Julia Brookes – Community Arts Assistant

About me:

Hi! I’m Julia, I graduated from the University of Leeds last year with a BA in Liberal Arts. I have a strong creative background with experience in spoken word and theatre direction. For the last six months I have been working as Community Arts Assistant at Severn Arts across a range of different projects. This has been a fantastic opportunity to learn more about their Arts Development programme and gain skills in project coordination.

What I’ve worked on:

I’ve had the opportunity to work across a range of Severn Arts projects. Here are a few of my favourites:

Young Voices New Visions Exhibition

I worked as the Emerging Curator for the Young Voices New Visions exhibition, a yearly showcase of children’s artwork. I helped curate the exhibition from start to finish, deciding how artwork and sculpture were going to be presented as well as rigging and derigging them in the space. You can read my full reflections on this experience in my blog here.

Worcestershire’s Young Poet Laureate

I helped organise the competition for the Worcestershire’s Young Poet Laureate 2025. This included collating and distributing submissions to judges, attending the shortlisting meeting, contacting finalists, producing the schedule for the final as well as printing certificates and helping the event run smoothly on the day.

Young Producers

I supported a group of young creatives to produce an event for our summer festival. I led on both organisation and facilitation of the project, helping the young people to create an event they were proud of as well as teaching them that the creative industries are a viable career path.

West Mercia Youth Justice Mural Project

I helped execute a project with the West Mercia Youth Justice centre where we employed an artist to work with a group of young people in receipt of a service from the centre to create two murals for the building. I led on the evaluation of this project, seeing it progress from start to finish and producing both a written and video evaluation to measure impact.

What I’ve learnt

I’ve learnt so much during my time at Severn Arts!

I’ve seen how an arts project develops from initial idea to execution
I’ve learnt where the funding for these projects comes from and the different criteria they must fulfil
I’ve seen firsthand all the logistics needed to produce a successful event, trying my hand at budgeting, writing contracts, booking venues/artists and creating sign up forms
I’ve learnt how to co-create and facilitate a project with young people
I’ve learnt how to curate an art exhibition!
I’ve understood Severn Arts’ role in facilitating these projects, and what the day-to-day work looks like of a Community Producer
I’ve learnt how to produce evaluation and impact reports at the end of a project
I’ve developed my skills in on the ground event delivery and management

Favourite bits

Seeing hard work pay off

I really enjoyed attending the events I’d put so much time and effort into organising. They were all so successful and it allowed me to feel very proud of what I'd achieved.

Leading on my own projects

Being given the opportunity to lead on some projects really meant a lot to me. I liked being able to take ownership over Young Voices New Visions and the Youth Justice Mural Project evaluation. Although I was slightly daunted at first to be given such responsibility, it has really helped me believe in my capabilities.

The staff

I will never get over how wonderful all the staff at Severn Arts are! Everyone is so welcoming and friendly. It felt like being part of one big family right from the beginning. I was never scared to ask for help and felt supported throughout my whole internship.

Reflections

I started this internship feeling slightly lost at my career trajectory and unsure how I could use my creativity and love of the arts in a feasible career path... turns out I can! I have learnt so much about both community arts and my own career interests. I now feel confident in my skills and am looking forward to continuing a career in arts management.

A huge thank you to all the staff at Severn Arts for making my internship so brilliant. A particular thank you to Laura, CEO and Elaine, Artistic Director, for offering me the opportunity. I am also endlessly grateful to Jen, Community Producer, for working so closely with me, guiding me through different projects and being patient with me as I tried to keep up!

My Top Tips for a new Project Assistant:

Throw yourself into everything! Take every opportunity offered
Give yourself time – it will take you a while to understand all the different projects
Make lists and plan! With this role you really need to keep on top of what needs to happen when
Get on the ground as much as you can! Even if it feels scary, attend as many events and sessions as you can, it will help you understand what all the work you are doing is going towards