In-Situ is an interdisciplinary, embedded arts organisation, based in Pendle, East Lancashire. We are seeking 3 new members for the Board of Directors who will embrace our radical vision and values to support and contribute to our ongoing creative and strategic development and support the team with care, commitment and enthusiasm.  

 

 

This is an opportunity to be part of a unique organisation that challenges current thinking around people, place and culture. It's the chance for continued high-level personal development alongside our team, reimagining the structures and processes that underly an arts organisation and it's place in wider society. It's the opportunity to share your expertise and experience with us to co-develop In-Situ's future direction. 

 

This is an exciting time to join the organisation to make a significant contribution to Pendle’s cultural, social and economic development and enjoy developing a deeper appreciation for embedded long-term practice. This year, we prepare a significant funding bid to develop the legacy of This is Nelson, a Town Deal project funded by UK government. We will be reviewing our business plan and developing our 3rd NPO bid in June/July 2025 for 2027-31, legacy of TIN programme March 2026 – significant Town Deal bid for legacy work and planning our 2026-27 NPO extension year as a time for prioritising reflecting and sharing learning.  

 

Our current programme includes projects that connect people with nature, increase health outcomes and routes into creative employment, re-purposes disused buildings, explore the role of art and creativity in education, provide regular youth clubs in Nelson and Brierfield, explore community climate education and active hope, democratic decision-making processes and community ownership and provide opportunities for artists to develop work within our embedded context through commissions and residencies. 

 

In-Situ has a unique way of operating as a team and organisation, through what we call a Fluid Structure, which in brief, means: 

• There is no Director 

• We share power with an awareness of mainstream / margin dynamics 

• Our work together is informed by coaching methods 

• We use consensus decision making processes and tools; 

• Leadership is fluid according to skills, resource, capacity, experience, vision or desire for development; 

• We have a flat pay structure (with the exception of funded traineeships, which are paid at the voluntary living wage); 

• We all work in accordance with our code of ethics.  

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​What we are looking for 

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Do you have a track record with leading and developing an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO)? 

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or 

Do you have an artist practice rooted in themes close to our own and moving between hyperlocal and international contexts? 

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or 

Are you a local figure with insight around funding, sustainability and local decision making? 

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and 

Are you committed to supporting and contributing to our unique way of working around complex local issues and inequality? 

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This is your opportunity to be part of an organisation that challenges norms, celebrates diversity, and makes a real social impact. It is a chance for your own personal development; learning alongside others, learning about governance and to having a voice in influential conversations. As well as to support the continued development of a radical and groundbreaking organisation that has been working at the intersection of art and community since 2012 towards greater equality for human and non-human life.   

 

What being an In-Situ Board Member involves 

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Regular or ongoing:  

• Working in alignment with our code of ethics, vision and values; 

• Support and contribute to Fluid Leadership across the team and the board, contributing to consensus decision making and policy development;  

• Reading Board papers and updates from funders; 

• Attend quarterly Board meetings. The board meets four times per year online. Meetings take place on Tuesday evenings from 6pm – 8pm on Zoom; 

• Attend staff and Board away days. We also have two facilitated staff and board days per year which focus on policy and strategic development, with an agenda set collaboratively; 

• Support and contribute to the development of significant funding bids and business plan and policy revisions; 

• Checking and signing off our accounts (training provided if needed) 

• Demonstrate an enthusiasm and ability to act as a champion for In-Situ, its work, its people, its values  

 

Occasional and shared between Board members: 

• 1:1 support for team members around your specialism  

• Support and contribute to the creation of new roles and sit on interview panels; 

• Represent In-Situ at events; 

• Attending training or briefings around around sector and ACE changes and governance skills ACE Investment princi9pals  

• Called upon to support conflict resolution / disciplinaries;  

• Attendance at programme events  

 

How to Apply  

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Expressions of interest can be in writing or by video. This should be no more than 2 A4 pages or 3-5 minutes of video.  Please outline the following:

 

• Which of the 3 specified roles you are interested in

• What experience you would bring - you could include a CV or bio

• How you would contribute to In-Situ

• Any development that would enable you to grow in the role.

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Please send your expression of interest to: paul@in-situ.org.uk  
by Monday 3rd March, 5pm.  

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Selection process  

• Shortlisting w/c 3rd March  

• Informal conversations with shortlisted candidates 12/13th March 

• These will be at The Garage or on Zoom, with Paul Hartley (Co-Director and Strategic Partnerships, Anna Taylor (Co-Director and Critical Engagement) and Husnain Hanif (Chair) 

• If successful, invitation to next Board meeting on 25th March, 6-8pm  
   

Forthcoming dates to be aware of: 

Staff and Board away days:  Friday 9th May and Friday 24th October 

Board Meetings 2025-26  Tuesdays 24th June / 23rd Sept / 9th Dec / 24th Mar  

 

 

About In-Situ  

 

We produce socially and locally relevant art that makes a positive difference to everyday lives. Our art challenges 'business as usual' thinking about environment people, place and culture. our art is an art of action. Our art contributes to society as a whole. 

