Technical Manager

Message to Candidates

In this pack you will find information about the role ofTechnical Managerincluding the job description, an introduction to Ikon and details of how to make an application.

Ikon is a limited company and registered as an educational charity. We are supported through public funding investment from Arts Council England and Birmingham City Council. Ikon is respected nationally and internationally for delivering a high quality, diverse programme that predominantly features single artist survey exhibitions and includes new commissions, cross-form collaborations and historical exhibitions.

As an organisation, Ikon is rather nomadic having occupied a number of city centre locations since forming in 1965. Our current homeis a beautiful Grade II listed building, formerly Oozells Street School, which was converted and opened as Ikon Gallery in 1997.

The Technical Manager is an important role overseeing all technical planning and delivery of exhibitions and events. As part of the Facilities department, the role contributes to maintenance of the building and its services. The post is suited to someone with a positive attitude who has a wide range of technical and practical skills encompassing construction techniques and, ideally, audio-visual systems. Management or Coordinator experience is essential, preferably in a gallery or museum environment. The successful candidate will be a good communicator, a creative and practical problem solver, have a keen attention to detail and ensure exceptionally high standards are implemented and maintained.

The salary offered for this role is offered at £25,000. We hope you will agree that this role is an exceptional opportunity for someone with the right set of skills and aptitude.

Deborah Kermode

Deputy Director

Technical Manager

An exciting opportunity exists for a creative and energetic person with a range of practical skills to oversee the technical aspects of Ikon’s exhibition programme and events. The successful candidate will be experienced in project management, working within a gallery setting and able to contribute to the maintenance and running of the building’s facilities and services.

Ikon is one of the UK’s leading contemporary art galleries based in Birmingham.

The post is offered on a full time permanent basis.

Salary is offered at £25,000 - £27,000

Deadline for applications: Noon Monday 12 October 2015

Interviews: Wednesday 21 October 2015

For further information and to download application packs:

or contact Ikon on 0121 248 0708

Ikon Gallery is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sectors of the community. Registered Charity No. 528892

JOB DESCRIPTION

Technical Manager

Key responsibilities:

  • The Technical Manager is responsible for delivering high quality technical support, planning and production of all technical and physical aspects relating to Ikon’s exhibitions and events, onsite and offsite
  • Assist the undertaking of repairs and maintenance of Ikon’s building and assist the management of facilities, operations and physical assets
  • Assist in ensuring a successful Health and Safety record
  • Provide Duty Person, Keyholder and Technical On Call cover as part of a rota schedule

Responsible to:

Head of Operations

Responsible for:

Freelance installation technicians, Ikon Work Placements

Key outputs:

Programme

  • Work with Ikon’s Programming team, Head of Operations, artists and contractors to manage and deliver all technical and construction requirements for exhibition installations and projects including: display structures, lighting, I.T. and audio visual systems, movement of loads, sourcing materials, equipment hire/purchases, employing casual staff/contractors
  • Liaise directly with artists and third parties to produce and fabricate exhibits to specification
  • Provide planning support and arrange technical resources for all Ikon events
  • Responsible for maintaining works of art and display spaces, ensuring exhibits are in proper working order at all times
  • Work with Programming team to report and rectify any damage to or deterioration of artworks and exhibitions
  • Negotiate with external partners towards venue provisions and alterations to meet requirements
  • Devise and implement efficient and effective installation schedules ensuring that resources are in place as necessary
  • Oversee or undertake the design and build of display structures e.g. plinths and basic furniture
  • Assist the delivery, unpacking, handling, storage, crating and repackaging of artworks
  • Conduct I.T. and audio-visual system planning, testing and installation for exhibitions, events and projects
  • Locate electrical equipment safely and securely and eliminate unwanted signals or interference
  • Provide staff with clear and robust instructions for daily initialisation, closing down and troubleshooting exhibits
  • Ensure responsibility for the security of artwork and exhibition equipment
  • Ensure gallery climate control records are maintained and archived

Building and Facilities

  • Assist the Head of Operations to ensure the building is well presented and runs as efficiently as possible
  • Control expenditure against workshop budget
  • Manage the maintenance and repairs of technical equipment to ensure their safe working order and are free of defects
  • Undertake maintenance, monitoring and repairs of Ikon’s building, assets, systems and services
  • Operate Ikon’s Trend Building Management System to adjust for routine and ad hoc requirements
  • Ensure that the workshop space is tidy and well-organised; equipment and tools well maintained and safe; consumable stock and technical sundries e.g. paint, fixings, packaging are at required levels
  • Ensure fixtures and fittings operate correctly and are well presented
  • Ensure all technical specifications and room plans are up to date
  • Co-ordinate documentation and authorisation to ensure terms are adhered to for external loans of Ikon property
  • Carry out minor works and determine works to be outsourced

