Founded in 1997, Community-Word Project is a New York City arts-in-education organization that facilitates culturally responsive, multidisciplinary art programs for students, teaching artists, and communities to develop and amplify their voices and creative skills.

The Program Manager works closely with the Community-Word Project (CWP) Programs team including managing CWP Collaborative Arts Residencies, close collaboration with the CWP Programs Admin and Teaching Artist Staff, and liaising with and supporting the needs of school partners and other administrative staff. The primary responsibilities of the Program Manager address two key areas within arts education: 

• Teaching Artist (TA) Sustainability | Create pathways for TAs to grow, diversify, and maintain viable careers over time as the field continues to evolve in response to economic, social, and technological shifts. Support the day to day, week to week, and project specific needs of teaching artistry at CWP.
• Arts Access | Connect and support young people with strategic arts opportunities as arts ed is often significantly underfunded, understaffed, and/or difficult to access in public schools. Build capacity within schools to decrease reliance on non-profit arts programming. Improve student experience in the classroom through expanded teacher confidence and experience in creative, multi-modal instruction. 

This is a full-time, 40 hours per week administrative position. This is a hybrid role where the balance of remote and on-site hours may vary week to week. As needed and discussed with the team, the Program Manager may go into schools to conduct program observations, meet with partners and artists, into the CWP office to pick up proctoring materials, and for full team meetings. Note: The CWP administrative team is currently fully remote through March 1st, 2022 to mitigate the risk of contracting/spreading Covid-19.

CWP programming takes place in all five boroughs with concentrated programming in the Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan. The Program Manager will travel to and from program sites as part of their work and should be able to travel by public transit. 

Rates & Benefits: 

The salary for this role is $59,000. This role is eligible for Full-Time Administrative employee benefits such as health insurance, paid vacation days, personal days, and floating holidays.

General:

• Support integration of social justice initiatives rooted in antiracism and anti-ableism with inquiry, analysis, empathy and reflection
• Attend Weekly Project Check-ins with the full admin team
• Keep work calendar up-to-date with regular hours
• Participate and take on shared leadership roles in select staff-wide initiatives, retreats, and professional development
• Make time for personal professional development
• Participate in planning for future programmatic, mission-aligned and sustainable growth of the organization 

TA Sustainability

• Cultivate and plan leadership opportunities within the organization for TAs (e.g. training & PD facilitation opportunities, Teaching Artist Project (TAP) collaboration opportunities)
• Lead/co-lead TA Staff recruitment, hiring, onboarding, training, mid-year check ins, and end of year meetings
• Manage TA contact information, professional development attendance and billing, fingerprinting/PETS rosters
• Manage TA payroll
• Support evaluation that helps us understand TA experience and TA sustainability such as co-planning for focus groups
• Act as primary contact for the TA Council
• Act as primary contact for partnership and collaboration with the TAP team including planning and supporting TAP trainee mentorship and mentee experience 
• Co-develop budget for TA Staff development with Deputy Director of Programs & Operations (DDPO) 

Arts Access 

• • Departmental planning and visioning with the Youth Programs team

• Manage and maintain annual programming goals for schools & partnerships.
• Participate in weekly Youth Programs check-ins
• Manage school residencies sites with Program Director including planning with TAs and school partners, managing residency schedules, supporting program evaluation, residency outcome planning and production, etc. 
• Manage assigned residency supply & anthology budgets for assigned programs
• Give input on annual youth programs budget development

Communications

• Supporting development/communication efforts within the organization related to TA Sustainability & Arts Access 
• Support updates of the CWP website related to work within job scope

Qualifications:

• Proof of full Covid-19 vaccination is required. 
• Strong content knowledge in your artistic discipline (writers and visual artists – strongly encouraged to apply)
• 5+ years of experience teaching youth and adults 
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• 2+ years experience in training Teaching Artists and/or facilitating professional development seminars and/or workshops
• A strong knowledge of and commitment to teaching for social justice through the arts
• Fluency in English and another language common in NYC Public Schools a plus (ie: Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Urdu, Bengali)
• Experience tracking project expenses and updating project budgets a plus
• Experience with databases such as Salesforce a plus
• A strong knowledge of the Google Office Suite

Our Ideal Candidate:

• Is an artist actively working/creating in disciplines such as creative writing, visual arts, dance, music, theater, and/or multimedia
• Is a strong collaborator and feels comfortable working with others to develop programming and make decisions
• Is organized, tracks deadlines, and communicates with colleagues in advance when additional time may be needed
• Is excited to learn about and support or has prior experience in supporting alternative leadership models and structures, dismantling hierarchies

Physical Demands include:

• Frequently operate a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator and copy machine
• Moving and management of supplies for in-person workshops
• Move up and down stairs at some of our partner schools which are not yet wheelchair accessible (or may have a chair lift, but not an elevator)

Applications are due by end-of-day January 17th, 2022.

Please send the application materials below to jobs@communitywordproject.org with “CWP Program Manager” as the subject. Please, do not submit materials through the job listing site.

Please attach the materials listed below to your email to apply. Materials should be attached as PDFs. Files should be named: FirstNameLastName_MaterialType (e.g. RitaMoreno_LessonPlans)

Application Materials:

• A résumé or curriculum vitae outlining relevant professional, artistic and teaching experience.
• Sample of two sequential lesson plans. Please note grade level and attach any supplemental materials used in the lesson(s). These can be lessons you have taught before or brand new.
• Artistic Samples: Do not submit student work. Please share your original, creative work:
  • Creative Writing: 3-4 pages of poetry or prose
  • Dance, theater: 3-4 videos of your work
  • Visual Art, Media Art, Muralists: 3-4 samples of your work
• Teaching philosophy statement (max 1 page) outlining the core questions, principles, and tenets of your approach to teaching. Feel free to include references to educators who have influenced your approach. If you prefer to send this as a video, please send us a link or similar format for easy access.

Interviews will be scheduled for dates in January and February and will take place virtually.