Candidate Specification
Horse Hospital Collective Member: Performance and Event Programming & Development Lead
Permanent Contract, £31,200 per annum, 32 hours per week
Application deadline: Monday 31st August 2026; first round of interviews week commencing 7th September 2026
In post by November 2026 (negotiable)
About the role
The Horse Hospital is an artist-led, not-for-profit independent arts venue, established in 1993 by Roger K. Burton. For over thirty years it has uplifted countercultural and experimental art across music, performance, film, fashion and visual art, and served as a living archive of countercultural activity and outsider art.
Our mission is to foster the broadest possible access to producing and consuming art and culture; to promote under-represented and marginalised practitioners; to actively facilitate experimentation and risk-taking; to celebrate the DIY, the counter-cultural, the outsider and the unfashionable; and to reject the marketisation of culture on the terms of the elite. Our aim is to uplift the DIY impulse in culture, wherever and however it appears.
In 2025, The Horse Hospital was reconstituted as a Community Interest Company (CIC), and its running was passed from Roger K. Burton to the Horse Hospital Collective. The Collective is entrusted with continuing and expanding the venue’s originating vision, as outlined in its mission statement.
A founding member of the collective will be stepping back from most of their responsibilities at the end of 2026, to become a part-time Executive Director. You will join the collective alongside two other established members, with a supported handover period led by the Executive Director.
The organisation is stable, busy and growing — but it is also still in a transitional period, and part of this role is stepping into an ongoing process of shaping its future. You will lead on identifying and applying for project-specific funding to support our ongoing development.
As a member of the Collective, you will report to The Horse Hospital CIC’s board of directors.
Our mission is to uplift DIY, experimental and countercultural practice in any and all forms that we can accommodate in our events-led model. Alongside our Music Programme Lead, you will co-lead our diverse programme of interdisciplinary cultural practice, with a particular focus on Performance programming.
We are open to a wide range of definitions of Performance in the context of this programming role. For example, we welcome applicants with a strong programming background across live art, performance art, theatre, movement practice, dance, or other time-based media including literature, music, and film in relevant contexts.
Role purpose
To join The Horse Hospital Collective in its collective responsibilities, participating in facilitation of its internal processes; to lead on fundraising; to lead on performance programming while co-leading on wider programming.
Key responsibilities
Fundraising
Research, write and manage funding applications
Identify new funding pools, including cross-cultural and international partnership funding
Performance Programming Lead
Researching and delivering a programme of performance practice which is in keeping with our mission statement.
Event production and administration
Establishing and maintaining working relationships with programming partners.
Sustain and develop the programme’s community-organising approach: building networks and bringing people into cultural production. Supporting people to take risks.
Co-lead on General Programming
Work alongside our Music Programme Lead in researching and delivering diverse programming in keeping with our mission statement
Event production and administration
Establishing and maintaining working relationships with programming partners.
Sustain and develop the programme’s community-organising approach: building networks and bringing people into cultural production. Supporting people to take risks.
Participation in Collective shared responsibilities
Actively sharing responsibility for handling unforeseen circumstances and caring for our building and organisation.
Communicating the goals and mission of The Horse Hospital to the public
Uplifting mutual accountability to our mission statement and core values.
Stewarding internal governance protocols.
Reporting to The Horse Hospital CIC Board of Directors.
Steering The Horse Hospital through its long-term strategic goals, as agreed with The Horse Hospital CIC Board of Directors.
Facilitation of Collective Processes (organisation and facilitation of regular Collective meetings; oversight of decision-making processes; stewarding of internal governance protocols).
Ability to work flexibly and step up to the demands of a dynamic working environment.
Person specification
Essential
Deep, demonstrable commitment to DIY and countercultural practice, and a politicised understanding of culture.
Substantial programming experience with demonstrable expertise in relevant performance practices and facilitation of interdisciplinary experimentation.
Experience in a leadership role in a comparable context (for example, you have run a non-profit, a venue, a festival, an event series, or comparable large-scale project before).
A track record of successful funding applications. Experience managing funded projects from application through delivery and reporting.
Understanding of good financial management and reporting practices.
Outstanding communication and relationship skills; you need to be able to hold working relationships with a large and diverse range of people and organisations.
Right to work in the UK.
Desirable
Experience of working within collective, non-hierarchical, or other alternative organisational structures.
Programming experience across experimental practices other than performance, including but not limited to: music, visual art, film, fashion, literary arts, and research.
Familiarity with experimental, DIY, and underground cultures and networks in London, across the UK and/or internationally
Experience of intentional network building and audience development with communities marginalised in the culture sector, including practitioners considered ‘outsiders’ to cultural practice.
Terms
Pay: £31,200 per annum. Full Time (The Horse Hospital has a four-day work week).
Benefits: 28 days holiday, additional paid Christmas break, 3% pension contribution, statutory sick pay
Hours: 32 hours per week. Occasional paid evening and weekend work will likely be required.
Location: on site at The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD.
Start: in post by November 2026, with a supported handover of 1-2 months. Later start date possible subject to negotiation.
Contract terms: Fixed term permanent contract with 6-month probationary period
How to apply
Please email a 1-page cover letter, CV, and two references to iwannawork@thehorsehospital.com by midnight on Monday 31st August 2026.
Please send all files as PDFs. Please provide contact information (email address and contact number) for each referee alongside a one-sentence note about the nature of their relation to you.
First round of interviews will be in the week commencing 7th September 2026.
A second round of interviews will take place in late September. If you are invited to a second interview, we will ask you to prepare some additional application materials. At this stage, we may also ask for an additional reference if previous referees are not able to comment on a particular element of your application.
We strongly encourage and welcome applications from those from global-majority and/or working-class backgrounds.
Please contact george@thehorsehospital.com if you have clarifying questions regarding the job description and application requirements, including any access requirements relevant to the application process itself.