Health & Safety

  • Under the guidance of the Head of Operations monitor and maintain a safe and secure environment for staff and visitors in accordance with Ikon’s health and safety policies and codes of practice
  • Ensure that proper health and safety procedures are undertaken for exhibition installation activities and display periods i.e. that Risk Assessments and Method Statements are created and issued as necessary and staff and contractor inductions are carried out
  • Identify and minimise risk and hazards in the workplace at all times, recommend action as appropriate
  • Assist regular testing of Fire and Security systems
  • Undertake Duty Person responsibilities comprising:
  • Appointed First Aider (training provided)
  • Appointed Chief Fire Marshal (training provided)
  • Ensure security procedures are followed
  • Operate high level access equipment including mobile elevated work platforms and scaffold towers (training provided)
  • Deliver training and inductions for fire marshals
  • Set a good example to colleagues in respect of health and safety
  • Deliver ‘Toolbox Talks’ as required

General

  • Act as Keyholder and be part of an On Call rota system to provide support for technical or emergency issues arising outside normal working hours
  • Deputise for the Head of Operations and other colleagues as appropriate
  • Operate in accordance with Ikon’s employment, equal opportunities and other practices, policies and procedures
  • Deliver all work within budget and to agreed timescales and targets
  • Comply with licensing, legal and insurance requirements
  • Obtain, analyse and provide information to support decision-making
  • Manage own time and resources to meet objectives
  • Play an active part in improving communications across the team and other departments
  • Keep up to date with technical advances and practices related to the job role
  • Prepare and develop resources to support learning and information provision for staff and visitors
  • Devise appropriate training sessions as required
  • Available to work on events and installations evenings and weekends
  • Carry out any other duties commensurate with the job role

Required experience:

  • At least three years’ experience of exhibition planning, production and installation, ideally in a gallery environment
  • Understanding of contemporary art and the wider arts and culture sector
  • Maintaining health and safety procedures

Required competences:

  • Facilitate artistic ideas with practical and resourceful solutions and imaginativetechnical problem solving
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Ability to prioritise tasks and manage multiple priorities whilst remaining calm and professional
  • IT literacy in basic office and creative software applications
  • Excellent interpersonal skills. Build effective working relationships with others to ensure efficient and successful outcome to individual projects
  • Develop the trust and support of manager and colleagues
  • Lead or work collaboratively as part of a team as required
  • Professional, motivated and enthusiastic
  • Punctual, honest and reliable

Desirable experience:

  • Imaging and 3D software applications, for example Photoshop, Sketchup, AutoCAD
  • Ability to drive
  • Art handling
  • Knowledge of Audio Visual systems
  • Practical skills and technical knowledge within construction and workshop environments including use of hand and power tools, construction methods, materials and a variety of fixings and finishes
  • IPAF and/or PASMA licence
  • Managing stock, equipment and inventories

Ikon requires all staff to obtain enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) disclosure, in accordance with Ikon’s Child and Vulnerable Adults Protection Policy. You will be required to provide the necessary documentation for the checks to be carried out. Ikon will cover the cost of obtaining the disclosure and reserves the right to request additional CRB checks at any time in the future.

Terms and Conditions

Salary£25,000 - £27,000

Hours40 hours minimum per week, usually 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m

Five days a week, usually Monday to Friday (except exhibition installation periods which are more than five days a week)

Early morning, evening and weekend work will be required for building maintenance, events and exhibition installations.

Ikon staff are expected to attend Ikon events and be part of the artistic life of the organisation

OvertimeIkon operates a Time Off In Lieu (TOIL) system to be taken within four weeks of accrual unless agreed to be used later by your line manager

During exhibition installation period, TOIL is paid up to sixteen hours for time worked in addition to normal working hours calculated on a weekly basis. After sixteen hours overtime is paid at hourly rate.

Holidays25 days

ProbationThree months

Notice periodOne month

ContractPermanent

Staff BenefitsWorkplace pension schemes, Childcare voucher schem

An overview of Ikon

1.Brief History

Ikon Gallery is one of Britain's foremost galleries for presenting innovative contemporary visual arts. Renowned nationally and internationally for its exhibition, learning and off-site programmes, it has received numerous awards and prizes in recognition of its commitment to increasing access to challenging new art work.

Since Ikon first opened in Birmingham's Bull Ring Centre in the 1960s, it has grown in size and reputation, moving premises four times. Ikon is a very different organisation now to that which arrived at its gallery premises on Brindleyplace, Birmingham in early 1998. It is more outgoing and internationalist than ever before, whilst at the same time being locally engaged and committed to its role as a producer. As a venue Ikon Gallery is increasingly acknowledged as the heart of an extensive network of activity. Its off-site programme – including projects located in the public realm, touring and collaborations and educational outreach – is crucial to Ikon’s identity. Ikon, as ever, asserts a dynamic relationship with art, aspiring as much to accessibility as it does to excellence.

Ikon has galleries on two floors, providing 440 m² of exhibition space. There is a dedicated learning events room, a resource area for interpretative material, a popular and successful café run by Café Opus which opens onto a terrace, a bookshop, workshops and offices. The building offers full access for people with disabilities.

Regarded as one of Arts Council’s ‘flag-ship’ contemporary art organisations, Ikon receives core funding from Arts Council England and Birmingham City Council. Ikon is a limited company and a registered educational charity.

