Curator (Freelance position)
Job Description

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About Community Arts by ZK

Community Arts by ZK (CAZK) (https://www.communityartsbyzk.co.uk/) is an award-winning community interest company based in Pendle, founded by CEO Zaneb Khatun CEO of CAZK. Zaneb is an experienced community artist and university lecturer with a wealth of experience working with communities from all different cultural, social and economic backgrounds. Zaneb achieved a Masters in Design for Textile Futures in one of the most renowned art schools in the world, Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, London.

Under her leadership, CAZK has established a national reputation for delivering high-quality, socially impactful creative projects that empower diverse communities and give voice to underrepresented groups.

At CAZK, we use art as a driving force to bring people together across all ages, cultural backgrounds, and socioeconomic circumstances, fostering cohesion, integration, and wellbeing. Our projects and workshops encourage participants to explore and express their own heritage and stories through a wide range of creative disciplines, including print, photography, sound, textiles, digital art, environmental art, installation, sculpture, mixed media, and both traditional and contemporary techniques.

By collaborating with specialist artists and creative practitioners from around the world, CAZK enables participants to develop their skills, express themselves confidently, and contribute to new archives of community heritage, ensuring that every project leaves a lasting cultural and social impact.

- Freelance contract.

- Engagement includes seven strategic planning and preparation sessions across Years 2–3.

- £194 per day

- Total number of sessions negotiable depending on early engagement and final exhibition needs.

HAFA (Healing Arts For All)

HAFA is a three-year creative heritage project (2025–2027), funded by the National Lottery and Paul Hamlyn Foundation. It explores the South Asian community’s role in Pendle’s industrial history. In the 1950s, South Asian families were invited by the Queen and government to work in the textile industry, including at Brierfield Mill, a Grade II listed former cotton mill. Their stories and contributions are largely absent from mainstream archives.

HAFA places participants’ voices at the centre of the project, enabling them to explore, research, and creatively express their heritage narratives through 12 progressive creative phases. The project focuses on empowering participants to reclaim their history and contribute to a multi-layered archive of community heritage.

Phases so far:

Year 1 (completed): printmaking, sound art, photographic portraiture, mixed media — including exceptional photographic and sound recordings of first-generation mill workers, some now grandfathers.

Year 2 (ongoing/present): illustration, bookmaking, textiles, digital art, and Built Landscapes.

Year 3 (upcoming, ending July 2027): film, animation, sculpture, and curation/exhibition leading to the final large-scale opening exhibition and potential touring show.

What we are looking for:

We are seeking a professional Curator specialising in large-scale, multi-disciplinary exhibitions. This Curator will work closely with CAZK to ensure that the final exhibition is cohesive, ambitious, and community-led, while supporting potential national touring opportunities.

Curatorial Engagement (Seven Sessions)

The Curator will be engaged for a minimum of seven sessions across Years 2 and 3, structured to provide both strategic guidance and hands-on preparation for the final exhibition:

• Early sessions: Collaborate with CAZK to shape the curatorial vision, identify exhibition requirements, advise on spatial, interpretive, and technical considerations, and provide guidance on potential touring opportunities and gallery connections.

• Later sessions: Support the preparation of artworks, refine the exhibition narrative, and advise on presentation and layout to ensure a cohesive, engaging, and professionally realised exhibition. These sessions will ensure the final exhibition is conceptually and practically ready for public display and potential touring, maintaining the community-led ethos of HAFA.

Curator’s Role

• Review and collate work from all HAFA phases (print, sound, photography, textiles, digital, bookmaking, film, animation, sculpture).

• Guide CAZK in shaping the exhibition narrative, layout, and presentation of artworks.

• Advise on exhibition logistics, technical requirements, and audience engagement.

• Contribute to planning for potential national touring exhibitions and liaising with galleries or museums as appropriate.

• Ensure the exhibition fully respects the heritage stories and creative outputs of the participants.

Experience:

• Proven experience curating large-scale, multi-disciplinary exhibitions.

• Experience in socially engaged, community-led practice.

• Strong strategic advisory skills in curatorial planning.

• Ability to work across art forms and heritage materials.

• Relevant artistic or curatorial degree.

Desirable:

• Interest in post-industrial heritage and South Asian diaspora histories.

• Experience supporting touring exhibitions in national museum/gallery contexts

Outputs:

• A professionally realised, large-scale exhibition reflecting the full scope of HAFA participants’ creative outputs.

• A curated narrative highlighting the historical and cultural contributions of Pendle’s South Asian community.

• Exhibition ready for potential national tour, including guidance on partner galleries and venues.

How to apply:

Submit a two-page (maximum) Expression of Interest outlining why you are interested in HAFA and how your curatorial practice could support this phase of the project.
CV.
Portfolio of previous work (with relevant links).
Social media handles (optional).
Send to: info@communityartsbyzk.co.uk

Deadline for applications: 25th November 2025

Curator (Freelance position) Job Description​