Programme Director - Creative ARTS TRUST Productions

Programme Director – Creative Tendring, Arts Trust Productions

Creative Tendring is a new, district‑wide cultural programme for Tendring. It’s an invitation to make creativity feel closer, more relevant and more welcoming, not something reserved for certain people or places, but something you can encounter in everyday life and help shape.

The Programme Director will be the founding lead for Creative Tendring. You will guide the programme from early‑stage set‑up into confident delivery, ensuring it is resident‑powered, creatively bold, operationally strong and publicly accountable. The role starts with a development phase: building deep relationships, listening widely, and co‑designing a long‑term cultural vision with communities across Tendring. You will then deliver the plan you help create, turning shared priorities into high‑quality cultural activity on the ground.

• Build deep relationships, listen widely, and co‑design a long‑term cultural vision with communities across Tendring.
• Translate what you learn into a clear plan for action, identifying the first focus areas, setting up community‑led decision‑making structures, and co‑developing the three‑year business plan, programme approach, and measures of success.
• Grow partnerships, support artists and residents to collaborate, and shape activity ranging from neighbourhood work in everyday spaces to larger public moments, including connecting with existing local festival infrastructure and building toward a major town‑centre activation in Clacton.
• Lead learning and evaluation, using insight to improve practice, remove barriers to participation, and evidence impact over time.
• Act as the key connector between communities, partners, the host organisation and Arts Council England.

Creative Tendring is hosted by Arts Trust and developed in partnership with a consortium of civic, voluntary and cultural partners:
Tendring District Council, Community Voluntary Services Tendring (CVST) and Harwich Arts & Heritage Centre. While hosted by Arts Trust, Creative Tendring operates as a distinct, arm’s‑length programme with its own identity and governance.

• Download the Recruitment Pack Here
• Send your CV (max 2 pages) and a cover letter (max 2 pages) outlining how your skills and experience match the role and your vision for Creative Tendring to  with the subject line "Your Name:
  Programme Director Creative Tendring".
• We also accept applications by voice note or film (uploaded privately to You Tube/Vimeo).
• Please complete an equal opportunities monitoring form via this link: (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)./7
  
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, 5pm.
Interviews: 27 February 2026, Tendring District Town Hall, Clacton‑on‑Sea.
For an informal conversation about the role, please contact