Lighthouse, the leading arts agency in South East England for moving image and digital practice, wishes to appoint a Director. Deadline 30 November 2009.

The role will be to lead on policy and strategic development and to ensure that Lighthouse is at the forefront of the digital debate, both regionally and nationally.

Salary: £36K
Closing date: 30 November 09
Interviews: 11 December 09

Application, job description and further information here
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/about/jobs.htm

LIGHTHOUSE
1, Zone B
28 Kensington Street
Brighton
BN1 4AJ
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk

HISTORY
Lighthouse was formed in 1986. Before then it was known as Brighton Film and Video Workshop and was based at Brighton Polytechnic (now the University of Brighton) where it acted primarily as an in-house independent film production group. In 1986 it was re-branded as Lighthouse Film and Video and constituted as a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity. It operated for the next five years with one full-time member of staff and an annual turnover of £25k.

Until 1993 all of Lighthouse???s activities were in film and video production. It was at that point that Lighthouse began to exploit the use of new technologies and its work in both projects and training began to grow substantially. The organisation changed its name to Lighthouse Arts and Training Ltd in 1996 to reflect the divergence in its activity base.
Lighthouse also has a subsidiary trading company, Lighthouse Media, which used to function as a facilities house for media production, providing broadcast quality AVID editing suites and a range of production equipment such as camera, sound and lighting kits. Lighthouse Media is currently inactive.

In May 1999 Lighthouse purchased the freehold of 9-12 Middle Street with an Arts Council Lottery grant and SRB funding from Brighton Council and SEEDA. This purchase and its associated model was widely championed in both the arts and regeneration fields as an innovative development that created office space for SMEs in the emergent creative new media sector as well as providing rental income to fund Lighthouse???s core activity base.

In 2000, Lighthouse was awarded a prestigious Arts Council Breakthrough Award in recognition of its innovative project work and in particular the Chailey Heritage Digital Arts Project which enabled severely disabled young adults to create digital arts work using assistive technologies.

In February 2001 Lighthouse hosted a visit from HM The Queen and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh on the occasion of their visit to Brighton and Hove following its granting of city status.

The current Chief Executive, Sarah Flint, was appointed in May 2004 and undertook a comprehensive review of the organisation. One of the results of this was the decision to sell the building at 9-12 Middle Street and relocate to a more suitable home in the heart of Brighton???s cultural quarter. When Lighthouse purchased the new premises in the Argus Lofts building, it was in shell condition, providing the perfect opportunity to fit it out to our own specifications.

In October 2006 we moved in. Our new home provides us with the necessary space and facilities we need to realise our vision of a Professional Development Hub, offering a range of training initiatives, networking events and production support for digital artists and filmmakers. It also enables us to provide office units for other arts organisations and creative businesses which not only generates a rental income stream, but also embeds Lighthouse within the creative economy of Brighton & Hove.