Camden Arts Centre

Camden Arts Centre has taken the unique decision to offer business training to its Volunteer Front of House Assistants, to develop and enhance their careers.

The FOH Assistants, of which there are a rolling pool of 50, are responsible for welcoming visitors to the Centre and assisting their appreciation of the exhibitions. During gallery opening hours they provide security for the exhibitions and installations, monitor visitor satisfaction and flow demographics and ensure the smooth running of the Centre.

Volunteer FOH Assistants tend to comprise art students, recent graduates starting their careers, people returning to work following career breaks and retirees. The Centre's aim is to incorporate its FOH Assistants into all aspects of Camden Arts Centre, giving them access to the organisation as a whole and encouraging them to learn and develop new skills.

With this in mind, Camden Arts Centre introduced its Activity Scheme in October 2009 with the aim of developing its FOH Assistants beyond the training they receive on health and safety, fire safety and best working practice.

With the Activity Scheme, Camden Arts Centre wanted to motivate its volunteers, encourage them to remain loyal to the aims of the Centre, and enable them to develop skills they might not get elsewhere, explains Maxine Hodsdon, Office Manager. "The Activity Scheme is offered as a pathway to working in the visual arts so each activity has its own target for the learner. The onus lies with the Assistant to complete each activity and gain as much knowledge as they require," she adds.

FOH Assistants can take part in the Scheme after being with Camden Arts Centre for eight weeks. They can then choose six options from the numerous training modules offered by each of the organisation's departments.

For example, the exhibitions team offers a seminar in exhibition organisation and a training course in art handling. Press and marketing offers training on preparing press releases and clippings packs for exhibitions. Office management offers training in understanding and maintaining administration systems. The education team offers training in assisting and documenting community projects.

Activities are very flexible and can be completed before, after or during a shift, and progress is monitored by getting feedback on the activity from the volunteer and the departments. Camden Arts Centre also logs when volunteers leave to take up paid employment or internships in the visual arts fields and consider this a great success.

Between October 2009 and March 2010, Camden Arts Centre offered The Activity Scheme to 40 eligible FOH Assistants, and of these three quarters have been able to take part with 40% completing one activity, 15% completing two, 10% three, and 10% four.

The scheme is very cost-effective and overheads are kept to a minimum. The primary outlay has been in staff time to deliver the activities, costing around £612, and to reimburse volunteers travel expenses, approximately £200 so far.

Since running the scheme, two FOH Assistants have completed internships, two have become involved in exhibition installation, one works on a fixed-term contract, one works with the education team and nine have completed paid work as education or exhibition assistants. One volunteer comments, "I have developed and learned a number of skills. I've gained professional and social skills and developed my artistic knowledge."
Paula Kahn, Chair of Camden Arts Centre, says, "The scheme has allowed us to offer our volunteers continued advice and access to training that they might not obtain elsewhere and has opened doors for volunteers both internally and with other organisations. Overall the scheme has helped us to become an even more inclusive organisation and enables us to nurture the talent of the future in a very different and unique way."