Leeuwarden European Capital of Culture 2018 is Recruiting

Royal Friesian Cultural Producer

For simplicitys sake, nouns and pronouns are in masculine form. Please read them as feminine too.

General Information
In 2018, Leeuwarden will be a European Capital of Culture. The Leeuwarden Culturele Hoofdstad 2018
foundation is recruiting a cultural producer for the Royal Friesian programme of events. Key to this
programme is making a connection between Leeuwarden 2018 and the cultural offerings of a wide
array of well-established cultural institutions, artists, collectives and ensembles. The cultural producer
has total freedom in defining these offerings, in close consultation with these institutions.
This recruitment text will be published in both English and Dutch, on www.culturele-vacatures.nl and
across our network of former European Capitals of Culture. In this document we describe the job of
cultural producer in more detail.
Background Information
Background information about Leeuwarden 2018 in general, and about the programmes of events, can be
found in the bid book. You can find it here: https://www.scribd.com/doc/166418231/BidbookLeeuwarden-European-Capital-Of-Culture-2018 .
Please refer to pages 37-42 for a general overview of all five event programmes.
Please refer to the section beginning on page 78 for a more detailed description of the Royal
Friesian programme.
Do note that in comparison to the three main programmes, Royal Friesian is an open
programme, which means that the cultural producer has total freedom in putting together the
contents of the programme. The events presented in the bid book are examples, and the
complete offerings can be developed and extended along these lines.
Detailed Description of the Job of Royal Friesian Cultural Producer
Concise Overview of Main Responsibilities
As stated above, the key to this programme is making a connection between Leeuwarden 2018 and the
cultural offerings of a wide array of well-established cultural institutions, artists, collectives and
ensembles.
Most of these (150-200 entities) boast a tradition of years, decades, and in some instances even
centuries within the Friesian cultural arena. The cultural producer will look into possibilities for
presenting, reordering or rearranging the collections and cultural offerings so that they appeal not only to
a local and national audience but to an international audience as well. Candidates for this job must
therefore - on the basis of past experience - demonstrate an ability to link existing local cultural offerings
from a relatively large number of entities to a central idea.
What Would a Typical Workday Look Like?
The cultural producer maintains contacts with a relatively large number of existing entities (some
150-200).
These entities offer their contributions to Leeuwarden 2018, and in your consultant role you
explore possibilities for presenting the existing offerings in the main programme.
In this programme you have the freedom to define the contents of the eventual offerings, in
contrast to the main programmes, whose main features are already fixed.
Since already existing cultural entities are responsible for the delivery of contents, there is no
need to build the operational organisations (theatre ensembles, performing arts groups, etc.) as is
the case for the main programmes.
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For marketing, presentation, media exposure, and definition of the eventual offerings, you review
and discuss what is needed to attract an international audience. In consensus with the delivering
entities you arrive at a final proposal.
This final proposal is a contract, which contains the offerings and the budget needed to deliver
them. The Leeuwarden 2018 foundation will authorise and sign these contracts.
You can consult a committee of volunteers that has a broad network of contacts among the
cultural institutions and artists. They will guide you through the Friesian cultural landscape and
offer suggestions for connections, funding, political and practical support, etc.
Cultural producers are supposed to achieve legacy: innovative ways of presenting, revaluing or
rearranging local cultural assets should be long-lasting and sustainable, in order to enable
Friesland to reap benefits long after 2018. The evaluation of this sustainability is performed
according to the 5 E model (refer to bid book).

Who Will Your Contacts Be?

First and foremost, your contacts will be in the aforementioned existing cultural organisations,
which number around 150-200.
Staff members of the foundation, around 25 people. The foundation will have a small team that
will manage the organisations delivering cultural contents. Five cultural producers will take on this
very essential liaison role.
o More specifically: finances and eventual cultural content will be authorised by the
financial and cultural director within the foundation.
The other four cultural producers, in order to come to synergy for the offerings and in order to
prevent overlap.
Other stakeholders in the city of Leeuwarden, the province of Friesland, the political
establishment, the local economy and governmental administrations.
Finance and Funding
The projected lump-sum budget for this programme is EUR 2.3 million. Only part of this sum has currently
been secured. The remaining portion of the funding is the responsibility of the cultural producer, either
on his own or by empowering and assisting the entities within his purview. At the foundation, an
expertise centre is available to assist producers and other participating entities in securing additional
funding. The cultural producer is expected to call upon this expertise, either for himself or for the cultural
organisations with whom he works.
Timeframe and Assignment Type
The foundation wants to hire you as soon as possible as a staff member with a full-time contract.
In contrast to the main programmes (which feature a half-time commitment in 2015 and 2016,
which may be fulfilled on a freelance basis during this period (but not beyond)), it is our
estimation that an immediate full-time commitment is necessary in order to get acquainted with
the large number of cultural entities.
We require foreign candidates to move to Leeuwarden or to a place from which Leeuwarden and
the surrounding province can be reached on a daily basis, in terms of a reasonable amount of
travel time spent every day.
Whom Are We Looking for?
For this programme we need someone with the fresh, unbiased and open-minded outlook of an
outsider. Someone who has demonstrated an ability to adopt the perspective of a potential
international visitor to Leeuwarden and the province of Friesland. How can these visitors be
enticed to come and see the cultural offerings that insiders know so well?
This outsider can be a foreigner or a Dutchman who has worked abroad or with foreign countries
for an extended period. The outsider can also be an immigrant to the Netherlands or an expat or

former expat. Of course experience in the cultural field is required for all these categories of
outsiders.
We are looking for someone who, in the past, in the role of cultural producer or curator, has
proved able to deal and interact with a large number of cultural institutions, large and small,
featuring a wide range of artistic disciplines.

