OFFICIALS at Barnard Castle’s arts centre are on the hunt for someone to take charge of programming and fundraising.
A six-month agreement with arts charity Northern Heartlands to plan and book shows at The Witham comes to an end next month and trustees have decided to bring programming back in-house.
In addition, whoever is appointed will be charged with tackling the £100,000 annual funding gap at the centre.
Shelagh Avery, chairwoman of trustees, said the aim was to build on the successes of recent months.
“When Susan Coffer resigned as manager, the decision was taken not to recruit a replacement to take the time to think about what The Witham needed in terms of skills and knowledge,” she explained.
“As an interim step, we created a contract with Northern Heartlands to look after the programming for six months.
“That started really successfully with ten outdoor weekend sessions which brought in new people to The Witham as well as regulars to see a variety of mostly local, mostly amateur or semi-professional artists.”
In addition, The Witham is hosting a Christmas panto for the first time since reopening in 2013 after a multi-million pound revamp and the newly-formed Teesdale Operatic Society will stage its debut show Joseph at the venue in early December.
Hundreds of theatregoers attended this month’s Castle Players’ autumn shows of Alan Bennett plays and the Funny Way To Be Comedy Club continues to prove popular, including this week’s sell-out appearances by Nish Kumar.
Ms Avery added: “In conjunction with Jill Cole, director at Northern Heartlands, we concluded that programming activity needed to be reintegrated into the team here.”
She said the programming and fundraising role had been created to work alongside Suzanne Wallace as operations manager.
“The role is about understanding the cultural landscape – somebody with a good understanding of audiences.
“We also want to pursue the theme of ‘something for everyone’,” added Ms Avery.
“That has been a real driver for the programming changes that have been made since the 2018 campaign [to save The Witham].
“The role will also make a major contribution to tackling our funding gap, which is about £100,000.
“It’s about identifying opportunities for grants and creating relationships with potential donors.”
Full details are available online at thewitham.org.uk/get-involved/vacancies.
