Inside the Shetland Arts Trainee Role: Meet the Managers

Q: What makes the customer service aspect of this role so essential?

Customer service is at the heart of everything we do. You’ll play a key role in ensuring our visitors have a great experience, whether that’s through working on the box office, serving in the café bar or helping manage the events. You’ll develop essential skills in communication, problem-solving and teamwork, which are transferable to any career.

Q: What will a typical day look like for this role in your department?

There’s so much variety and every day is different depending on what’s happening. You will be preparing the cinema for a screening, helping customers purchase tickets, taking orders in the café, setting up for major events, welcoming guests, cleaning the coffee machine, restocking sweets or the gift shop, sitting in on gigs, assisting guests at the Garrison or serving drinks at a conference or wedding. We have a packed calendar and plenty to keep us busy.

Q: How does the Production department stand out in this role?

It’s all going on behind the scenes! You get to experience working with visiting artists and production companies. You’ll learn to set up and run live performances, operate audio and lighting systems and work on repairs and maintenance. It’s hands-on, technical with lots of skills to learn and lots of opportunity to see fantastic performances!

Q: What will a typical day look like for this role in your department?

It’s a very varied work environment; some days we’ll be setting up an event such as a conference or Film quiz. Sometimes we have a theatre company in so they’ll load in at 9am and spend all day building their set, finishing with a performance at night and sometimes there is a concert in the evening which requires setting up and operating.

Q: What opportunities does your department provide for this role?

You will gain hands-on experience in supporting the delivery of arts education and outreach programs. This role is designed to provide a broad understanding of creative project delivery. The role offers a unique opportunity to work across a variety of creative projects, develop valuable management and organisational skills and make a real impact on our community’s access to the arts.

Q: What will a typical day look like for this role in your department?

You’ll help deliver our Creative Industries courses, working closely with our educators to engage our students. This could be helping facilitate course materials and resources, supporting the Learning Lead in their planning, coordination and execution of youth arts and wellbeing arts projects. You will also be working alongside creative freelances, providing valuable assistance in delivering their workshops to encourage and engage participants.

Q: What can the successful candidate expect to learn in Support Services?

Support Services offers invaluable experience in the operational side of running an arts organisation. You’ll learn about finance, HR, administration and event logistics. These skills are essential, not only for the arts but in all other industries.

Q: What will a typical day look like for this role in your department?

A typical day could include updating our venue management system, contracting events and freelancers, analysing timesheets, managing email enquiries or assisting with board meetings. The key thing you will learn whilst you are with our team is why admin is important. Why being accurate and timely is vital to the smooth running of any business and why the creativity couldn’t happen without the administrators!

Q: What kind of projects will the successful candidate work on in Marketing?

As well as promoting events and the cinema, you will also be providing marketing support for various areas of the organisation from; Creative Projects & Artist Support, Outreach & Learning, the Gift Shop & Cafe bar at Mareel, as well as the promotion of Shetland Arts itself. You’ll also get hands-on experience updating websites, understanding analytics and reporting, as well as assisting with the programming of the cinema schedules.

Q: What will a typical day look like for this role in your department?

A typical day in Marketing would include promoting events through social media, email, poster mailouts, radio adverts and writing press releases. You could also be working on designing marketing materials, writing blogs or taking photos of events or stock in the shop. Additionally, you could be proofreading our cinema schedule, watching trailers or ordering cinema posters. There is plenty of variety and always room for more suggestions and ideas on how to reach our audience more effectively.