South East Area Council Member
South East Area Council Member
Role Type: This is a voluntary, four-year role.
Salary: Voluntary position. Travel and other business-related expenses will be reimbursed in line with our expenses policy.
Closing date: 17:00 on Monday 22 June 2026
Are you passionate about culture and creativity? Do you want to influence how the Arts Council supports artists, organisations, and culture in your region?
Our South East Area Council is looking for members to support the creative and cultural landscape and shape the way the Arts Council works in the East of England and South East regions.
Area Councils help the Arts Council make local funding decisions and represent regional interests.
Covering the North, Midlands, South West, South East and London, they are made up of people from different backgrounds across and beyond the cultural and creative sectors. They include artists and creative practitioners, administrators, and local authority representatives.
Our South East Area Council has vacancies for two local authority members
Being an Area Council member will allow you to make a real impact locally. If our mission to nurture individual creativity and widen access to culture appeals to you, we want to hear from you.
We would like to attract people with a mix of skills, experiences, and voices, and who can demonstrate:
A belief in the value of creativity and culture in our society
An ability to champion the value of diversity and equality to the arts, culture and creativity that is fully reflected in the organisations and individuals that we support and in the culture they produce
A commitment to achieving the objectives of our new Strategic Framework: Objective 1: Excellence, Objective 2: For everybody, Objective 3: Everywhere.
The purpose of this Framework is to set out how we will prioritise our work, design our services and make our investment decisions while we consult on and develop a new strategy.
In addition:
We want fresh perspectives and experiences and would love to welcome more people under the age of 30 to our Area Councils
We are keen to receive applications from disabled candidates or experience of disability arts
We would also welcome applications from people with a music, children and young people, literature, digital arts, dance or libraries background: we value artform specialisms and these areas of expertise are currently under-represented on our South East Area Council
Above all, we are looking for someone with enthusiasm, who is open to new ideas and able to think through decisions carefully and fairly.
This is a voluntary, four-year role. Travel and other business-related expenses will be reimbursed in line with our expenses policy.
Detailed information about the role is available in the information pack linked below and on the Arts Council website. If you’d like to discuss the role further, please contact South East Area Director, Hazel Edwards, hazel.edwards@artscouncil.org.uk
To Apply: Please submit a CV, covering letter, and completed equal opportunities form to reuben.micu@artscouncil.org.uk no later than 17:00 on Monday 22 June 2026
To view the Area Council Recruitment Pack
To view the Equal opportunities form
Interviews: In person in London, 14 July 2026.
We participate in the ‘Offer an Interview’ scheme which means that we offer an interview to any disabled candidates who demonstrates that they meet the essential criteria for the role they’re applying to, subject to the volume of applications received. Disabled candidates, those living with a long-term condition and/ or neurodivergent candidates may be eligible for this scheme. The scheme uses the definition of disability from the Equality Act 2010 to determine eligibility.
Arts Council England’s South East Area covers Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Fenland, Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Luton, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea, Thurrock, Bracknell Forest, Brighton and Hove, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Kent, Medway, Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire, Reading, Slough, Surrey, West Berkshire, West Sussex, Windsor and Maidenhead, and Wokingham.
** Please do NOT apply through the Arts Council website - applications will not be processed**
To Apply: Please submit a CV, covering letter, and completed equal opportunities form to reuben.micu@artscouncil.org.uk no later than 17:00 on Monday 22 June 2026