Executive Assistant to the Artistic Director (Part-time)

About Darbar

Darbar Arts Culture and Heritage Trust is one of the UK’s most dynamic and cutting-edge Indian arts organisations. Established as a charity in 2006, we have helped shape the landscape of Indian classical arts in the UK through the highest-quality live performances. We believe in the power of Indian classical music to stir, thrill and inspire global audiences, and we widen access to the art form through digital content for streaming, social media and television, and through music education in schools and online.

We are opening a new chapter: two trading arms — Darbar Coffee House and Darbar Studios — are being set up within our new Darbar Arts Lab, a multi-purpose venue in Hayes, with all profits reinvested into the charity. We are also finalising a strategic refresh to set our trajectory for the next five years. It’s an exciting time to join us.

The Role

This is a newly-created post at the heart of Darbar — the trusted Executive Assistant to our Founder and Artistic Director, Sandeep Virdee OBE, and the person who keeps the Darbar Arts Lab running smoothly day to day.

The AD is the creative and strategic engine of Darbar. This role exists to make his work sustainable and to give him the structure, foresight and proactive support that frees him to operate at his best. It is a role for someone who is at home moving fluently between drafting a confidential letter to a major funder, briefing the Artistic Director ahead of a Barbican Centre meeting and ensuring the right paperwork reaches the right trustee before a Board meeting. It calls for judgement, discretion, warmth, and the calm, organised mind that makes a senior leader’s working life — and a busy small charity’s office — sustainable.

Salary

£38,000 – £42,000 per annum on a full-time-equivalent basis (£22,800 – £25,200 actual at 0.6 FTE), depending on experience

What You Will Do

• Own the Artistic Director’s diary in its entirety — a complex, dynamic calendar of artist meetings, rehearsals, partner conversations, fundraising approaches, media commitments, festival delivery and travel — exercising judgement on what is accepted, declined, deferred or delegated.
• Anticipate scheduling conflicts and resolve them before they become problems; protect preparation, recovery and thinking time around intensive periods; brief the Artistic Director clearly and concisely ahead of each commitment.
• Coordinate domestic and international travel — flights, accommodation, visas and itineraries — with precision and foresight.
• Triage and manage the Artistic Director’s inbox; draft, proof-read and respond to correspondence on his behalf; act as a professional and courteous first point of contact for artists, agents, funders, broadcasters and venue partners worldwide.
• Prepare briefing notes, research summaries, board papers and presentations to a high standard.
• Support the Artistic Director’s media, broadcast and public-profile engagements in liaison with the marketing team, and keep his professional bio and speaker materials current.
• Maintain absolute discretion and confidentiality at all times, including in relation to contractual, personnel and financial matters.

Smooth Running of the Darbar Arts Lab

• Keep the Darbar Arts Lab office running smoothly day to day — the working environment, supplies, cleaning and maintenance contracts, permits, alarm and access systems, and supplier relationships.
• Coordinate day-to-day health and safety compliance, including risk assessments and first-aid and fire-marshal arrangements, and support insurance renewals.
• Provide governance administration: circulate Board papers, maintain trustee records and the conflict-of-interest and pro-bono registers, and provide meeting and minute-taking support.
• Support onboarding and offboarding administration, maintain orderly digital filing (SharePoint), and keep operational workflows moving in Monday.com and Bright HR.

Programme Awareness & Stakeholder Engagement

This post is not a festival-delivery role. What it requires is a confident working understanding of Darbar’s programme portfolio so that the postholder can engage effectively with colleagues and represent the Artistic Director well.

• Hold a working understanding of Darbar’s portfolio — the festivals, the Sky Arts broadcast partnership, the Darbar Player OTT platform and the Darbar Academy — sufficient to engage knowledgeably with the COO, Head of Programmes and external partners.
• Ac…