Communities Producer

Salary: £33,686 - £38,077

Contract type: Permanent

Reporting to: Head of Learning and Civic Partnerships

Department: Programme (Learning)

Who are we?

We are Scotland’s design museum. Designed for everyone, firing imaginations and sparking curiosity in design across Scotland and around the world. At V&A Dundee we are on a mission to inspire and empower through design.

Design shapes our world, it's part of everyday life and it's everywhere. We are a museum with energy and have a vision of the future where everyone is inspired through design and recognizes its far-reaching impact in our lives.

We are a welcoming place for people of Dundee to explore design and to use as an everyday part of their city, as well as inviting visitors from around the world. We are part of the V&A family of museums that celebrate creativity in all its forms from across centuries, for everyone.

Role profile

The Communities Producer plays a key role in ensuring that the museum is a welcoming, accessible, and inclusive space for a broad range of local audiences across Tayside and Fife. Our communities programme is an enjoyable introduction to all that V&A Dundee has to offer, aimed at those who may experience barriers to connecting and engaging with the museum.

With a strong emphasis on health, wellbeing, and inclusion this role will work towards engaging individuals from a range of backgrounds, including those living with health inequalities, stigma, access needs or other support requirements. This programme helps support equal access for all audiences and is a key driver in relation to social impact and contributes significantly to the museum’s civic responsibility.

As a member of the Programme team, the Communities Producer contributes ideas to the Museum’s programme, is essential to the department’s collegiate work environment and liaises with other internal departments and with a number of key, strategic community partners.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Plan, develop and coordinate a dynamic programme that supports those living with a broad range of access needs to meaningfully engage with V&A Dundee, and embed these approaches across the wider museum.
• Through the programme, meaningfully support and engage those who experience barriers to cultural engagement, including, people with long-term health conditions, degenerative conditions (e.g. dementia), experience of stigma, addiction, recovery, homelessness, social isolation, domestic violence trauma, poor mental health and poverty and resettlement.
• Build, maintain and manage relationships with a range of community partners and agencies, community leaders and local organisations to help inform the development and delivery of the Museum’s Civic Strategy.
• Maintain and strengthen relationships with key national partners and stakeholders (e.g. Alzheimer Scotland) to push the boundaries of how the museum can proactively seek new opportunities for V&A Dundee to have social impact in collaboration with other national cultural partners, as well as those out with the cultural sector.
• Explore the concept of social/cultural prescribing in collaboration with NHS Tayside to position V&A Dundee as a non-clinical source of support.
• Monitor and evaluate the community programme to ensure that it continues to meet user needs efficiently and effectively.
• Manage socially engaged events that meet the objectives of the museum and the community programme, including liaising with stakeholders, developing event plans, coordinating contractors, freelance designers and collaborating with the wider team to oversee the event delivery.
• Support projects and strategic activities including audience development as part of the Civic Strategy.
• Develop, sustain, and retain a network of individuals and communities, nurture relationships and inspire people to participate to ensure that V&A Dundee is relevant and valued to local citizens.
• Working closely with Exhibitions, contribute to interpretation and develop and deliver a meaningful programme connecting community engagement with Scottish Design Gallery, the exhibitions and displays to improve engagement with, and ownership of, the museum.
• Work closely with the Philanthropy and Partnerships team to report on funding proposals for local, regional, and national funders, provide indicative budgets and engaging stakeholders as required, ensuring correct donor recognition at all times.
• Undertake administration relating to the post, including compiling reports and proposals, statistics and KPIs, administering budgets, purchase orders, invoices, and event schedules, risk assessments and contracts.
• Develop and maintain up-to-date knowledge of issues and policies relating to access, inclusion, health & wellbeing, diversity, and meaningful community engagement.
• Where appropriate, contribute to the national discourse around the role of community engagement within the cultural sector, raising awareness of V&A Dundee, and learning from others to share and develop best practice.
• Line Management responsibility for a Programme Assistant and oversee the work of freelance staff and volunteers as and when necessary.
• To promote equality and diversity in all aspects of your work by developing and maintaining positive working relationships, ensuring that colleagues are treated fairly and with dignity and respect, and actively contributing to developments that support the museum’s strategy for widening access, inclusion and diversity.
• Represent and promote the work of V&A Dundee outside the organisation and undertake any other duties as reasonably required.

Person specification

Essential

• Proven experience of developing, coordinating, co-designing, and delivering informal community learning programmes and projects in a museum, gallery, arts organisation, visitor attraction or similar cultural setting.
• Enthusiasm, creativity, and a strong commitment to increasing access to museums for disengaged, underrepresented, socially isolated, and vulnerable audiences.
• Knowledge of community and access, inclusion, health and wellbeing and diversity networks in Scotland.
• Efficient time and work management, ability to work on multiple projects and meticulous attention to detail.
• Confident public speaker able to represent the Museum and its programmes.
• Ability to work independently and creatively as part of a team.
• Experience of writing and managing resources for a diverse range of needs, both for print and digital platforms.
• Ability to contribute to and promote an inclusive, respectful culture within a team.
• Experience of financial administration relating to budgets.
• Excellent IT skills and up to date knowledge of digital platforms and social media.

Flexibility

• Willingness to work evenings, weekends and holiday periods as the learning programmes demand and when required. To deliver services effectively, a degree of flexibility is needed, and the post holder may be required to perform work not specifically referred to above.

Deadline for applications: no later than 17.00, 02 April 2025.

This is a full-time position, working 37.5 hours per week in a hybrid flexible environment with a mixture of home working and working from our museum in Dundee. We offer a generous package including 38 days holiday, pension scheme, company sick pay, entry to V&A Dundee paid exhibitions and many more discounts and benefits.

We are an equal opportunity employer and encourage applications from everyone and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or any other protected characteristics.

V&A Dundee is aware that working more flexibly is a central element of attracting and retaining disabled people in the labour market. We encourage you to apply if you define yourself as disabled under the Equality Act 2010 (including deaf or neurodivergent).

If you require any adjustments during the recruitment process, such as receiving the interview questions in advance or documents in an alternative format, please let us know via the email below.

If you have any issues with your application, please email: hr@vandadundee.org