Identified within its current Strategic Plan 2015-18, the aims to:

Exhibit, initiate, promote and support new and innovative contemporary art from Britain and abroad

Develop dynamic and committed relationships between art, artists and audiences

Provide a unique space for contemporary art of international significance, playing a key role in the cultural life of Birmingham and the West Midlands

Offer access for everyone

  1. Artistic and Organisational Policy

Ikon is committed to the presentation of an innovative contemporary arts programme of national and international relevance, within a vital regional context.

Ikon is committed equally to the needs of artists and audiences. It actively seeks opportunities for the production of new art work. It is committed to the presentation of art work according to principles of excellence, aiming to make it as accessible as possible to audiences from a broad range of social backgrounds.

Ikon is the centre for an expansive and integrated programme, including offsite and touring projects, educational and interpretative activities, as well as gallery-based exhibitions.

Ikon’s management and organisational structure is concerned essentially with the most efficient facilitation of the artistic programme.

  1. Artistic programme

Ikon’s gallery programme now consists of approximately four exhibitions per year, in addition to occasional performances and other events. There have been a number of surveys of established artists including Arturo Herrera, Hurvin Anderson, Imran Qureshi, Julian Opie, Cornelia Parker, On Kawara, Giovanni Anselmo and Frederic Bruly Bouabré, as well as early outings for emerging artists such as Alice Cattaneo, Juneau Projects, Ignasi Aballi, Christiane Baumgartner, Bedwyr Williams and Ruth Claxton. Across the board exhibitions often feature new work, often commissioned by Ikon.

Our video programme has developed considerably, reflecting our acknowledgement of the foothold video now enjoys in contemporary art practice. The galleries themselves have often been the location for performance work, including artists such as Oleg Kulik, Tadasu Takemine, Marie Kool, Lorna Stewart, Mark Lockett and Richard Jenkinson.

A significant recent development in Ikon’s gallery programme has seen the presentation of historical material amongst exhibitions otherwise of work by contemporary/living artists including John Flaxman, Thomas Bewick and Kitagawa Utamara. In this way we convey how understandings of art history and contemporary practice inform each other, thus taking a leaf from programmes of performing arts – music, theatre, ballet etc. – in which old and new work are usually mixed.

Ikon Off-site has been a consistent and integral part of the artistic programme since 2000. It aims to make the diversity of contemporary art accessible to audiences who might never normally enter a traditional gallery space. The programme has involved a second venue, Ikon Eastside, which sadly we had to close in March 2011.

  1. Learning

Learning is at the heart of Ikon's activities, stimulating public interest in and understanding of contemporary visual art. The Learning team aim to build a meaningful relationship with Ikon’s audience enabling them to access, discuss and reflect on contemporary art.

Overall, our learning activity asserts the importance of personal experience celebrates creativity and engenders an enthusiasm for knowledge. Through the availability of various interpretative prompts – curatorial comment, participatory activity, artists’ writings etc – imaginative audience response is encouraged. Talks, tours, off-site projects, targeted workshops and seminars, each designed to build and develop ongoing dialogue, provide the actual space in which this diverse learning activity takes place.

This core programme, along with a variety of innovative off-site projects in schools and community settings, plays a key role in genuinely engaging with people of all backgrounds. Ikon’s audience is diverse, ranging from postgraduate art students to first-time gallery-goers and activity is designed with such a range of interest groups and needs in mind. A current major initiative involves Ikon’s Youth Programme participating in a programme of activity focussed on a long boat on the local canal network.

  1. Marketing

Marketing has focused on a number of key areas including raising the press and media profile of the entire programme of activity, both in arts and non-arts press/media. Off-site and Learning programmes have been integrated into the marketing strategy, raising the profile of these areas of Ikon’s work and positioning them with equal importance alongside the exhibition programme. Printed materials have been developed strategically, to publicise different areas of the programme and to ensure consistency and reiteration of brand identity. This work has increased profile dramatically, with Ikon featuring in major press and media on a regular basis. Audience development strategies have focused on collaborations with numerous organisations including marketing consortia, corporate partners, arts organisations and festivals locally, nationally and internationally. Ikon’s web site, re-launched in 2013, now includes interpretative resources and an on-line shop selling Ikon catalogues and limited editions.

  1. Shop

Ikon Shop is Birmingham's only specialist art bookshop, stocking a wide range of books, cards, artists’ multiples, magazines and gifts relating to art, design, photography, fashion, architecture and contemporary culture.

Ikon Shop is the only place to find the complete stock of past Ikon catalogues. Limited edition artists' prints and Ikon publications are also available to buy online, along with a range of books, cards and seasonal stock.

  1. Management

Ikon is run by a Board, the composition of which aims to reflect a broad spectrum of expertise: artistic, business and administrative. There is a statutory Risk Committee that oversees financial and personnel matters.

The Director has overall responsibility for Ikon’s activity. He is concerned particularly with shaping artistic and organisational policy, developing and maintaining links with external organisations, profile and fundraising and ensuring that other members of staff work with a high degree of personal responsibility.