Studio Manager & Producer (Women-Centred Practice) in Accrington

Idle Women is an arts, environment and social justice collaboration founded by artists in 2015. We create projects that reach beyond the horizon, co‑creating transformative spaces that cannot be cut, closed or taken away. Our artworks are spaces: a boat, a garden, a rave, an allotment, a website. They are created through collaboration and built to last, to be animated and inhabited by women. Our first endeavour was to build Narrowboat Selina Cooper with women living in a specialist domestic violence refuge. Over two years we travelled the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, seeding friendships and meeting women who continue to shape the Idle Women community today. In 2018 we crowdfunded, investing in a strip of canalside land in Nelson, which women transformed by hand into the UK's first and only physic garden for women. The Physic Garden is a living artwork dedicated to women's health, providing permanent access to nature, knowledge and beauty. Today, through our partnership with Humraaz and a broad community of collaborators, we create artistic productions across diverse forms and make innovative digital work. We offer year‑round creative programmes, paid traineeships, and specialist outreach work with women navigating complex circumstances. We understand art making and transformation as a daily process. We work with women's strengths, create spaces of possibility, and support one another to imagine and build different futures. For us, administration, maintenance, growing, making, organising and caring are creative acts. This understanding sits at the heart of how we work as an organisation.

Position: Studio Manager & Producer (fixed‑term, 18 months, 30 hours per week, based in Accrington, Lancashire). The role sits at the intersection of project production, studio management, and women‑centred support work. It requires organisational and collaborative skills, boundary‑setting, and a caring approach to work with a small dynamic arts and social justice organisation.

What you'll be doing

• Studio Management
  • Coordinating the day‑to‑day running of the studio and project spaces
  • Maintaining shared systems, records and communications
  • Supporting day‑to‑day finance administration (petty cash, expenses and receipts)
  • Managing schedules, meetings and organisational logistics
  • Coordinating maintenance, supplies and practical resources
  • Contributing to the development and improvement of systems and ways of working that support the long‑term sustainability of the organisation and the well‑being of the people within it
• Project Production
  • Production support for artistic and community projects from planning through to delivery
  • Coordinating artists, facilitators, partners and participants
  • Managing project logistics, equipment, travel and accommodation
  • Supporting the administration of monitoring and evaluation
  • Monitoring project budgets and timelines
• Participant Support
  • Contributing to a culture of welcoming, supportive relationships with women participating in projects
  • Coordinating access and practical support needs
  • Organising registration forms and communicating information about sessions
  • Providing practical and administrative support for trainees running sessions
  • Working within safeguarding and confidentiality procedures
  • Supporting women to navigate practical barriers to participation and connecting with specialist support where appropriate
  • Contributing to a culture of care, inclusion and mutual support

Who this role might suit

You might have experience in:

• Arts production or project management
• Community development
• Women's services
• Participation or engagement work
• Social justice organisations
• Education, youth work or adult learning
• Cultural organisations or grassroots community projects

We are interested in transferable skills and lived experience as well as formal qualifications. You do not need to have worked in all of these areas. This is a busy, hands‑on role where no two days are the same, and where priorities may shift in response to the needs of the organisation and the people we work with.

What we're looking for

• Is highly organised and able to manage multiple strands of work
• Is comfortable working in a small team with shared responsibility
• Can balance practical delivery with strategic thinking
• Communicates clearly and kindly
• Understands the importance of boundaries and sustainable working practices
• Is confident working with a range of people and partners
• Can respond thoughtfully to complexity and uncertainty

Important information

• Access: We work across sites with limited wheelchair accessibility. We do our best to adapt to all barriers – to discuss access please email info@idlewomen.org.
• Driving: A UK driving licence is necessary to work across our different sites. Access to a vehicle is desirable; a company vehicle is also available for project work.
• Probation period: There will be a three month probation period with this appointment.
• DBS and Safer Recruitment practice: Idle Women is committed to safeguarding women, children, young people and supporting the creation of a safe culture, particularly for Black, minoritised and migrant women and children survivors of abuse and violence. Proof of identity and a Disclosure and Barring Service check are required.
• Women only post: This post is open to women only (exempt under the Equality Act 2010 Schedule 9, Part 1).