Arts Council of Wales  are currently recruiting for National Advisers. The closing date for applications is 31 August:

Become a National Adviser and help the Arts Council of Wales nurture excellence in the arts.

Do you feel passionate about the arts in Wales? Are you prepared to offer your ideas, experience and expertise to develop feedback on arts experiences and help build new opportunities for people across Wales to enjoy and take part in the arts?

If your answer to these questions is "yes" we, the Arts Council of Wales, want to hear from you.

Currently we’re renewing the membership of our National Advisers and recruiting new members to join our network.

We’re looking for individuals with an appropriate calibre of arts experience. National Advisers are people who give voluntarily of their time to assist us, and their peers, in developing the quality of the arts in Wales.

The range of views and experience we are seeking is broad. We have a list of specialisms which our advisers cover. The Prospectus covering the role of National Adviser sets out how we work with our advisers (and what we offer them) and what we expect from them.

What you can bring to our work

Our Advisers bring with them a diverse range of expertise, often as artists, or arts managers themselves. Our Advisers also include academics, writers, consultants and business people – indeed, anyone with demonstrable knowledge, expertise in, and commitment to, the arts. Working together, our Council, staff and Advisers offer to Wales the country’s most dynamic and comprehensive resource of specialist arts expertise.

We’re keen to be able to tap into expertise across the whole range of topics covered in our list of specialisms. You’ll notice that some category specialisms are "catch alls". But in some fields – such as music and dance – we’re looking for advisers who have specialist expertise within individual arts areas. For example across the whole spectrum of dance from Parkour to Ballet, and the whole range of music from indie to classical.

2014 saw the publication of Inspire, our outline strategy for the arts in Wales through to 2020. The ethos of this strategy is to Make excellent art, Reach larger audiences and Sustain the life of the arts in Wales.

At this time we are particularly looking to build up our advisers in Arts in the context of Equalities and Diversity, Arts and Education (and more generally Arts and Young People), Arts and Sustainability, Arts and Research. We need to improve our spread of Advisers across Wales and we need more Welsh speaking arts advisers. We are also looking for some advisers from beyond Wales to offer benchmarking from elsewhere. We are also recruiting Advisers particularly for our Advisory Committee on Cymru yn Fenis/ Wales in Venice (our Venice Art Biennale presence.)

What we ask our National Advisers to do

Day to day work is undertaken by the Council’s professional staff – deploying their expertise with a range of specialist knowledge. Our Council meets regularly to interrogate our work and determine strategic direction acting as Trustees. It’s essential we’re well informed, balanced in our views and aware of the full diversity of contemporary creative activity. It’s also important that we’re familiar with the latest developments and thinking in the arts, in Wales and further afield. That’s where National Advisers come in- it’s their diversity and depth of experience we rely on to carry out our work.

Some of the benefits of being a National Adviser

This is a voluntary role with certain advisory work remunerated for free-lancers and expenses and costs covered in attending work when asked in our Quality Appraisal process. You will benefit from exposure and insight into current artistic practice around the country. This is also an opportunity to strengthen your professional networks and build relationships with your peers in the arts sector. National Advisers gain insight into the policy making process and operations of Arts Council of Wales, and their input is valued in developing these. Becoming a National Adviser can be a strong addition to your CV, but an Adviser can only act under the auspices of the Council as mandated.

Interested? The next steps...

If you’re interested in joining us as a National Adviser, there’s a Prospectus and an Application Pack for you to download. 

http://www.artscouncilofwales.org/about-us/national-advisers/

We’ll follow this up and invite you to an interview, after which we’ll write to you, if you’ve been successful, to confirm your appointment.

We look at recruitment on a three-year cycle, and we can renew advisers’ terms of appointment for a maximum of two three-year cycles. We also recruit on an "as needs arise" basis if we determine new needs for particular areas of advice.

You can register your interest in becoming a National Adviser at any time, but the closing date for this particular round of recruitment is 31st August, 2015.

We are intending to hold interviews across Wales in September 2015. An induction day is planned for 7th October 2015