Venue Manager observer to the board

Since 2020, a Venue Observer to the Board has attended Brighton Fringe board meetings improve the organisation's transparency and ensure venue voices are represented.

The position is currently held by Sian Willett (Studio and Hires Manager at South East Dance) and has a fixed one-year term. Sian was elected in March 2024, and self-nominations will open again in early 2025.

Sian Willett - South East Dance
Contact: [email protected]

About

I have worked in Event and Venue Management for many years, starting in the West End as one of the Event Managers at The Dominion Theatre – Managing end-end large scale events from conferences for 2000 delegates, Press Nights and charity galas. I have worked for South East Dance for the past year and I am responsible for hiring the spaces and maximising income. Within my role I also work alongside the Programming team supporting the curation of our yearly programme of events. I also curate the year-round classes timetable, ensuring the classes are diverse and open to a range of abilities, from professional classes to classes for absolute beginners. As the Studio and Hires Manager for South East Dance I also write quarterly Board reports, updating the Board on the progress of the department, challenges and reporting on income generated. When I worked at the Dominion I curated a project called Wellbeing for the Arts where we offered a fortnightly free wellbeing hour open to anyone who worked within the arts industry. I would lead wellness practices like chair yoga, breathwork, mindfulness exercises etc. Through this I was invited to a talk at the House of Commons and the Royal Albert Hall where they discussed Mental Health challenges within the Arts Sectors. I ran this project for 6 months at the Dominion Theatre before I moved back to Sussex and successfully grew a community of people who regularly came to the sessions. I am also a yoga and mindfulness teachers, so I also have a wealth of knowledge around running events and hiring venues for this.

Responsibilities. The observer should:

Act in the interests of all venue managers.
Attend at least 75% of monthly venue manager meetings - two hours per month.
Attend all quarterly board meetings – two hours quarterly, Monday or Thursday evenings in March, July, September and December.
Attend annual ‘Future of Brighton Fringe’ forum discussions, and annual artist forum discussions.
Ensure that at least two weeks prior to each board meeting that they seek feedback/comment from other venue managers and have collected any points for raising on behalf of venues (Brighton Fringe staff will help with the administration of this process) and notify the Brighton Fringe CEO/Chair of any suggested additions to the subsequent board meeting agenda.
Produce a board meeting report (min. 250 words) after each board meeting which will be published on the Fringe website and circulated to artists.
Co-Moderate the Brighton Fringe Venues and Artist Networking Group on Facebook.