About this role
Studio Manager and Technician
Line Manager: Technician Manager
Contract: Permanent, Parttime (1 day a week)
Days: Saturdays during Term time and a day during the week out of term time
Hours: 9am to 5.30pm (With an hour unpaid lunch break)
Overall Job Purpose:
To assist in the day-to-day smooth running of courses and exhibitions at The Royal Drawing School, providing key service to students, tutors, models and the Education teams. Studio Technicians are responsible for the management of studios and storage spaces across all venues and are expected to exhibit a great understanding of Health and Safety.
Working with the Technician Manager, you will aid in the smooth day-to-day running of the school's studios and Print Room, ensuring the upkeep, appropriate usage and set-up of studios and that materials are well stocked and available. You will support the Technician Manager in preparing and organising all school exhibitions and events, working with the wider technician team and department managers as needed, and with the Facilities Team to ensure studios and exhibition spaces meet the highest standards of Health and Safety. As a representative of the School, you should be approachable, build excellent rapport with students and tutors, and maintain excellent flexibility and time management. This role involves a good deal of manual work — including hanging artwork, moving and lifting furniture, basic carpentry and general studio cleaning — and calls for someone proactive who can work independently as well as part of a team.
Studio & Technical Set-Up
Sets up, runs and closes down studio spaces safely and efficiently across courses, providing technical (including AV and online) support throughout.
• Ensure studios are equipped, clean and set up with sufficient materials for student use; move easels, boards and paper for daytime and evening classes and create tutor sets as required.
• Set up the Print Room and other specialist studio spaces ahead of scheduled classes, working to the day's running order (e.g. Saturday courses).
• Provide tutors and guest speakers with AV support throughout classes and events
• Act as digital host for online (Zoom) classes when a member of the Education team is not available to do so.
• Support class changeovers between back-to-back sessions working alongside Young Artists technicians/staff as required, and provide short cover for colleagues' breaks to maintain continuous on-site technician support.
• Put out evening refreshments and registers and sweep between classes.
• At the end of each day, leave studios safe and tidy — materials and furniture stored away, windows closed, furniture neatly stacked, overhead/floor heaters switched off — and check the studio and register are set up ready for the next class.
• Bag up used studio linens for laundry collection at the end of the day, ready for collection.
Facilities, Repairs & Storage
Maintains studios and storage spaces in good working order, carrying out practical repairs and improvements and liaising with Facilities Management on the upkeep of venues.
• Complete on-site repairs and maintenance as required; replace and repair studio equipment through general carpentry and repairs work.
• Assist in building helpful new additions to the studio, such as storage racks and trolleys.
• Work with the Technician Manager to ensure the School maintains use of allocated storage; keep storage spaces tidy and accessible and help build new storage areas as needed.
• Liaise with the Technician Manager and Facilities Management on the proper upkeep of studios, reporting problems to senior management.
Event & Exhibition Delivery
Supports the planning and delivery of School exhibitions and events, from framing and hanging through to packaging, promotion and offsite support.
• Frame student work using the School's stock frames as needed for exhibitions and assist the Technician Manager in maintaining and storing the School's frames.
• Assist the Technician Manager in hanging exhibitions in collaboration with programme leaders, curators and onsite teams, and ensure walls are returned to their original clean state afterwards.
• Assist in organising appropriate art packaging and delivery of works.
• Assist School staff on an ad hoc basis with in-house events and parties; help promote the School and represent it when possible, including delivering promotional material.
• Provide technical assistance at offsite bespoke courses when needed.
Materials & Stock Management
Keeps studios and courses well stocked, ordering and tracking materials in a cost-aware and timely way.
• Assist the Technician Manager in designing and implementing stock inventories each term.
• Order materials for studios, courses and programmes as required, being aware of Public Programme and Drawing Year budgets; order refreshments for studios as required.
• Ensure steady stock levels are maintained; collect and deliver materials around London to various studios.
Health, Safety & Compliance
Applies the School's Health & Safety policies and procedures consistently, keeping studios, equipment and records compliant and up to date.
• Ensure studios are set up and run in line with the School's H&S policies and guidelines; assist the Public Programme and Education teams in ensuring students and tutors are aware of studio risk assessments, and help enforce studio rules.
• In liaison with the Technician Manager, ensure risk assessments are completed for each course on a term-by-term basis, signed off with relevant tutors, and files kept up to date.
• Ensure wires are covered to avoid trip hazards, with no wire 'daisy chaining' or model heaters plugged into extension cables; ensure correct, up-to-date signage is in place.
• Have a moderate understanding of ladder training, COSHH and proper manual handling.
• Monitor First Aid boxes, informing the Facilities, Health and Safety Manager of required refills.
Customer Service & Communication
Provides a warm, professional front line service to students, tutors and models, and handles transactions accurately.
• Take payments from students on a Saturday for drop-in courses, with an excellent understanding of customer service.
• Build excellent rapport with students and tutors as a key, approachable member of the School team.
Essential:
• Warm and welcoming manner, happy to help approach and an excellent team player
• Knowledgeable about an array of arts materials, particularly drawing materials
• Will be expected to carry easels / other art equipment which can be physically demanding, must be confident with hanging art works of varying sizes and fixtures, must be confident with using hand tools
• Flexible and adaptable, able to work extra days during busy exhibition periods
• Understanding of the needs of art schools and artists
• Self-starter, very proactive
• Excellent time management
• Good spoken and written communication skills
• Good knowledge of the workings of office equipment and software e.g. Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel)
• Understanding of audio-visual equipment and a willingness to learn
Desirable
• BA/MA in Fine Arts or equivalent experience in the arts
• Having an artistic practice