Accessible Arts & Media (AAM) has been a cornerstone of York’s inclusive creative community for over 40 years, offering life-changing opportunities through arts, performance, and wellbeing activities. We support people facing additional barriers, including disabled people, those with mental ill-health and older adults, to develop new skills, build confidence and connect with their communities.
As we look to the future, AAM is seeking an ambitious and strategic leader to join us as our next Chief Executive Officer. This is a pivotal moment in our story. With the retirement of our inspirational co-founder, Rose Kent, in 2025, and our recent move to a new, purpose-built space at Clifton Explore, we’re ready to enter a new chapter of growth and innovation.
AAM is a vital part of York’s cultural and social fabric, and the new CEO will play a key role in shaping our direction for the years ahead. You’ll lead the organisation through an evolving landscape, building on our existing strong networks in York’s learning disability and mental wellbeing sectors. We’re proud of our reputation for effective partnerships that deliver the best outcomes for the people we support, and the CEO will continue to build these vital relationships while exploring new opportunities.
As CEO, you’ll be responsible for working closely with our Board of Trustees, staff, participants and partners to co-create a new strategic business plan. You’ll lead with creativity, vision and drive, ensuring AAM’s projects are accessible, inclusive and impactful. Strong leadership, financial acumen and experience in fundraising and income generation are essential, as is a commitment to the lifechanging power of creativity.
The ideal candidate will bring a blend of strategic thinking and hands-on leadership, along with a passion for inclusion and accessibility. You’ll be a natural collaborator, an advocate for the charity and an inspiring leader for our staff and volunteers.
This is a fantastic opportunity for someone looking to make a tangible difference to the lives of others and lead an organisation with a rich history and an exciting future.
Candidate Pack
The audio version of the candidate pack can be found here.
Accessible Arts & Media strives to champion diversity in all its forms.
We’re committed to ensuring Accessible Arts & Media is an inclusive and diverse organisation, across our Board, staff and beyond, enabling us to be more representative of the communities we serve.
We welcome, and encourage, applicants with a wealth of lived experiences, and from a range of backgrounds, who can support our ambitions to become fully inclusive and reflective of our communities, who can contribute to broadening our knowledge, understanding and practice of to help make Accessible Arts & Media a truly equitable and inclusive organisation.
We recognise we’re on a journey of learning and improvement towards fulfilling our aims around diversity and inclusion. We encourage Board members, staff, volunteers, participants and partners to join us on this journey.
People from the global majority*, who are LGBTQIA+, disabled and/or from low socio-economic backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply.
*This includes, but is not limited to, people of Black Caribbean, Black African, South Asian, East Asian, South East Asian, Middle Eastern, Arab, Latinx, Jewish, Romany and Irish Traveller heritage.
People from these groups are currently under-represented in the arts nationwide and we’re committed to challenging and changing this.
We are also particularly keen to hear from people who have lived experience of or affinity with the work we do.
Accessibility
We’re committed to creating an inclusive and accessible environment. As part of this commitment, we try to ensure our recruitment process is fair, transparent and accessible to all candidates.
If you require any adjustments or accommodations during the recruitment process – such as alternative formats for application materials, additional support for interviews – or if you have specific access requirements, please don’t hesitate to contact aam@minervasearch.com. We will work with you to ensure that reasonable adjustments are made to meet your needs.
You’re encouraged to share any access requirements you may have for interviews in a covering note with your application.
For further details on the role, please visit our website.
Applications, in the form of a CV and cover letter, should be sent to aam@minervasearch.com, by 5pm, Monday 21st October 2024.
Please also complete our Equal Opportunities monitoring form by clicking here.
If you have any questions, or need to submit your application in another way, please email aam@minervasearch.com
First round interviews are scheduled for Tuesday 26th November. Selected candidates would need to be available for an online or in-person interview lasting no more than one hour.
Final interviews are scheduled for Friday 6th December 2024 and will take place in person in York. Selected candidates will need to be available for the full day.
Click here to access Accessible Arts & Media’s website.