 

We are an interdisciplinary organisation based in Pendle, Lancashire, working between arts practice*, community engagement and ecology. For the last decade, we have been working collaboratively with partners and communities to bring about social and environmental change in Pendle, addressing inequalities, lack of provision and the need to support creative development and sustainable futures. 

 

Founded in 2012, we work in an embedded way, through the formation of long-term relationships and dialogue. We explore how creative practices and artists approaches can enhance and facilitate community*, societal and environmental, interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue and through the co-creation* of visible, self-sustaining art and culture. 

 

Our work takes place in many settings; in libraries and shops, on Pendle Hill and in rural villages, in homes and schools; in places of care, of work and of worship; on pavements and in carparks. 

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Our Artistic Goals (From 2023 Business Plan) 

Infrastructure and creative development  

• To embed art practice* and processes into the heart our diverse and changing communities by creating the infrastructure and supporting ecologies for meaningful and sustainable art in Pendle.  

• Providing visible pathways to creative careers and support for local emerging* artists  

• To work with individuals and communities to nurture ideas and potential through a positive, proactive and supportive ‘yes and…’** approach  
   

Addressing inequalities: in everyday life through art, and access to art in everyday life 

 

• To create an intercultural* art aesthetic that is inclusive* across the diverse communities of Pendle: challenging current thinking around contemporary art practice and aesthetics*. 

• To expand local understanding amongst residents, governing institutions, education providers, organisations and agencies around what art might be and what art can contribute to society as a whole. 

• To empower people in Pendle to contribute, with confidence and enjoyment, to the processes of co-creating and critiquing an ‘art of everyday life’* and participate in the formation and appreciation of ways of thinking about art  

• To develop ways to engage a representative local demographic in civic processes, opportunities for involvement and learning and access to shared resources, including the Pendle landscape  
   

To explore, test and share the potential for a socially relevant art in Pendle  

 

• To create spaces for dialogue, conversation and collaboration between people and communities from different disciplines and ethnicities. 

• To work in the locale to co-explore and develop new ways of thinking about everyday and future issues and challenges in Pendle, and for art to play a collaborative* role in developing solutions. To provide alternatives – to thinking, outcomes, aims and approaches (small and large scale*) 

• To nurture and deepen understanding and practice of embedded* art through shared learning and advocacy. 
   

Pendle and the wider world - ‘putting Pendle on the map’ 

 

• Explore Pendle’s place in the world, past and future through revisiting histories and exploring future economies and ecologies  

• Create opportunities for sustained international connections and dialogue with relevant places, projects, artists and thinkers  

• Sharing our learning within the locale as a model for radical, ethical and embedded practice  

 

 In-Situ’s business plan has three main thought strands unpinning the programme: 

 

• Future economies and ecologies  

• Where we are (at) 

• The natural environment and the non-human 

 

In-Situ enables the exploration of these themes through creative and critical approaches that transverse art and social practice. Collaboration, co-production, interdisciplinary working and shared learning underpin the creative activity that In-Situ nurtures and allows to flourish. 

 

In-Situ embraces the slow, attentive and exploratory nature of this embedded practice: taking responsibility to build, grow and sustain conditions that enable fresh perspectives and collective action that positively transforms people’s lives. 

 

Our current activity plan covers a range of programme’s including (a selection); This Is Nelson a cultural programme as part of the Nelson Town Deal governmental regeneration programme, engaging local residents in the future of their town centre and its outskirts in dialogue with artists and using creative methods. We have a wellness programme called Hillo Hub, exploring movement with local women, overcoming social isolation and experienced barriers to active lifestyles. Thinking Out Loud is a critical engagement programme exploring the value of art in everyday life, with dialogue and exploration from all around the organisation; artists, participants, team and collaborators. We have an annual open brief Artist in residence based in Brierfield and Anything, Here – a practitioner network developing a local creative infrastructure. Our recent climate engagement programme, Climate Lab Pendle has pushed our environmental work to the fore, exploring the Climate Crisis, climate psychology and inequality in Pendle through intergenerational and intercultural dialogue and community climate education.  

 

About the Board 
 

In-Situ is a company limited by guarantee and in 2017 became an Arts Council England (ACE) National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) for 2018 – 22 which was renewed for 2023-26, with a confirmed extension year from 2026-27. The organisation is governed by a voluntary board of non-executive director with one executive director, which meets quarterly. It is the Directors’ responsibility to approve the strategic business plan of the organisation and to interrogate and agree the strategy of the organisation and to ensure sound financial management. This includes supporting the team to deliver the ACE agreed Activity Plan and maintain the relationship with ACE with particular focus on how In-Situ responds to the ACE Investment Principles. 

 

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For more information and any questions please contact

paul@in-situ.org.uk or call Paul on 07967671156 

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