Jobs in the British Council arts group come up quite rarely.  The following is advice for people who are looking for an arts administration job, both within and outside the British Council.

British Council Arts Jobs

We only occasionally have vacancies at our London HQ, and these are generally advertised in the Guardian newspaper, or in specialist arts magazines. Most of our externally advertised jobs are for people who already work in the arts and have a good knowledge of the scene - they are not suitable for recent graduates.

The majority of our overseas arts staff are locally appointed in the country where they will be working and for these jobs an excellent command of the local language is necessary.  Again, these positions only come up occasionally, tend to go to people who already have some experience, and will only be advertised in newspapers in that country.

If you are an artist or performer interested in working for the Council, please see our support and funding section. If you are interested in working anywhere in the British Council (not just arts group) you can find information about our vacancies on our general jobs page.

Getting an Arts-related job in the UK

There are many thousands of job websites and these are just a few that specialise in arts-related jobs.  You may also find listings in specialist magazines for individual artforms.

Arts Hub - A subscription site including articles of interest to arts administration professionals and job listings

Arts Professional - The online version of the magazine of the same name; also containing job listings

The Guardian jobs guide - One of the larger job listings guides. Tell their searchable database exactly what kind of job you want, and run a search.  Please note that jobs advertised in the Guardian usually attract a high number of applicants.

Arts Council England - Occasionally carries vacancies.

If you are a recent graduate, or are coming to the UK in short term, you may find that temping is the quickest way to get a foothold in the arts world.  Advertisements for many temping agencies can be found online or in the free magazines distributed in urban areas.