ASSOCIATE ARTIST

We’re looking for a theatre artist who’s passionate about collaboration to become our 2024-25 Associate Artist.

We’re keen to work with an artist who wants to explore these questions through a bespoke programme co-designed with us, without a fixed creative outcome in mind. We’d love to work with an artist to respond to these questions in whatever way they like, drawing on their creative practice, experience and ideas to foster connections, start new conversations and provoke change. We recognise that, due to the way the sector works, many artists may have never worked with a company without an expectation of a creative outcome. We hope this opportunity is liberating, but also understand it could be daunting if you've never worked in this way before, and encourage applications from artists who may not usually put themselves forward for this kind of engagement. 

The 2024-25 Associate Artist programme

Who we’re looking for

We’re looking for a theatre artist - you might be a dramaturg, writer, director, designer, performer, facilitator or in another role - who:

• Has a passion for exchanging ideas, experiences and different perspectives

• Has a desire to experiment, challenge and explore how arts organisations can work better with artists

• Has exciting ideas about how they might draw on their practice to respond to this role

• Has a genuine commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion

• Is a natural collaborator and thrives on shared exploration

• Has an ability to work independently and with curiosity and openness

• Is excited by iterative, co-designing processes

• Is at any stage of their career and working full or part time in their creative practice

The programme 

We want to work with our 2024-25 Associate Artist to co-create what this new phase of the programme might look like and we’re open to all suggestions about how we might go about this - we’d like this to be a process co-designed with you, which could include time for you to discuss, reflect, explore and share ideas. When you begin we’ll discuss our thoughts together, make a plan and always aim to keep it creative, instinctive and fun. Here are some of the things you might consider - this is by no means an exhaustive list and we’d love to hear what you think might be exciting and work well:

• Your time with us could be spent meeting with different people from Ad Infinitum to chat through how we work and what we’d like to change, as well doing research, being invited to observe our board meetings and taking part in, or leading workshops and facilitating conversations with other creatives. 

• As well as getting to know how our organisation works you could join us at points during creative R&D or rehearsals, in a way that suits your practice and commitments, to get to know how we make and produce our work. 

• You might want time to reflect, research, document or write about your practice and experiences of being an artist or working in the sector or to connect with other artists. 

• We can discuss what Ad Infinitum and its various partners can offer you during your time with us, depending on your ambitions, creative ideas or potential career development aspirations. This could include time spent developing your practice, exploring an idea, making new connections and so on. 

• We have a budget to pay for mentoring or training that might be relevant to you, and a small pot of money you’ll be able to allocate to creative exploration.

During and at the end of your engagement we’ll ask you to join us to reflect on and share your experiences of working with us, to help inform the next stage of this programme. 

When

25 days spread across September 2024 to March 2025. We'll chat with you to create a schedule that works for everyone. How the working days of the role might be structured will be discussed at the start of your time with us and can be flexible around any other freelance commitments you have. 

Fee 

We will pay a daily rate of £220 (total fee £5,500). The Associate Artist will be contracted by Ad Infinitum and paid as a freelancer and is therefore responsible for all associated taxes due to HMRC.

We’ll also pay for agreed travel expenses during the engagement and book accommodation for you if it’s needed.

Background to the Associate Artist Programme

In 2021-22 Ad Infinitum held a series of consultations with artists exploring the potential structure and aims for a new associate artist programme.

Following the consultation Ad Infinitum carried out a research and development phase to test how we can develop and provoke change in our sector, through inviting artists who experience marginalisation to have a direct role in the company’s creative work, operations and strategic development, in partnership with Northern Stage and Tobacco Factory Theatres. Looking outwards, we asked artists to work with us and our partners to try to imagine a more representative, more diverse, more inclusive cultural ecology. 

We worked with artists Ife Grillo and Tracy Gillman over nine months to research and develop the programme, finding huge value in a process that was led by conversation, flexibility and varied types of exploration.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to work with Ad Infinitum, Tobacco Factory, Tracy Gillman and the wider theatre community, it's been a way for me to make sense of my own experiences and get new perspectives. It is so important to create spaces where creatives can connect with companies as partners. The relationship feels different as I'm not here to create a piece of work for a company, I'm here to work with them to ask big questions and come up with even bigger answers.” - Ife Grillo

“Collaborating with Ad Infinitum has been a rewarding experience… the opportunity to investigate meaningful relationships between organisations and freelance creatives has provoked rigorous and effective conversations about rights, rules and responsibilities which I hope will continue into the future.” - Tracy Gillman

Please click the button below to take a look at our Associate Collaborators page for more information about the background to the Associate Artist programme.

Information session

We are holding an informal information session about the role on Wednesday 29 May from 10.30-11.30am on Zoom. This is an opportunity to find out what it’s like to work with Ad Infinitum, to meet some of the team including Co-Artistic Director Nir Paldi and long-term Ad Infinitum collaborator Ife Grillo, and ask any questions you have about the role, what it’s like to work with Ad Infinitum and the application process. We will provide BSL interpreters and live captions.

How to apply

To apply, please email your CV and a cover letter no longer than 2 sides of A4, or a short video or audio file (please keep it under 5 minutes) to recruitment@ad-infinitum.org with ‘Associate Artist Application’ as the subject line. Tell us about your experience relating to the ‘Who we’re looking for’ section in this call out (this can include your experience outside of a creative role) and why you’d like to be our Associate Artist 2024-25.

Please also click here to complete this monitoring form. This is anonymous and will not be used for shortlisting.

We actively invite people whose backgrounds and lived experience are underrepresented in the theatre sector to apply and positively impact our organisation. We are particularly keen to receive applications from people from Global Majority and working/benefit class backgrounds, and Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing and disabled people.

We are committed to creating a more diverse workforce and will work to provide any access, mentoring support or working arrangements that are required for you to deliver your best work. There will be an artist wellbeing practitioner available to offer 1:1 support during the engagement.

Applications will close on Monday 10 June at 5pm. We’ll then shortlist applicants for first stage interviews which will take place on Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20 June, online. Second stage interviews will take place on Wednesday 3 July, in person in Bristol. We will pay travel expenses for all interviewees who are based outside of Bristol. 

We'd like to schedule an initial meeting in July or August to discuss the role and how it might be structured, with the Associate Artist starting from September. 

If you have any questions about the application process including technical problems please contact our producer Mia Lake at mia@ad-infinitum.org and we will do our best to help you. 

About Ad Infinitum 

Ad Infinitum is a diverse-led company based in Bristol and dedicated to making accessible, inclusive and captivating theatre, led by Co-Artistic Directors George Mann and Nir Paldi. 

Since founding in 2007, we have dedicated our artistic platform, as a multi-award winning, nationally-reaching devising theatre company, to championing marginalised voices in theatre and reaching underserved audiences. In 2023, we became an Arts Council NPO.