Call for PS² Board members

Complete this short Google Form to register your interest. 

We’re looking for three or more new Trustees to join us as we embark on a new phase for PS², with a new building, more spaces for studios and membership opportunities, a dynamic exhibitions and events programme, new and ongoing offsite projects, and a range of national and international partnerships.

About PS²

PS² = Paragon Studios + Project Space. Established in Belfast in 1994, our work aims to connect contemporary art and society, making art a part of everyone’s life in the city through a range of onsite and offsite programmes. 

To get a sense of our priorities, please see our Strategic Plan 2025-2030, linked here. We are artist-led, which is reflected in the composition of our Board and our small staff team.  

Paragon Studios Ltd is a company limited by guarantee, company number NI029491 and is recognised as a charity by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland NIC102460.

Our Values

●      Within all that we do, we value inclusivity, open-mindedness, and flexibility. We maintain a convening practice that brings people together - artists, residents, collaborators, visitors, and activists amongst others - and facilitate generously.

●      PS² operates and programmes with the belief that the arts can help challenge existing societal values and help to shape new ones. We practice a connectedness to one another, our place and our planet.

●      We create the conditions for risk-taking - organisationally, sectorally, societally - encouraging experimentation, and placing trust in the artists and communities we work with.

●      Equally, in an equitable society with appropriate material resources, the arts should not be wholly responsible for social renewal, and so we resist instrumentalisation, exploitation, and extractivism.

●      Amongst these weightier concerns, our work is playful, irreverent and joyful. We seriously value nonsense.

How we do this...

• Studios
  

We support and develop artists through the provision of 11 affordable artists’ studio spaces and two workspaces for our annual in-residence programmes for a graduate artist and collective.

• Exhibitions and events
  

We provide a welcoming, inclusive space for artist experimentation and public engagement, curating around 12 individual/group projects per year with outstanding artists, selected from proposals or by invitation, encouraging experimentation, risk-taking and playfulness.

The projects, associated workshops, or talks in our city-centre Project Space are free for the public.

• Residencies
  

We provide a range of residency opportunities across interrelated disciplines and approaches, with annual, multi-annual and bi-annual intake, where funding enables us to do so. We also host shorter Project Space residencies, which respond to specific societal or artistic needs. Each resident receives direct benefits as well as heightened profile and curatorial support.

• Artist development
  

We support artists in their professional and artistic development through longer-term programmes, individual curatorial support, peer learning initiatives and regular meet-ups. We have partnered on and hosted prestigious development schemes, including Freelands Artist Programme and Syllabus, in partnership with peer organisations based UK-wide.

• Offsite public programmes
  

We initiate and support community-situated projects that enable the public to enjoy and participate in art and their locale. These offsite projects – in urban, suburban and rural locations – are aimed to be longer term, engaging the public, specifically aiming to reach traditionally 'non art', hard-to-reach audiences. One example is PeasPark, a former interface in North Belfast which we fundraise for and creatively activate.

• Advocacy
  

We advocate for better conditions both within the arts sector and for the people of our region. We uphold a non-hierarchical view of artists and communities: artists are not distinct from the wider community and face similar economic, societal, and environmental barriers.

• Networks
  

We share and signpost generously for all in our community. We maintain and further develop a large network of regional, national, and international arts initiatives and organisations, leading to collaboration on projects, mutual learning, and exchange. PS² is affiliated with several umbrella and sector-support organisations, across the UK and island of Ireland.

What would it involve? 

A commitment of one 90-minute meeting every two months. We usually hold these in person, but hybrid can be accommodated too. 

Trustees are responsible for the governance and strategic direction of the organisation and hold legal liability. All trustees offer their time and expertise on a voluntary basis. Appointments are for an initial three-year term.

Our AGM is in December each year, which will be the opportunity to formally join the Board. After this meeting, we usually try to have a little Christmas get-together with Trustees, studio artists and staff. 

Would this be a good fit for me? 

 We’re particularly interested in hearing from you if you have expertise in the following areas: 

Priority expertise: Built and natural environment disciplines, e.g.: architecture, sustainable development, environmental activism and ethics, or other social and spatial practices

Why are we asking for this?  PS²’s work has long taken place outside our studios and Project Space. One of our four Strategic Priorities is to ‘Foster active citizenship for community and climate’. One example is our longstanding custodianship of PeasPark: a green space situated in the North of the city on a former interface. We are also impacted by the buildings crisis affecting grassroots arts organisations in the city and would like to propose alternative models.

Priority expertise: HR, change management and people development

Why are we asking for this? PS² has moved from a volunteer-led organisation for 30 years into a model which has a small team of paid staff. One of our four Strategic Priorities is to ‘Create sustainable growth and operational stability’.

Priority expertise: Financial oversight responsibility, e.g.: fundraising and business development for public/private sector

Why are we asking for this? To ensure that appropriate financial policies, procedures and internal controls are in place, followed and regularly reviewed. Awareness of funding, legislation and the practicalities of liaising with public funded or state-run departments. Support staff to develop reserves and risk registers, and oversee the preparation of the annual accounts and support the Board in approving them.

Priority expertise: Cultural sector (outside of visual art), e.g.: film, television, journalism

Why are we asking for this? Professionals within our own sector offer invaluable insight from their experience and can share perspectives by operating just outside of their specific media or audience demographic.

It is essential that all Trustees:

-       are aware of (or willing to find out more about) the challenging financial context for arts organisations in Northern Ireland

-       subscribe to the principle of culture as an inherent good, as well as beneficial across social, environmental and economic pillars

-       contribute to board decisions and debate

-       prioritise accessibility, equity, diversity, and inclusion

-       acknowledge playfulness as a vital and serious part of our organisational culture and approach

At PS², we design programmes and spaces which acknowledge and support those who experience intersectional barriers to the arts. This call for Board members also prioritises those with lived experience of being politically minoritised or marginalised.

PS² is actively, loudly and unwaveringly anti-racist in all programmes and operations; and proactively contributing to campaigns in support of LGBTQIA+, gender, disability, and class equity. PS² staff are committed advocates for the living and working conditions of artists, particularly those who experience intersectional barriers. We believe that diverse audience development begins with representation; for members of the public to see ‘themselves’ represented by artists and other creatives across our programmes is vital. Vastly more than mere tokenism, we embody our inclusive values in ways that we hope enrich our wider conversations about our place and culture. 

Follow up:

For an informal conversation about joining our Board, please contact Jane Morrow (Co-Director / Strategic Vision and Development Curator): jane@pssquared.org

PS² is supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council's Artists' Studio and Makerspace Organisational Grant, Arts & Business NI's Blueprint Investment Grant, and Dormant Assets NI through The National Lottery Community Fund.