Cultural facilities manager

Cultural facilities managers direct the operations of facilities that provide cultural services such as theatre, movies and music. They plan and organise the daily operations of the related staff and facilities and ensure the organisation follows the latest developments in its field. They coordinate the different departments of the facility and manage the correct use of resources, policies and budgets.

The following job titles also refer to cultural facilities manager:

cultural facilities program coordinator
cultural facilities executive
cultural facilities director
cultural services manager
cultural manager

Bachelor’s degree is generally required to work as cultural facilities manager. However, this requirement may differ in some countries.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

Cultural facilities manager is a Skill level 3 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to cultural facilities manager.

cultural centre director
performance production manager
assistant stage director
lottery manager
gambling manager

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of cultural facilities manager. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of cultural facilities manager with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

cultural policy officer
auction house manager
secretary general
mediation and education manager
sports programme coordinator

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of cultural facilities manager.

Cultural projects: The purpose, organisation and management of cultural projects and related fundraising actions.
Corporate social responsibility: The handling or managing of business processes in a responsible and ethical manner considering the economic responsibility towards shareholders as equally important as the responsibility towards environmental and social stakeholders.

These skills are necessary for the role of cultural facilities manager.

Manage supplies: Monitor and control the flow of supplies that includes the purchase, storage and movement of the required quality of raw materials, and also work-in-progress inventory. Manage supply chain activities and synchronise supply with demand of production and customer.
Create cultural venue outreach policies: Draw up outreach policies for the museum and any art facility, and a programme of activities directed at all target audiences. Set up a network of exterior contacts to relay information to target audiences to this end.
Evaluate cultural venue programmes: Assist with the appraisal and evaluation of museum and any art facility programmes and activities.
Manage budgets: Plan, monitor and report on the budget.
Work with cultural venue specialists: Call upon the competence of other professionals and specialists, from within and outside the organisation, to contribute to activities and provide documents to improve public access to collections and exhibitions.
Manage staff: Manage employees and subordinates, working in a team or individually, to maximise their performance and contribution. Schedule their work and activities, give instructions, motivate and direct the workers to meet the company objectives. Monitor and measure how an employee undertakes their responsibilities and how well these activities are executed. Identify areas for improvement and make suggestions to achieve this. Lead a group of people to help them achieve goals and maintain an effective working relationship among staff.
Create cultural venue learning strategies: Create and develop a learning strategy to engage the public in line with the ethos of the museum or the art facility.
Manage operational budgets: Prepare, monitor and adjust operational budgets together with the economical/administrative manager/professionals in the arts institute/unit/project.
Manage cultural facility: Manage the daily operations of a cultural facility. Organise all activities and coordinate the different departments functioning within a cultural facility. Develop a plan of action and arrange the necessary funds.
Establish daily priorities: Establish daily priorities for staff personnel. Effectively deal with multi-task workload.

Promote cultural venue events: Work together with museum or any art facility staff to develop and promote its events and programme.
Supervise daily information operations: Direct daily operations of different units. Coordinate program/project activities to assure the respect of costs and time.
Develop cultural activities: Develop activities adapted to the outreach and/or audience. Take into account difficulties and needs observed and identified from the perspective of enhancing curiosity and general capability to access to art and culture.
Manage logistics: Create logistic framework for transporting goods to customers and for receiving returns, execute and follow up the logistics processes and guidelines.
Plan health and safety procedures: Set up procedures for maintaining and improving health and safety in the workplace.
Promote inclusion: Promote inclusion in health care and social services and respect diversity of beliefs, culture, values and preferences, keeping in mind the importance of equality and diversity issues.
Develop cultural policies: Develop programmes which aim to promote cultural activities and cultural engagement in a community or nation, and which regulate the organisation of cultural institutions, facilities and events.
Evaluate cultural venue visitor needs: Assess the needs and expectations of museum and any art facility visitors in order to regularly develop new programmes and activities.
Organise cultural events: Arrange events in cooperation with local stakeholders which promote local culture and heritage.
Follow company standards: Lead and manage according to the organisation’s code of conduct.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of cultural facilities manager. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Project management principles: Different elements and phases of project management.
Facilities management in the organisation: The principles and methods of facilities management as applied to individual organisations, best practice techniques, management implications of outsourced and in-house services, main types of contractual relationships in facility management and innovation procedures.
Project management: Understand project management and the activities which comprise this area. Know the variables implied in project management such as time, resources, requirements, deadlines, and responding to unexpected events.
Budgetary principles: Principles of estimating and planning of forecasts for business activity, compile regular budget and reports.
Cost management: The process of planning, monitoring and adjusting the expenses and revenues of a business in order to achieve cost efficiency and capability.
Accounting: The documentation and processing of data regarding financial activities.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of cultural facilities manager. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

