Secondment Opportunities in Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Digital Culture Project

Closing date: Monday 12th December

Contract type: Secondment until July 2017

Business area: policy development, project planning, evidence and analysis

Number of posts: 5 posts: 3 policy roles, 1 evidence and analysis role and 1 project manager position

Working pattern: part time posts (2-4 days per week depending on the candidates), full time project manager (with flexibility)

 Location: Department for Culture, Media and Sport: 100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ (with some opportunity to work from home)

 Salary: Employing organisations will need to continue to fund secondees (with some flexibility) and must apply with the support of their line manager and organisation

 

About the job

 In an era where 71% of adults have a smart phone, 80% use the internet daily or almost daily, 70% of adults use social media and there were more than £573bn in e-commerce sales in 2014/15, how is this digital revolution impacting on our nation’s cultural and creative output and on those businesses, organisations and institutions that provide inspiration and entertainment to us as citizens and consumers?

With digitalisation comes a breaking down of silos between sectors, the blurring of the lines between disciplines – theatre is becoming film; computer programming merges with sculpture. We have virtual reality curatorship, art that is also animation, video gaming assisted by classical music composition.

Whether it is National Theatre Live opening up performances previously restricted to London’s South Bank, in cinemas all over the world or English Heritage’s project to enrich the National Heritage List through crowdsourcing, or the Philharmonia Orchestra’s recent virtual reality digital installation Universe of Sound, which allowed the audience to experience the inner working of a symphony orchestra, digital experiences are transforming how audiences engage with culture and driving new forms of cultural participation and practice.

The Cultural White Paper (CWP) announced a review of culture and digital with the aim of making the UK one of the world’s leading countries for digitised collections and using technology to enhance the online experience of users. Taking a broad definition of the cultural sector wrapping in arts, museums, heritage, film, theatre, libraries and the wider creative industries, the Digital Culture Project will build on the CWP commitments and develop policy ideas. The project is a key priority for Matt Hancock, the Minister of State for Digital and Culture and will kick off early in the New Year with policy proposals delivered before the Parliamentary Summer recess (July 2017). Secondees will work closely with partners and stakeholders from across the tech and cultural sectors.

The Digital Culture Project is focused around four key themes:

Digital Cultural content: How can we help make the UK a world leader in digital cultural content including the digitisation and distribution of existing culture and cultural education and enable new hybrid digital cultural production and experience?

Skills, Intellectual Property and Business Models: How can we support all cultural organisations have the digital skills and capability to drive innovation and resilience?

Access and participation: How can we drive access to culture in hard to reach groups, support new forms of cultural and digital participation and boost community engagement in culture through digital distribution and content?

Evidence base: What do we already know about the UK’s digital culture and its international position, about the capability of our cultural organisations and about the audiences for digital culture? What are the evidence gaps and what new evidence and research projects might support policy making in the future?

DCMS are now looking to second a workstream lead for each of these themes and a Project Manager to lead on governance and communication for the DC Project, working to the DCMS Head of Digital Culture.

A secondment to DCMS will provide an opportunity to develop an understanding of Government processes particularly policy making and project working, and interact with a wide range of stakeholders across different sectors and disciplines (cultural, tech, creative industries, publicly funded and commercial).

Please find the secondments and the person specification here.