The knowledge and skills we’ve listed below represent the full range of what we are looking for across our four Trustee roles. No one person will fulfil every line so please do not be deterred from applying if only some of the specification chimes with you. You don’t need to have previous experience of being on a Board – we are just looking for people able to fulfil the overall brief of:
- A demonstrable commitment to Art Fund’s vision and aims.
- An ability to contribute significantly to the work of our Board, particularly through the application of relevant management, practitioner or artistic experience.
- An ability to make collective decisions and stand by them.
- An ability to analyse information and, when necessary, challenge constructively.
- An ability to oversee effective strategy, policies and processes, driving accountability throughout an organisation and bringing change.
- Credibility in your sphere of work/practice and personal gravitas to help lead Art Fund to deliver progress towards our ambitious five-year strategic vision.
- Strong inter-personal and relationship-building skills.
And any/all of the following:
- A practising artist.
- Expertise in applied arts.
- Expertise in Renaissance and Old Masters.
- Experience steering strategy, cultural charity governance, sitting on Boards, change management, business continuity and risk.
- Knowledge/experience of museum operations and the museum context; particularly senior leaders with operational/commercial expertise and knowledge of current funding/heritage landscape.
- Marketing, development and communications.
- Digital – namely the opportunities that digital presents for Art Fund’s own operations and for museums/cultural organisations’ activities.
Time commitment and our commitment to you
Your minimum commitment in an average year is likely to be about 10 to 15 days (including pre-reading), of which many would be on fixed meeting dates, planned well in advance. We encourage active participation and Trustees often choose to give more time.
The initial term of office is for 4 years, with the potential to be reappointed for a further 4 years. There are five Board meetings a year, usually held at Art Fund’s offices in King’s Cross, London. We also hold a Strategy dinner one evening in September every year. In addition to grant decisions made at Board meetings, Trustees are asked to contribute to between – meeting grant application requests, sharing comments via our Trustee extranet.
Trustees are usually expected to participate in one of our Board Committees and/or in one of our grant panels and in our AGM and Art Fund Museum of the Year awards, and to be available to support management with advice as needed. We encourage our Trustees to be ambassadors for the Art Fund so also ask Trustees to attend occasional donor and stakeholder development events.
We’d ideally like our new Trustees to join the Board by the end of the summer (attending our September strategy dinner and first Board meeting in October). In your first few months you should allow for an additional day for induction (including meeting members of Art Fund’s team). This is an unpaid role but expenses (such as for travel and childcare) are paid for attendance at Board and Committee meetings and other Trustee activities, in accordance with our expenses policy.
We’ll give you a full induction and ongoing development. An experienced Art Fund Trustee can be your mentor for your first year if you would find this helpful.