Draw up artistic production: File and document a production in all its phases right after the performance period so that it can be reproduced and all relevant information remains accessible.
Create solutions to problems: Solve problems which arise in planning, prioritising, organising, directing/facilitating action and evaluating performance. Use systematic processes of collecting, analysing, and synthesising information to evaluate current practice and generate new understandings about practice.
Represent artistic production: Represent the artistic company or production outside your day-to-day activities. Liaise with presenters and their teams. Help direct tours.
Apply conflict management: Take ownership of the handling of all complaints and disputes showing empathy and understanding to achieve resolution. To be fully aware of all Social Responsibility protocols and procedures, and to be able to deal with a problem gambling situation in a professional manner with maturity and empathy.
Represent the organisation: Act as representative of the institution, company or organisation to the outside world.
Maintain relations with local representatives: Maintain good relations with representatives of the local scientific, economic and civil society.
Plan artistic production activities: Allocate staff and resources to different activities in the artistic production. Take into account the needs of the production and coordinate with the involved parties.
Liaise with event sponsors: Plan meetings with sponsors and event organisers to discuss and monitor upcoming events.
Liaise with cultural partners: Establish and maintain sustainable partnerships with cultural authorities, sponsors and other cultural institutions.
Create project specifications: Define the workplan, duration, deliverables, resources and procedures a project has to follow to achieve its goals. Describe project goals, outcomes, results and implementation scenarios.
Develop an artistic framework: Develop a specific framework for research, creation and completion of artistic work.
Liaise with local authorities: Maintain the liaison and exchange of information with regional or local authorities.
Define artistic vision: Continually develop and define a concrete artistic vision, starting from the proposal and continuing all the way through to the finished product.
Build community relations: Establish affectionate and long-lasting relationships with local communities, e.g. by organising special programms for kindergarden, schools and for dissabled and older people, raising awareness and receiving community appreciation in return.
Strive for company growth: Develop strategies and plans aiming at achieving a sustained company growth, be the company self-owned or somebody else’s. Strive with actions to increase revenues and positive cash flows.
Manage artistic project: Manage an artistic project. Determine project needs. Establish partnerships. Manage the budget, schedule, contractual agreements and assess the project.
Establish collaborative relations: Establish a connection between organisations or individuals which may benefit from communicating with one another in order to facilitate an enduring positive collaborative relationship between both parties.
Monitor activities: Monitor all the activities of an artistic organisation.
Manage health and safety standards: Oversee all personnel and processes to comply with health, safety and hygiene standards. Communicate and support alignment of these requirements with the company’s health and safety programmes.
Coordinate with creative departments: Coordinate activities with other artistic and creative departments.
Provide project information on exhibitions: Provide information on the preparation, execution and evaluation of exhibitions and other artistic projects.
Assemble an artistic team: Bring together an artistic team, after identifying the needs, looking for candidates, conducting interviews and aligning on the conditions of the project.
Maintain relationships with government agencies: Establish and maintain cordial working relationships with peers in different governmental agencies.
Coordinate rehearsals: Organise rehearsal schedules for actors and crew, collect and update necessary contact information as well as organise any additional meetings for the actors and crew.
Develop promotional tools: Generate promotional material and collaborate in the production of promotional text, videos, photos, etc. Keep previous promotional material organised.
Apply strategic thinking: Apply generation and effective application of business insights and possible opportunities, in order to achieve competitive business advantage on a long-term basis.
Estimate needs of artistic production: Analyse, estimate and list the production needs.
Plan resource allocation: Plan future needs of various resources such as time, money and specific process resources.
Develop artistic project budgets: Developing artistic project budgets for approval, estimating deadlines and material costs.
Analyse financial performance of a company: Based on accounts, records, financial statements and external information of the market, analyse the performance of the company in financial matters in order to identify improvement actions that could increase profit.
Set organisational policies: Participate in setting organisational policies that cover issues such as participant eligibility, program requirements, and program benefits for the service users.
Advise on efficiency improvements: Analyse information and details of processes and products in order to advise on possible efficiency improvements that could be implemented and would signify a better use of resources.
Fix meetings: Fix and schedule professional appointments or meetings for clients or superiors.
Analyse internal factors of companies: Research and understand various internal factors that influence the operation of companies such as its culture, strategic foundation, products, prices, and available resources.
Direct an artistic team: Lead and instruct a complete team with the required cultural expertise and experience.
Organise an exhibition: Organise and structure an exhibition in a strategic way, making the artworks more accessible to public.
Create production schedules: Create the timeline for the production of a motion picture, broadcast program or artistic production. Decide how long each phase will take and what its requirements are. Take into account the existing schedules of the production team and create a viable schedule. Inform the team of the schedule.
Delegate activities: Delegate activities and tasks to others according to the ability, level of preparation, competence and legal scope of practice. Make sure that people understand what they should do and when they should do it.
Manage fundraising activities: Initiate fundraising activities managing the place, teams involved, causes and budgets.
Develop professional network: Reach out to and meet up with people in a professional context. Find common ground and use your contacts for mutual benefit. Keep track of the people in your personal professional network and stay up to date on their activities.
Define artistic approach: Define your own artistic approach by analysing your previous work and your expertise, identifying the components of your creative signature, and starting from these explorations to describe your artistic vision.
Perform project management: Manage and plan various resources, such as human resources, budget, deadline, results, and quality necessary for a specific project, and monitor the project’s progress in order to achieve a specific goal within a set time and budget.
Analyse external factors of companies: Perform research and analysis of the external factor pertaining to companies such as consumers, position in the market, competitors, and political situation.
Coordinate artistic production: Oversee the day-to-day coordination of production tasks so that the organisation fits within the desired artistic and business policies and in order to present productions in a uniform corporate identity to the public.
Cope with challenging demands: Maintain a positive attitude towards new and challenging demands such as interaction with artists and handling of artistic artefacts. Work under pressure such as dealing with last moment changes in time schedules and financial restraints.
Build business relationships: Establish a positive, long-term relationship between organisations and interested third parties such as suppliers, distributors, shareholders and other stakeholders in order to inform them of the organisation and its objectives.
Participate in artistic mediation activities: Participate in cultural and artistic mediation activities: announce the activity, give a presentation or talk related to a piece of art or an exhibition, teach a class or a group, lead artistic mediation activities, lead or participate in a public discussion.
Perform resource planning: Estimate the expected input in terms of time, human and financial resources necessary to achieve the project objectives.

1431 – Sports, recreation and cultural centre managers

 

 

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References

1. Cultural facilities manager – ESCO