Director, Metal Southend & Essex

Metal are looking for a candidate who is energised by working at the intersection of arts, community building, place-making, and policy. Bringing a passion for the role of art in society and place, you’ll be experienced at working with artists, communities, and other partners to create surprising, impactful programmes that share new perspectives and connect people to themselves, each other, where they live, and the wider world.

This role is a rare opportunity to join our senior management team, involving strategic development and delivery of sociallyengaged creative programmes; fundraising; building management and operations; finance and stakeholder relationships. It plays an important leadership and advocacy role in Southend, Essex and the East of England region.

You will bring excellent knowledge of socially engaged artistic practice and experience of attracting a diverse range of funding and strategic partnerships across sectors (e.g. local government, health, arts, community, environment, education) with the ability to deliver.

This is an exciting time to join Metal, with our new collaborative strategy launched in 2024 and the Director (Southend & Essex) playing an active arts leadership role in devolution and local government reform across Essex. The way we work deeply within communities and on a national and international scale makes us unusual and you will strategically shape the way artistic, community and policy practice are shared across Southend, Liverpool and Peterborough.

You will lead our next chapter in Southend and Essex bringing energy, ideas and collaborative spirit and we want to hear from people who are excited about creativity and what’s possible when working in partnership in Southend and Essex.