Job reference: 000319
Location: Southbank Centre, London
Closing date: 10/02/2022
Salary: £50,000- 55,000
Employment type: Permanent
Department: Arts Council Collection
About Us
Southbank Centre is a national flagship cultural institution. It is Europe’s largest arts centre and one of the UK’s top five visitor attractions, occupying an 11-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames.
Its impact and reach are significant and it is respected internationally as a convener of great artists and diverse audiences and for being entrepreneurial and innovative in response to a volatile and changing financial landscape. Southbank Centre is a charity that is determined to demonstrate its ambition to remain innovative, disruptive and experimental in what it does and to be highly relevant to the artists it wants to work with and to the audiences it wants to attract.
Southbank Centre believes that a commitment to diversity and inclusion helps it be a more relevant and effective organisation.
Our Artistic Mission
Southbank Centre exists to provide great artistic experiences for everyone. Through art, we invite our visitors to enjoy shared cultural encounters together. To gaze. To listen. To be moved. To discover a new idea or a new perspective. We are proud that for the last 70 years, the performances and exhibitions here have moved millions. We have provided a home for art and for artists. A community centred on art, where everyone, no matter their job, helps make the experience.
We create a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual, entertaining and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day.
Our values
Champion Greatness
We seek out great artists and give them the space to present their best work
Take the lead
We make sure we’re at the forefront of the arts – provoking and inspiring, not just following it
Open up the arts
Not everyone will love everything, but we make sure there’s something here for everyone
Have fun
We’re serious about the arts – but not stuffy. Culture here can be playful, provocative, exciting and entertaining. It is a joy not a duty
We are looking for a Chief Curator to develop a timely and relevant programme of outstanding exhibitions and projects that seek to nurture a sense of possibility and discovery, risk-taking and spirited inquiry. Candidates should be deeply interested in making exhibitions that engage a broad and diverse public, and that aim to welcome every visitor to an experience of art as an open-ended conversation in which their responses play a crucial role.
The Chief Curator will plan future exhibition schedules in consultation with the Hayward Gallery Director and they will personally curate selected exhibitions and artists’ projects. They will lead and motivate the curatorial team, and play a key role in fundraising activities to support Hayward Gallery’s ambitious artistic vision. The successful candidate will have a thorough knowledge of contemporary visual arts together with a substantial track record in curating and organising a programme of international exhibitions. People leadership skills and experience and a track record of developing team members are essential, as are strong budget management, research and interpersonal skills. Experience of building and maintaining relationships with artists, funders, sponsors and partners and a proven ability to successfully fundraise in support of artistic activity are also key requirements.
A commitment to increasing the diversity of audiences attracted to Hayward Gallery exhibitions is essential, as is a thorough understanding of the relationship between arts and education.
The Southbank Centre Way
The Southbank Centre Way is a framework that sets out how we want our people to work together. It describes the qualities that drive our ability to inspire, provoke and transform lives and illustrates behaviours that make Southbank Centre a warm and welcoming place to work, perform or visit. The language that forms the Southbank Centre Way comes from the people who work here. We have captured their words to help everyone we work with understand us.
