Inspire: Culture, Learning and Libraries
Job Summary
Job Description
Inspire is a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) and this opportunity is funded by Arts Council England. Inspire has 58 libraries and 3 mobiles. Inspire’s NPO funding focuses on the following Libraries:
Arnold, Beeston, Bingham, Hucknall, Kirkby in Ashfield, Mansfield Central, Newark, Retford, Southwell, Sutton in Ashfield, West Bridgford and Worksop.
The Summer Reading Challenge:
Every year, thousands of families all over the country take part in the UK’s biggest reading event for children in libraries and online, produced by the charity The Reading Agency.
http://www.readingagency.org.uk – readingagency.org.uk
The challenge, aimed at children aged 4 – 11, is to sustain reading ability and enthusiasm in the long summer break.
The 2026 Summer Reading Challenge theme will be Read to the Beat: Uniting the magic of stories with the power of music with the detail being released at the end of December.
Past projects:
To see examples of how previous artists and authors have delivered the project, visit our website, but we are always looking for new ideas and approaches.
http://www.inspireculture.org.uk/artistandauthor – inspireculture.org.uk/artistandauthor
Proposed timeline:
- School workshops – Summer term/June 2026
- Exhibition dates – Saturday 11 July – Sunday 6 September 2026
- Public workshops – Nottinghamshire school summer holidays (28/7/26 – 1/9/26)
Fee:
Minimum £4500 per person, approximately 18 delivery days (usual school delivery 10am – 3pm, usual public delivery 10am – 12pm and 2pm – 4pm).A breakdown of the total fee will be negotiated once the final delivery method and approach is agreed. Additional budget for workshop preparation, travel, materials, commission, access costs and to ensure quality outcome for the exhibition is available.
NB. There will not be additional budget for accommodation.
Job Requirements
- Work collaboratively with Inspire.
- Take wide inspiration from the 2026 Summer Reading Challenge to design a workshop linked to your professional practice suitable for primary school children to be delivered in school settings.
- Deliver the school workshop to 12 of our twinned primary schools across Nottinghamshire.
- Workshop duration likely to be approximately 1 hour repeated 3 times in a day for 20 to 30 children at a time.
- Approximately 12 days of delivery, 1 day per school.
- Create content from the resulting schoolwork for exhibition in Beeston library.
- Create a commissioned artwork/writings inspired by the schoolwork for the exhibition.
- Take wide inspiration from the 2026 Summer Reading Challenge to design a workshop linked to your professional practice suitable for family audiences to be delivered in library settings.
- Deliver the family workshops in the 12 libraries named above.
- Design an activity for a ‘How to’ sheet suitable for our wider library network.
Job Overview
- Job Title: Artist and Author in Residence 2026
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Salary: £30k-£40k
(pro-rata) - Hours:
Part time - Artform: Combined arts
- Role: Creative
- Contract: Temporary
- Closing date: Fri, 05 Dec 2025
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Location:
East Midlands
Apply now
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