Brighton Dome and Festival Limited (BDBF) is an arts charity responsible for the year-round operation of Brighton Dome, delivery of the annual Brighton Festival, and the operation of Create Music, for children and young people. Its purpose is to create extraordinary experiences where people can come together to enjoy, imagine, create and change.

Brighton Dome

Brighton Dome provides a high-quality, year-round performing arts programme in the Concert Hall, Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre comprising dance, music (classical, contemporary, and world), and theatre. Its portfolio of events is large and increasing, comprising over 600 events per year.

Brighton Festival

The Brighton Festival is a high-profile annual three-week international arts festival encompassing dance, music, theatre, outdoor performance and literature events. Its artistic peers are the Edinburgh and Manchester International Festivals. The annual three-week Brighton Festival started in 1967 and is a leading commissioning and producing Festival which contributes £20m to the local economy. It is subsidised by the other strands of the organisation's activities to the tune of £700,000+.

Create Music

Since 2019, BDBF has also been managing the music services of Brighton & Hove and East Sussex under the recently launched banner “Create Music”. The organisation has undergone enormous change since the refurbishment of Brighton Dome in 2002. It has built an enviable and diverse portfolio of activities, strengthening the connections between its year-round venues and one of the country’s most important arts festivals to make the organisation a properly united force in Brighton and Hove.

BDBF is one of the leading organisations in the city, contributing significantly to the local economy, and key to the city’s reputation as a cultural destination. It is a single charitable trust employing 140 permanent and 250 casual staff with an annual turnover of £12.5m. Core funding is received from Brighton & Hove City Council and from Arts Council England who together contribute 33% of the organisation’s overall income. The remaining 67% is secured from core operations and from commercial and fundraising activity.

BDBF is currently undergoing a £32m redevelopment and refurbishment of the Brighton Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre. Supported by Brighton & Hove City Council, Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund, the work is due to be completed later this year, and will transform and regenerate a significant part of the City’s cultural heart. It is an exciting moment for BDBF, with Brighton Festival 2022 back to full scale, Create Music expanding its work with young people across the region and the major redevelopment of Brighton Dome’s Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre nearing its completion. The organisation is now recruiting new Trustees to add to its existing board and help lead this next period of development.

The Board’s principal role is to provide vision, policy and governance. This includes maintaining an overview of the organisation’s strategy and business planning activities, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements (particularly employment and health and safety), budget approval and monitoring of financial outcomes, recruitment (and management via the Chair) of the Chief Executive.

More specifically, Board members are expected to:

• Share a common purpose and enthusiasm for the work of BDBF
• Act as ambassadors and advocate for the organisation
• Work as an effective team with, and act as a critical friend of, the executive
• Provide advice and expertise that the executive can call upon
• Volunteer for other working groups if possible
• Assist with fundraising, under the direction of the executive, either directly or by introduction

BDBF is seeking new Trustees for the charity from a wide range of backgrounds, particularly those with either legal or financial skills who have a keen interest in the arts and cultural ecology of the United Kingdom.

Legal: The ideal candidate will have senior strategic experience and a background in law, with excellent working knowledge of legal issues within a charitable, commercial or arts and media environment.

Financial: The ideal candidate will have senior strategic experience in finance. They do not need to be financially-qualified, but as BDBF is a £12.5m organisation, they need to be used to interrogating and scrutinising financial reports of this size.

Candidates will be able to use their expertise to advise and guide the Board on appropriate decisions. This is an excellent opportunity for an individual who might be wanting to develop their approach to governance and training and mentorship will be offered as necessary. The organisation strongly welcomes applications from individuals from an ethnic minority background or with lived experience of a disability.

This role is unremunerated, and reasonable, pre-agreed domestic travel expenses will be reimbursed. There are four Board meetings and four Sub-Committee meetings annually, which currently follow a hybrid approach. Trustees are expected to join the Finance and Audit Committee, and encouraged to attend events whenever possible. To enable Trustees to do so, they are entitled to 12 complimentary tickets (six for Festival events and six for Dome events) per year.