Big Car Collaborative Seeks Director of Places for People

Position Summary

The Director of Places for People is a lead-staff level position that focuses on the work at Big Car Collaborative making public places around Indianapolis and on Big Car’s campus fun, active, engaging, inclusive, welcoming, creative, and comfortable for the public.

The ideal candidate for this position is comfortable — as a project manager — independently guiding projects from start to finish. Key responsibilities include contributing to the grants and fundraising process, meeting with stakeholders and community members, developing program plans and approaches, creating estimates and invoices, monitoring budgets, supporting artists and community collaborators, and supervising and delegating tasks to staff. Flexibility and adaptability are crucial attributes.

The ideal candidate:

… understands and embraces the ideas of artist-led, site- and community-specific public programs or what the National Endowment for the Arts calls creative placemaking;

… is comfortable managing and collaboratively operating human-scale activations for people of all ages and backgrounds in public places;

… can successfully plan and run (with staff support) midsize and larger events like seasonal festivals, night markets, music shows, and outdoor film screenings;

… and has views about and some level of experience with placemaking, placekeeping, and the role of the arts and artists in empathetic, equitable, and inclusive community and economic development.

Event and Program Management/Coordination: 60% of time

• Manage the Spark program with Executive Director and Director of Programming
• Coordinate community events with Big Car staff, APLR artists, and other artists and musicians at public spaces in the city
• Work with Director of Programming to implement programs and events at Tube Factory campus (especially during slower times for off-site programming)
• Serve as a volunteer coordinator who recruits individuals and groups and develops meaningful volunteer opportunities related to Big Car’s public programs
• Generate innovative ideas for community events, young professional and teen engagement, and other opportunities for public involvement
• Serve as a liaison to communities where Big Car is working

Administrative 40% of time

• Work as administrative manager for Spark, including scheduling meetings, tracking deadlines, doing estimates and invoices, and handling related communication
• Handle requests for Big Car presence and participation at external events, including creating estimates, invoices, and written agreements when needed
• Oversee data tracking including surveys, postcard project, attendee counts, and project reports to stakeholders
• Oversee social media, documentation, and website updates for Spark
• Obtain contracts, W9s from artists and musicians participating in Spark
• Coordinate movement of placemaking tools like the Wagon of Wonders, Welcome Trailer, and parklet
• Create run of show and staffing plans for Spark events
• Attend weekly staff meetings

Who You Are

Education and Experience

• BS/BA degree preferred
• 5 + years experience in cultural programming; placemaking; planning; community development; or nonprofit, program, or event management preferred
• 1 + years of supervisory experience

Required Skills and Abilities:

• Creative thinker
• Collaborative
• Comfortable with people of all classes, cultures, and backgrounds
• Enjoys working with the public, including diverse stakeholders
• Empathetic
• Proactive
• Great communicator (writing and speaking skills)
• Detail oriented
• Problem solver
• Able to handle multiple tasks at once
• Well organized/systems thinker
• Flexible and adaptable
• Able to work in a non-traditional workplace

About Big Car: Big Car Collaborative is a 20-year-old nonprofit organization working across Indianapolis and beyond to support people-focused public places through socially engaged arts approaches. Co-led by artists and active citizens, Big Car works to foster connectivity, community, culture, and creativity. Big Car also collaborates with artists (including those in their long-term residency program) and other neighbors and leaders to support livable, inclusive, and equitable communities. Big Car’s mission statement: Big Car brings art to people and people to art, sparking creativity in lives to support communities.

Physical Demands of Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of that that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical demands: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; talk or hear; taste or smell. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.

Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Work environment: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of the position. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Big Car provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

To learn more and apply, click here.