Positioning within the Organisation

There will be four fellow cultural producers at the same level as you.
From the bottom up, the structure will be as follows:
o You will report to the cultural director for artistic content. At the level of the latter there
will be two more directors.
o All the directors report to the CEO.
o The CEO reports to the board.
The total staff of the foundation will be around 25-30 FTE, which means that a relatively small
team will manage a large range of artists and hospitality people in the field.
The Selection Process
Based on the letters and curriculum vitae we receive, we will invite four to six candidates to present
themselves. For these candidates, the selection process consists of three steps:
(1) Pitch-interviews + Skill Audit (SA).
a. The interview will be conducted in German, English or Dutch.
b. The SA will be conducted in Dutch or English.
(2) A candidate selects the status of the reports produced from the interview and the SA. (Note that
the deontological framework for Dutch industrial psychologists is respected. This means that
candidates, and candidates alone, are the owners of all reports produced from the pitch interview
and the SA.) Candidates have three rights in regard to these reports:
a. You authorise D*PBO to release the reports to Leeuwarden 2018
b. As a., but you append your comments to the reports, e.g. because you think certain
qualities have been under-assessed. Note that reports will not be altered based on
candidates requests (other than evident mistakes such as misspelled names, etc.)
c. You block the report, because you dont want other people to have access to what it
describes. The blocking right is mainly a right to manage the image others can get of you.
Please inquire at Leeuwarden 2018 as to the consequences blocking the report has for
your candidacy.
(3) Acceptance or rejection, and if hired: negotiations about benefits and if necessary expat and/or
moving arrangements.
The pitch-interview is a blend of presenting yourself, pitch-wise, and a selection interview. This will
last approximately 90 minutes. You will get detailed information beforehand about the qualities,
experiences and competencies about which we would like to be convinced. So there is transparency
about what we judge in the interview, and you will be able to prepare for it. There will be three to five
(rotating) judges in the interview, all previously trained judges from Leeuwarden 2018. Dr. Gert Keen
of D*PBO will direct the interview.
The Skill Audit (SA) is a set of three simulations. In the simulations an imaginary project in
Leeuwarden 2018 is not doing fine. Please refer to a brief animation film here
https://vimeo.com/album/3054824/video/98820411 (this is in Dutch, but is essentially language-free)
. You will talk with three imaginary stakeholders whom you would have to influence in a way you
think will make the project successful. The six judges will be from D*PBO. The Skill Audit is a selection
method that was recently validated in PhD research; please refer to this link and look for the English
Summary: http://irs.ub.rug.nl/ppn/380503212 .
The interview will be conducted in Leeuwarden, at the offices of Leeuwarden 2018. For
candidates from abroad, we will try to conduct the interview and the Skill Audit in a single day. For
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candidates from the Netherlands, the Skill Audit and the interview might have to be conducted on
separate days. For the latter groups of candidates, the SA might also be conducted in Amersfoort. The
venue in Leeuwarden is within walking distance from the railway station. The venue in Amersfoort is
located in an office building that is directly connected to the railway station platforms.
Applying
If you are interested, please apply via e-mail. We look forward to your application!
Email address: lwd2018@dpbo.com
If you send attachments with your e-mail, please make sure your first and last name appear in
the filename, and on every page, in order to prevent mistakes. Thank you! You can also put all
the information you want to share in the e-mail itself. Please be sure to send a curriculum
vitae (as an attachment or in the e-mail text): unfortunately we are not yet able to work with
LinkedIn profiles. Thank you for your understanding.
Selection on the Basis of Applications
We will judge the following traits and characteristics from your letter and curriculum vitae: (1) affinity
with the content domain (connecting existing cultural entities to Leeuwarden 2018) of the job to which
you are applying; (2) to what extent you bring the necessary input to the programme (please refer to
the text above), and (3) your past experiences as a cultural producer or a cultural project manager.
We will invite four to six candidates to present themselves in the interview + Skill Audit. The SAs
will be conducted in week 48, 49 or 50; we will discuss your availability with you. We will try to have
some Saturday afternoons available as well.
For this job, we will recruit in two ways: (1) www.culturele-vacatures.nl and (2) via our network
of former European Capitals of Culture. Offers from recruiters, brokers for interim professionals, or
other head hunting firms will not be considered. D*PBO supports the process but is not remunerated
per hired candidate. If there are sufficient responses, this job offer might be closed earlier than the
stated closing date.
Dr. Gert Keen of D*PBO is responsible for the implementation of the selection process. David
Flem of D*PBO will be in charge for the planning and the conduction of the SAs.
Need for information?
In case anything is unclear or you need more information, do not hesitate to contact Gert Keen at
keen@dpbo.com. If questions or answers are complex, he will offer to contact you by phone at a time
suitable to you.
If you are interested for the job, but would like to go to Leeuwarden beforehand, please mail us
your curriculum, and make a request for an open house. Youd get a tour in the town, information
about housing, and more in depth information about the programmes. You could also talk to the two
cultural producers that are already appointed, one of them in an open programme, LabLwd, one of
them in a main programme, Culture & Nature. In case we get enough requests, we will come back to
you and make a planning for November, if possible to be combined with the selection process. In case
we dont get enough requests, we will of course also come back to you with an alternative offer.
And a special note for candidates from abroad or those who will have to move!
For all candidates who will have to move to Leeuwarden or to the Netherlands: Be aware that
Leeuwarden 2018 is willing to discuss and negotiate expat or moving arrangements with you! We will
discuss this in more detail if you are invited after the letter selection and before the interview + skill
audit. The same applies to travel expenses for candidates from abroad. We will discuss dates and
travel modalities with you before you are scheduled for the selection process.
Travel expenses for Dutch residents will be paid according to current standards in local
government administrations.
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