Closing date: Ongoing

Creative Lives is always looking for volunteer Creative Advisers to support, inform and influence the work of our organisation. 

What we need from our Creative Advisers

• To help us ensure that we implement equality of opportunity and a diverse range of views and experiences throughout all our work.
• There will be an annual online meeting for all Advisers in which we will report on the work of Creative Lives and allow Advisers to question Creative Lives staff and Trustees to hold us to account.
• We will also hold an exclusive annual online Creative Conversation for all Advisers, featuring a high-profile guest speaker on a relevant topic.
• Creative Advisers will be invited to take part in judging sessions for the annual Creative Lives Awards.
• We will also invite Advisers from the pool to take part in short-term task & finish groups and one-off ad hoc meetings on particular topics to inform the work of the Creative Lives staff teams across the UK and Ireland.

Who we are looking for

People from a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. You might be:

• Someone who takes part in an amateur arts group or practices creative activities as a hobby.
• Working as an artist or in a professional arts organisation, the creative industries, a charity, community organisation, local government, or a media organisation - whether as a paid employee or a volunteer.
• Someone who has studied or has knowledge of everyday creativity, amateur arts, wellbeing, cultural democracy, volunteering or communities.
• Living anywhere in the world - as long as you are interested in everyday and community-based creative activity.

How will volunteer Creative Advisers benefit from their involvement? 

• An invitation to the annual online Creative Conversation featuring high-profile speakers and a range of other meetings on current issues and topics.
• You'll be helping to shape everyday creativity policy and practice, and the work of Creative Lives. 
• An opportunity to network with a diverse range of creative people from across the UK, Republic of Ireland and further afield. 

Practicalities

• Creative Advisers is a voluntary (unpaid) role.
• Meetings of Advisers will use digital communications by default, in line with our Environmental Sustainability Policy, but we will pay reasonable travel expenses for any in-person meetings.
• Creative Advisers will be required to take part in a minimum of 3 online meetings per year.
• Advisers will be asked to complete an annual equalities monitoring form which, anonymised, is used to ensure diversity of its membership and for recruitment purposes.
• Advisers will be asked to sign up for a 3-year period (with the option to extend for a second 3-year period to a maximum of 6 years). 
• We will publish a full list of our Advisers, with short biographies, on the Creative Lives website.

How to apply

Please fill in the short online survey below.

Create your own user feedback survey

If you need any help with the application process, please contact us at [email protected]. 

About Creative Lives

Creative Lives is a registered charity that was established in 1991. We champion community and volunteer-led creative activity, and work to improve opportunities for everyone to be creative. In particular, we celebrate and promote people expressing themselves creatively with others, recognising the benefits this can bring.

We know that creative expression in all its forms is a fundamental part of being human, but that individuals and communities need opportunities and support for creativity to flourish. We also know that people coming together to create, have fun, share experiences and support each other can have a positive impact on both their physical and emotional wellbeing.

To that end, Creative Lives works with communities, organisations, policy-makers, funders and creative individuals as a voice for positive change, to improve and expand the landscape in which creative participation can take place. 

We work to address inequalities in access to creative participation, promote inclusivity, connect people and communities, and seek to increase awareness of the links between creativity and wellbeing.

We do this on a local and national level through advocacy, development and celebrating the activities of creative people, groups and places through the Creative Lives Awards, Creative Lives On Air, Get Creative Festival, our Creative Networks and Creative Learning sessions and a diverse range of creative projects.