Opportunity: Freelance Caring Spaces Visual Artist
- Fee: In the region of £5040
- Jan – Oct 2024 [approx. 15 days]
Art in Healthcare
Art in Healthcare is a Scottish charity. We work to improve health and wellbeing for individuals and communities by providing opportunities to experience and engage with high quality visual art, artists and creativity, particularly within community, health and social care settings. Further information can be found at: www.artinhealthcare.org.uk
Caring Spaces
Caring Spaces is our area of work delivering visual arts workshops for unpaid adult carers. We have worked with Voice of Carers Across Lothians (VOCAL) for many years both online and in person in Edinburgh and Dalkeith and have grown this work to develop a new partnership with Carers of East Lothian (CoEL). This worked is funded through Shared Care Creative Breaks with the following outcomes – Carers will:
- Have improved mental wellbeing
- Feel better supported to sustain the caring role
- Gain opportunities to enjoy a life outside of the caring role
Our Caring Spaces workshops encourage exploration, play and experimentation with a range of different materials and techniques, sometimes influenced by our collection of art. We start from the skills and ideas within each group; participants share their interests, and we shape workshops accordingly.
To find out more about Caring Spaces, please visit: www.artinhealthcare.org.uk/art-workshops/caring-spaces
Artist Remit
We are looking for an Artist with lived experience of caring to work with the Art in Healthcare team to develop and deliver our Caring Spaces workshops from Jan – Oct 2024. We are defining an unpaid Carer as:
Anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who, due to illness, disability, a mental health problem, or an addiction, cannot cope without their support.
We are looking for someone who has experience of using visual art to support the health and wellbeing of adults. This role will require you to have excellent creative and facilitation skills as well as strong coordination skills. Your time will be spent coordinating, developing, delivering and documenting and you will be supported by the wider Art in Healthcare team with project administration and evaluation.
We will ask you to:
- Work with the Art in Healthcare team to ensure that your approach is in line with our ethos and policies.
- Connect with key staff at VOCAL and CoEL to co-ordinate aspects of the project.
- Deliver art workshops in a range of techniques and materials and have an approach that is responsive and flexible, responding to changing needs.
- Be committed to documenting sessions and to your own critical reflection during delivery.
- Work with the Administrator and Finance and Office Manager to order materials, co-ordinate logistics, process payments etc.
- Support the evaluation of the project.
You will be part of a community of artists that deliver programmes of participatory activity for us and as such will have access to peer support and supervision.
Duration of work:
Total duration of work from Jan – Sept including planning, delivery, and evaluation: approx. 15 days (to be worked flexibly).
VOCAL Edinburgh – Two blocks of 8 sessions in February / March and August / September on Thursdays 10 – 11.30am. The first and last session of each block will be in person in Edinburgh with the rest online.
VOCAL Dalkeith – Monthly in person sessions at the Carer’s Centre in Dalkeith from January – September on Thursdays 10 – 12.
Carers of East Lothian (CoEL) – Monthly in person sessions at Musselburgh Community Centre from January – September on Wednesdays 10.15am – 12.15pm.
Person Specification
We encourage applications from all backgrounds and communities, and we are committed to having a team that is made up of diverse skills, experiences, and abilities. We are looking for someone who has:
- Lived experience of caring
- Extensive experience [5+ years] of using visual art as a tool to support the health and wellbeing of adults.
- Experience of developing and facilitating visual art workshops in-person and online in a range of different materials, with mixed-ability participants.
- An understanding of some of the challenges faced by unpaid carers.
- An interest in the broader work of Art in Healthcare and an understanding of how art can be used to improve health and wellbeing.
- An interest in working with our collection.
- Experience of codesigning art activities with participants.
- Strong administration and co-ordination skills.
- Great communication and listening skills.
- Experience of documentation and evaluation.
Terms and Conditions
The opportunity is for approximately fifteen days to be worked flexibly, to meet the needs of the project between January and October 2024.
We will pay a rate of £336.00 per working day [7.5 hours]. As a temporary, freelance member of the team you will be responsible for your tax and national insurance contributions. Payment will be made within 30 calendar days of an invoice. Additional funding is available to support travel and art materials.
We will require the successful applicant to evidence their right to work in the UK. We will also require a PVG Certificate and will work with you to secure this from Disclosure Scotland.
We support remote working and have office space in central Edinburgh. You will mainly be delivering online and through in-person workshops in Edinburgh, Dalkeith, and Musselburgh.
Interested?
To apply please send a short CV and a note of interest [no more than one side of A4], or a short video or voice recording, telling us how your knowledge, skills and experience align with the opportunity. We would also like to see at least one example of past artistic work co-created in a community context. Applications can be emailed to: recruitment@artinhealthcare.org.uk
If you would prefer to apply by post, please send it to:
Recruitment, Art in Healthcare, 18 York Place, Edinburgh EH1 3EP
We have set a closing date for 9am on Monday 8th January 2024, and we are hoping to hold interviews on the 11th of January. Interviews will be held online and questions will be shared in advance.
If you have any questions please contact Iona McCann, Associate Director (Communities) – Iona@artinhealthcare.org.uk.
5 December 2023 by
Amy Miles