Artist-in-Residence

St Joseph’s Specialist Trust, Cranleigh, Surrey

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE

Fixed term contract for 1 academic year

September 2023 to July 2024

36.5 hrs per week / 39 weeks per year

Actual Salary: £21,163 - £23,248 pa

(FTE £25,012 -£27,477 based on 37 hours / 52 weeks pa)

Are you a practicing artist who welcomes the challenge of working with students in groups and individually?

Would you like to help and encourage young people with special needs to develop their artistic opportunities, fine-motor skills and creativity?

We are looking for an Artist-in-Residence to practise in our school and college for the academic year 2023-24.

Every year, we welcome a creative with a different specialism to practise alongside and inspire our students. You will be the eighth Artist-in-Residence, following painters, a composer, and most recently a puppeteer! While we are open to applicants working in any medium, this year we are particularly interested in artists working with sculpture, mixed-media or textiles. We are concerned most with finding a creative who can work best with our neurodiverse young people.

About the residency

The residency is an opportunity to practise your art in a unique SEN setting: to take time and space to experiment or deepen your practice, collaborating with and learning from our students while enhancing their wellbeing.

• You will work in an on-site studio, allowing students and staff who occasionally pass by to observe your expertise and thus demonstrating the importance of the arts as a valid career pathway and a meaningful hobby.
• You will provide 10 hours a week (FT) student 1:1 time and run periodic staff training related to your practice.
• You will be part of a dynamic, ambitious Creative Arts team and will be expected to contribute towards a range of exciting creative events throughout the year
• The culmination of the residency will be an exhibition of your work in summer 2024 and an artwork that you will then contribute to the school as part of your legacy.
• Your application must highlight your past and current practice and include your plans for future projects and what you will work on during the residency.

This is an opportunity for the right person – for a capable, flexible creative practitioner who also has a real empathy and interest in the well-being of SEN students.

About St Joseph’s

St Joseph’s Specialist Trust is a special school, college, children’s home and adult supported living houses. Our main site is located in Cranleigh, Surrey, midway between Guildford and Horsham. Our students are age 5-19 with severe social communication difficulties and complex learning disabilities. With your compassion, empathy and guidance, you will help them develop their creativity, relative to their complex needs.

Physical and mental resilience are qualities required by all our staff. If you are recruited, you will be required to complete Team Teach positive behaviour support training as part of your induction before employment*.

The residency is offered as a full-time role. However, part time hours could also be considered. Ideally, hours of attendance each week will be 8.30am – 4pm Monday, 8.30am – 4.15pm Tuesday to Thursday and 8.30am – 3.45pm on Friday during term time only (35.5 hours per week). Nevertheless, there is some flexibility around the hours, depending on the circumstances and commitments of the artist. Very occasional evening and weekend work may be required as part of these contracted hours; equally, the Trust is prepared to allow an element of flexibility for the successful applicant to undertake other professional commitments (with the equivalent amount of time being made up either evening/weekends/school holiday working). Holiday must be taken during the school holidays. This can be discussed at interview.

Why St Joseph’s?

• 25 days holiday plus statutory public holidays paid (FTE, pro-rated)
• Tasty free hot lunch during term time
• Ample free car parking on site
• Employee assistance service (confidential, professional wellbeing and counselling 24/7 service)
• Excellent network of support across the organisation including a team of Adult Mental Health Firs Aid and Occupational Health
• Life Assurance and Medical Cashplan
• Discount on gym, swim and classes at Cranleigh Leisure Centre
• Induction programme including Safeguarding and Team Teach Positive Behaviour Support Training
• Based on a beautiful 23 acre site in Cranleigh, half way between Horsham and Guildford, on the edge of the Surrey Hills.

Own transport is desirable due to the semi-rural location of the school.