Director, Architecture Design Fashion – British Council – London

Duration:indefinite
Pay band: competitive senior management salary and benefits offered
Who can apply: all staff/candidates with pre-existing independent right to work and live in the UK without restrictions

The British Council is the world’s leading cultural relations organisation and creates opportunities for people in the UK and worldwide to understand each other, to work together and learn from one another. We see this as crucial to building secure, more prosperous and sustainable futures for us all. We build trust and understanding between different countries and cultures and develop strong international links that are of benefit to people in Britain and the rest of the world. We call this work: cultural relations.

Arts:

Arts stand alongside education and society and English as cornerstones of the British Council’s mission to build bridges of trust and understanding between peoples of the world. The British Council’s global network places it in a unique position to achieve significant impact and change by finding new ways of connecting and seeing each other through the arts.

Our arts programme lives and breathes the aspiration to inspire, to transform lives, to offer creative artists, participants and audiences across the world life‐changing and life‐enhancing experiences. Our catalyst is the UK’s profound cultural and artistic strength and diversity.

Architecture Design Fashion

Architecture Design Fashion department uses its connections and understanding of contemporary British design to advise on and support design exhibitions, events, residencies and other projects within cultural relations programmes and provide a link to the UK. Together with international colleagues and partners we develop projects to encourage showcasing, collaboration and professional exchange. We work with designers and design professionals to build relationships between the cultural, educational and professional organisations in the UK and around the world.

We have an excellent opportunity for:

We have an exciting opportunity for a highly skilled and experienced director to lead the British Council’s work in architecture, design and fashion, and as part of the global arts management team ensure that design plays a strategic and appropriate role in British Council cultural relations projects. The director will be commissioner of the British Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale as well as other leading representation of the UK at other prestigious international exhibitions and events.

Working closely with a team of regional arts directors, arts managers in countries, art form directors and arts advisors in the UK, the director of Architecture Design Fashion leads the development and delivery of a programme that represents the strength and diversity of the relevant UK sectors and the diverse needs of audiences overseas.

The successful candidate must:

understand the British Council’s multi-art form agenda
have experience of leading international cultural projects and exhibitions or an arts or design organisation
have detailed knowledge of and proven experience of working at a senior level in the UK architecture design and fashion sector, and a substantial network of UK arts and design professionals and organisations, including museums, galleries, design schools and professional/trade institutes

Some of the main duties include:

to lead on the development of long-term strategy for the British Council’s Architecture Design Fashion projects
to contribute to the development of the British Council Arts Vision, aligned to wider corporate priorities and targets
to maintain and develop relationships and represent the British Council externally with key partners, organisations, practitioners, opinion formers and stakeholders in the UK’s architecture, design and fashion sectors
to lead and manage staff within Architecture Design Fashion department and support the implementation of change including culture change
to be strategic lead on end to end project management and ensure that projects and programmes across the portfolio are managed and delivered in accordance with all agreed financial standards and targets, ensuring enough capacity and capability in place to support the successful development and delivery of Architecture Design Fashion projects

Benefits:

competitive senior management salary and benefits
generous pension scheme
32 days annual leave
flexible working policy
childcare vouchers
season ticket loan
cycling scheme

Application deadline: December 16, 2015

How to apply

If you are interested and feel you are suitable for the role, please apply before Wednesday 16 December 2015, 23:59 UK Time. We aim to interview for this role on Tuesday 5 and Thursday 7 January 2016.

To apply, visit: http://bit.ly/1lsLnE7

Equality of opportunity (UK)

The British Council is committed to a policy of equal opportunity and is keen to reflect the diversity of UK society at every level within the organisation. We welcome applications from all sections of the community. In line with the British Council’s Child Protection policy, any appointment is contingent on thorough checks. In the UK, and in other countries where appropriate systems exist, these include criminal records checks.

Valuing diversity is essential to the British Council’s work. We aim to abide by and promote equality legislation by following both the letter and the spirit of it to try and avoid unjustified discrimination, recognising discrimination as a barrier to equality of opportunity, inclusion and human rights.

All staff worldwide are required to ensure their behaviour is consistent with our policies.

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