Freelance Programme Co-ordinator

The Chelsea Heritage Quarter (CHQ) launched in July 2024 and is a collaboration between the National Army Museum, Chelsea Physic Garden, Royal Hospital Chelsea and Cadogan that aims to advance the public’s understanding, participation and appreciation of history and heritage. Through the promotion of co-programmes, marketing initiatives and community outreach, the Quarter aims to drive audiences to the Royal Hospital Road, deepen engagement with history and heritage and play a part in enhancing the local community. 

The Programme Co-ordinator plays a vital role in co-ordinating the partners of the Chelsea Heritage Quarter, including new partners that may join, on programming activity. You will be a brilliant team player with strong project management and event management skills. You will ensure we meet key milestones for our public programmes and lead on cross-partner organisation and administration for our events. You will enjoy working across different teams and offer proactive communications and solutions as well as anticipate challenges to ensure collaboration is strong. Ideally you will have a passion for history, heritage and culture.

About the Chelsea Heritage Quarter

The Chelsea Heritage Quarter is a collaboration between Chelsea Physic Garden, the National Army Museum, the Royal Hospital Chelsea and Cadogan. Drawing on a shared heritage which dates back to 1660, the Chelsea Heritage Quarter offers a unique visitor experience and warmly welcomes and inspires visitors, demonstrating the relevance of history to our lives today and in the future.

Our current objectives are to:

• Actively encourage visitors to visit the Chelsea Heritage Quarter to learn about history and heritage through the collaboration of cultural venues that are part of the Chelsea Heritage Quarter.
• Drive deeper engagement and appreciation of history and heritage by sharing the pioneering work of the cultural organisations that are part of the Chelsea Heritage Quarter, thereby building knowledge and audiences to help preserve and make more accessible and relevant our cultural venues, collections and work for future generations.
• Benefit the people living, working and visiting Chelsea by collectively contributing to a community that is engaged, vibrant and creative.
• Work collaboratively across the Quarter, sharing knowledge and resources as openly and effectively as possible, to ensure that together we improve our ability to achieve our charitable aim of advancing the education of the public in history and heritage.

Core activity for the Chelsea Heritage Quarter:

• The annual Chelsea History Festival which will take place from 24 - 28 September in 2025.
• Regular guided walking tours of Chelsea and combined tours of the venues, self guided tours and family activity trails that highlight aspects of heritage in Chelsea and at the partner venues.
• Strategic moments of co-programming each year eg for 2025 the key themes are: The Victorians, Art at the Chelsea Heritage Quarter and American history.
• Community engagement programmes for defined audience groups.
• Tourist marketing campaigns.

Key areas of responsibility

1. Chelsea Heritage Quarter

• Attend CHQ Programming Groups and take minutes/actions as required.
• Keep a tracker/timetable of events happening across the partners up-to-date and regularly circulated.
• Assist with the co-ordination and management of key moments of synergy in the programme throughout the year, ensuring co-ordination of the management and delivery of these moments.
• Assist with general admin and marketing work in support of the programme, including uploading event details to our website, ticketing platforms, guestlists and distributing marketing materials.
• Manage a small number of events directly undertaken by the Chelsea Heritage Quarter such as heritage walking tours. These might include having an outreach presence at partner events such as the Chelsea Christmas Lights Switch-On or the annual Plant Fair at the Chelsea Physic Garden

2. Chelsea History Festival

Planning:

• Organise regular meetings to happen in a timely way, take minutes and circulate minutes to Festival partners.
• Keep an up-to-date directory of key personnel across the Festival which is circulated to aid communication.
• Track the project timeline of festival key dates, providing updates and reminders to festival partners where deadlines are approaching and escalating issues as required.
• Liaise with all partners to ensure that they are fully prepared operationally for their events - eg book sales/AV requirements.
• Co-ordinate and assist as appropriate with the production of Event Management Plans (EMPs)  by the partner venues and liaise with local council and residents’ associations where applicable.
• Should any event be programmed to happen at a non partner event, manage all risk assessments, management plans and licensing for that event.
• Assist as required in pulling together material to support fundraising and sponsorship work including grant applications.
• Keep an overall budget for the festival and any individual budgets for activity as required.

Box Office Management:

• Manage the relationship between and act as the point of contact with the Festival’s ticketing partner.
• Ensure ticketing matrix is passed to the ticketing partner, that listings are correct and meet the on-sale deadline.
• Upload all agreed content from the partners onto the CHQ website and ensure all links through to the ticketing platform are correct.
• Ensure changes to programme or ticketing capacities are passed from festival programme team to ticketing partner and are accurate and timely.
• Work with the ticketing partner and festival team to schedule on-site box office management for the Festival Period.

Delivery:

• Co-ordinate individual schedules and itineraries for each day/event as required.
• Attend daily meetings, amending schedules and re-issuing where required.
• Support with the distribution of any marketing or way-finding materials.

Box Office Management:

• Work with the festival team and ticketing partner to ensure box office is operational throughout festival period.
• Communicate on the day seat-filling, complimentary ticket or hold releases to ticketing partner to maximise attendance.
• Assist with communication and management of any event cancellations.

On site support and communication during the Festival:

• Be a vital link between the partners during the Festival, assisting as required in ensuring smooth delivery.
• Be prepared to step in as required to manage situations on the ground.
• Be prepared to take photos and capture content for communications purposes for the events you are attending.
• Be prepared to manage members of the public and escalate any issues to relevant personnel.

Festival wrap-up:

• Finalise budgets and ensure that invoicing and cross-invoicing is completed correctly.
• With the CHQ Director, organise and minute a Festival debrief and ensure the collation and distribution of evaluation and the sharing of learnings.
• Support any reports that are required for sponsors or other stakeholders.

For a full job description: Visit chelseaheritagequarter.co.uk/jobs

To apply: Please send your CV and covering letter to info@chelseaheritagequarter.co.uk by 6pm on the 24th February. First round interviews are scheduled for 4 March.