fantastic artists and exciting projects and having the freedom to work with my ideas and see them realised. I also love being able to touch people’s lives and open them to new experiences and perceptions. I least like constantly having to beg for cash to realise these dreams and at the moment, having too much desk work! Tell us about one of your most exciting projects… "The Museum Of" on the South Bank in London was a very exciting project and I absolutely loved it. The project lasted three years and animated a huge derelict building. The aim was to involve local people including residents, big business and creative institutions and to explore why we have museums and what they mean to us. My current job is very inspiring and involves putting a new arts centre together from scratch. How do you think community arts make a positive contribution to society? I believe the Arts have the ability to open up people’s experiences by making exciting connections and breaking down barriers. The Arts do this by engaging with different sectors of the community and empowering people to find their voice and express themselves. I personally work with the community because I believe it is much less pretentious than high art. You are communicating with real people, which helps keep it all down to earth. How did you get where you are? I took a very strange route. I am Australian and studied communications before training as an actor. I worked in theatre direction and teaching before getting a TV job as a reporter/presenter for a TV Arts programme. I got fed up with both TV work and Oz and moved to Britain, where I eventually started working on "The Museum Of" project, which a friend was running (contacts are a great way to get a head-start in this sector!) What are your top tips for getting into this sector? Get good at the thing you are passionate about — whether that is a particular art form, community liaison or administration. Check out evening and part-time classes at your local school or college in art and design-related subjects. Make sure you get experience working with the community by volunteering for an organisation you admire to get first hand experience (if you are good it can even lead to a job). You can find out what organisations are based near you by looking in your yellow pages or visiting the library, who keep lists of youth and arts charities. Where are jobs advertised? Local newspapers and community bulletin boards are a great place to start. Also, check out these links for job adverts and projects you could get involved with:
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