Wandsworth Arts & Culture Service: Researcher

***Applications are now closed***

Wandsworth Borough has an active and well-developed arts and culture sector offering a diverse range of creative opportunities. The Arts and Culture Service works with a wide range of partners, across sectors, supporting culture and creativity to thrive. Our creative collaboration with artists, communities and organisations produces richly imaginative, excellent work. We actively champion diversity and promote equality in our projects. From the small-scale amateur to the larger professional organisations, we’ve played a vital part in taking people beyond what they thought possible.  

The Arts & Culture Service works closely with national and regional bodies such as the Arts Council England, A New Direction, Greater London Authority’s Culture team and What Next? to nurture cultural and creatives industries within the borough. 

London Borough of Culture 2025 

Wandsworth has been awarded London Borough of Culture for 2025. Wandsworth is changing and culture will be at the heart of developing a people-led approach to improving health and happiness and equality of opportunity in the borough. Our programme for the year promises to be a trailblazer for London becoming a Creative Health Capital City – a place where better health outcomes are achieved through the healing, inspirational power of culture and the arts.  

Across Wandsworth we will put culture and heritage at the heart of our transformation. We will work in partnership with the arts, culture business and voluntary and community sectors to deliver a people-led approach to improving wellbeing and tackling health inequalities.  

The programme will focus on five key themes, harnessing the power of culture to: 

  • Connect people to life-changing experiences – opening the doors to creative jobs, discovering our heritage and meeting people where they are, so we can all fall in love with arts and culture. 
  • Unite, because we are better together, united by our aspiration to imagine and build a brighter future for people, communities, and our borough. 
  • Heal, because building arts and culture into healthcare helps us thrive. By approaching wellbeing holistically, culture can support people, body, and soul, to live better.  
  • Nourish. Creating the conditions for young people to express their creativity and be a thriving part of their communities. 
  • Activate. Inspiring people through culture to take real steps to reduce pollution and their carob footprint; reconnecting people with sustainable living and the natural environment – everybody benefits, including this planet we call home.  

Researcher Role  

The service already offers multiple training opportunities to the art sector, including training for creatives taking part in Wandsworth Arts Fringe, ReCreate Wandsworth, a mentoring and learning programme for creative businesses and training for creative health practitioners.  

The Arts and Culture Service also offers a range of activities to engage young people in creative careers, including the Young Producers, Reviewers and Reporters programmes running alongside Wandsworth Arts Fringe, and the work of the Local Cultural Education Partnership, Creative Wandsworth, who recently produced a guide of cultural organisations for young people to explore.  

As well as this, our partners and local organisations offer a range of courses, support and professional development opportunities for young people, artists and creative businesses.  

We wish for the London Borough of Culture to be a catalyst for development for the borough’s artists, and an opportunity to access routes into the creative industries, and so we wish to develop and enhance these training offers for 2025. This audit is this first step of this work and plans to; define what training is already on offer and to who, where the gaps are in the provision; and what opportunities there are for expansion of pre-existing offers, and the creation of new projects.  

The researcher will:  

  • conduct an audit of the training and creative professional development opportunities that are: 
  • offered by Wandsworth Council. 
  • offered by other organisations in Wandsworth. 
  • specifically for young people aged 12 – 25  
  • offered nationally by organisations in the UK (such as the Greater London Authority) and accessed by residents or businesses in Wandsworth.  
  • Write a report detailing what is currently available for young people, artists, and creative businesses in the borough, and where the researcher perceives the gap in provision to be. 
  • Include in the report an outline of resources required to fill the gap in training and development provision for artists in Wandsworth  

Fee: £300 per day, for 5 days. Days can be flexible, work must be completed by Friday 23 August. 

Applicant must provide their own device for completion of the work. Desk space at Wandsworth Town Hall can be provided.  

Application process 

 Interested applicants are asked to submit a covering letter and proposal in response to the above brief. Including demonstrable understanding and/or experience of: – 

  • Working in or knowledge of Wandsworth  
  • Scrupulous research and information handling skills  
  • Data processing skills  
  • Report writing to communicate research findings 
  • Knowledge and understanding of the creative industries and the UK arts sector  

Applications closed at 9am, Monday 15 July to [email protected].

 If you wish to speak to someone about this opportunity, please email the address above with your contact details including a telephone number and a member of the team will be in touch to arrange a conversation.  

Interviews will be w/c Mon 22 July.

Wandsworth Council is committed to diversity and to equality of opportunity. Information can be provided in a different format and we will be flexible around the application process if required. Contact [email protected] if you wish to alert us to adjustments we can make to facilitate your participation. 

Featured image: A Piece of Mind by The Baked Bean Charity dance troupe, Energy Beans. Performed on Battersea Reach as part of Wandsworth Ars Fringe 2024. Photo by Tasha Best.