Opportunities for cultural organisations

I gained a deeper understanding of the University and the ways in which cultural organisations might collaborate with schools or individuals on research projects or student engagement.”

CAKE is the Cultural Institute’s programme of knowledge exchange and partnership developed with arts and cultural organisations in West Yorkshire. 

It brings together arts/cultural professionals and researchers to explore themes of importance to the cultural sector with the aim to deepen and expand thinking and practice.

Since it started in 2023, we have invited over 30 organisations in the city and 30 researchers across the University to take part, exploring themes such as:

• co-creation in the arts
• arts and the environment
• audience development
• arts, health and wellbeing.

We have also run multiple workshops, supported two PhD research projects with the Tetley and Yorkshire Dance, and developed a sandpit with Yorkshire Sculpture Park on children, creativity and nature connection in learning.

In collaboration with academics, and in response to suggestions from cultural organisations, we are now developing a workshop on holding space for conflict within organisations. 

Read about the first CAKE in 2023.

Our Ignite programme was established in 2012 to encourage researchers to develop projects that build relationships between the University and external organisations, and lead to engaging, relevant and impact-led research.

We support projects that provide mutual benefits for both researchers and partners. Previous projects have created opportunities to explore ideas and areas for development, worked with external partners to improve the quality of research, and demonstrated how they can form the basis of a longer term project plan or programme of activity.

Find out more about the Ignite Fund.

Leeds Creative Labs is a residency programme that pairs artists with researchers from the University of Leeds to allow them to explore ideas.   

Over the years, various organisations have partnered with Leeds Creative Labs to deliver different iterations of the programme. If you are interested in collaborating with the Cultural Institute on a Creative Lab, please email Cultural Institute at culturalinstitute@leeds.ac.uk. We can discuss how we can work together.

Collaborating with Leeds Creative Labs offers several benefits, including: 

• clear translation into grant development 
• evidence of relationship for NPO status 
• proven track record for funding 
• development opportunities for your network 
• unique connections and perspectives.

Find out more about Leeds Creative Labs.

Many of our students undertake volunteering roles alongside their studies, on an ad-hoc or ongoing basis. Our Volunteering team can advertise your roles to our students, invite you to attend volunteering fairs and advise on volunteer recruitment.  

Volunteering roles you could offer our students might include:

• working with community groups
• supporting social media and digital communications
• stewarding and hosting events
• updating catalogues 
• acting as ‘Young Trustees’ to give a students’ perspective within your organisation.   

As students need to fit volunteering alongside academic commitments, the roles we promote should be low-commitment and less than 15 hours per week. We can’t advertise roles that should be classified as employment through our Volunteering team, and we only promote opportunities with charities, social enterprises or community groups.   

If you have a role in mind or want to find out more, email the Volunteering team at volunteer@leeds.ac.uk.

If you have a paid role that is suitable for students or graduates, you can advertise it for free through our online careers portal MyCareer, a system regularly accessed by over 40,000 current students as well as graduates from the last five years.  

If the role is exclusively for current University of Leeds students, our Work Placements team can provide a full recruitment service, including:

• advising on creating job descriptions  
• advertising your roles to our students, including targeting specific cohorts or disciplines  
• collating and shortlisting applicants   
• offering interview facilities  
• providing unsuccessful candidates with feedback  
• supporting you throughout the student’s employment and re-advertise roles as needed. 

The University has a policy to only advertise and endorse employment opportunities that are paid. Salary subsidies for summer or part-time internships of up to £1,500 may be available to SMEs and charitable organisations (restrictions apply). 

Students and graduates can undertake a range of paid roles:  

• Year-in-industry placements: all undergraduate students between their second and third year can take one or multiple shorter roles as part of a nine to 12 month full-time role as a year-in-industry placement. 
• Part-time term-time: up to 15 hours paid employment per week during term-time.  
• Summer internships: full-time employment for up to 12 weeks during the summer vacation.
• Graduate roles: recent graduates can undertake ongoing or fixed-term roles throughout the year. 

If you don’t have a payroll set up, we can arrange this service through our JobLink centre.

For more information, email Nichola Casse at the Cultural Institute: n.f.casse@leeds.ac.uk.

For many of our taught courses, in-curriculum placements with external partners are a core element of the academic experience and allow organisations to host students to undertake tasks based on their needs. 

There is no cost to hosting placement students, but as their contribution is part of their assessed work, the placement provider has less direct control of their outputs.

Opportunities particuarly relevant to arts and cultural organisations include: 

• Live briefs, research and consultancy placements: a low-commitment option for organisations to set a consultancy brief, research question or issue faced by an arts, cultural or creative organisation. 
• Sustainability and Consultancy placements: host an MSc student to conduct a sustainability-related project such as creating an action plan towards net zero, investigating resource efficiency or adding social value to projects, resulting in a consultancy report. 
• Art Galleries and Museum Studies placements: MA students undertake a placement to gain experience of practice within a professional environment.  
• Archival placements: BA or MA History students gain experience working in a catalogued archive, which may result in a public output such as blog post, interpretation information or webpage.  
• Journalism placements: host a second-year BA Journalism student for a three-week, full-time work-shadowing placement in your communications or press team during the summer vacation.  

If you would like to advertise a paid role, or understand more about recruiting a student including securing funding, get in touch with the Employability and Placements team (Microsoft form).  

As a professional in the creative industries, you could share your invaluable insight with our students through one of our schemes:

• School of Media and Communication – Media Futures 
• School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies – visiting artist talks  
• School of Music – employability mentoring scheme 
• School of Performance and Cultural Industries – Professional Practice programme. 

We also have a Creative Careers Week every Februar. This is a chance for students to hear from professionals with insights in the creative industries, whether you’re a cultural leader, mid-level practitioner or starting out. 

You can also get in touch if you’re interested in giving visiting talks about aspects of your role, organisation or sector. These can be aligned with particular degree programmes or disciplines, and are an excellent way to raise awareness of your organisation with our students.  

Get in touch with the Employability and Placements team (Microsoft form).  

We can help you promote your events, activities or experiences to a student audience. This might include pop-up performances or taster sessions on campus, behind-the-scenes tours of your venue, special student events, ticket discounts or your attendance at cultural fairs.

To discuss how you can engage students as audiences for your organisation, please email the Cultural Institute at culturalinstitute@leeds.ac.uk.