The Challenge

The St. Ives School of Painting provides high quality tuition and inspirational spaces for people to come together to create and make art. They are a small team of ten people, who believe in being creative, courageous and caring in how they work and promoting a happy working environment with the bonus of being a few steps from Porthmeor Beach.

The school realised that even though they are an established organisation celebrating 80 years, they needed to evolve their business and better translate their voice to a wider and more diverse audience.

Share the creative spirit

Inspire others

Across Cornwall, many people face challenges that prevent them from accessing placements, opportunities and employment in the creative and cultural sector. In seeking a way to break down these ‘hidden diversity’ barriers, RIO began a conversation we called Brave Recruitment.

The Opportunity

With the support from Cultivator and the Brave Recruitment programme, the St. Ives School of Painting began an effort to find a placement candidate who could “help us tell stories that share our creative spirit and inspire others” and work collaboratively with the Marketing and Development Manager to create copy for social media and other digital marketing campaigns. They also wanted someone who would work to produce image and film content that captures the essence of the School, and aid in the relaunch and managing of their website.

The Difference

Cultivator supported the St. Ives school of Painting to create a more diverse and “Brave” recruitment process. Rather than the traditional route of shortlisting application forms and inviting applicants from the shortlisting to interview, another step was added to the process. They asked 16 candidates to provide them for a piece of work which would show off their writing talent, so they could showcase their ability to execute their comms plan and their capability of working to a deadline. This worked better than just standard scenario-based questions because that style of interviewing discriminates against candidates who are just starting their careers and may not have past work experience to relate to the position. By changing the process slightly, they could open the doors to a hidden diversity of contenders, very capable and maybe more well-matched to the organisation who could translate their voice more organically.

The Result

After these changes were made, it was Brave Recruit Mollie who obtained the position, which she is thoroughly enjoying. She has a background in copywriting but is excited to be writing and working in a different setting and challenging herself to learn skills around software that St. Ives School of Painting use.

The St. Ives School of Painting are pleased with the success of taking on a Brave Recruit; Mollie has been vital in offering support to staff members, from editing copy, creating adverts, writing press release and social media posts.

What do they think?

“Mollie is already proving invaluable to us. As we start to transition to the new website, we realise just how vital writing is to what we do. She has brought a flair and creativity to her role and enabled us to consider much more carefully how we communicate to our customers.”

If you are interested in becoming a Brave Recruiter and helping to push the boundaries of creative organisations in Cornwall whilst giving opportunities to those often left out visit the Cultivator page.

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