INTRODUCTION

As part of my work placement unit at university, I secured the role of ‘Events Assistant’ within the Events Team at the De La Warr Pavilion located in Bexhill On Sea, East Sussex. I have maintained a keen interest in this arts centre from a young age as, being situated in my hometown, it has always been largely accessible to me and I also performed there several times during my time at East Sussex School of Performing Arts as a teenager. This blog will instantiate my experience of working with the De La Warr Pavilion from an entirely different perspective than what it has been in the past as well as expand on how I have furthered my learning of events management and venue hire. I was also keen to work here after researching the Pavilion a lot as part of the Creative Planning and Programming unit in Level 5 when assessing competition, where I placed my venue in neighbouring town Hastings.

ABOUT THE DE LA WARR PAVILION

The De La Warr Pavilion is a Modernist centre for arts and culture located by the sea that opened in 1935. Located in Bexhill On Sea in East Sussex, the Pavilion has won numerous awards including the 1066 Business Award, Muddy Stilleto for best art gallery as well as multiple Coast awards and several others.

The De La Warr Pavilion is both a charitable (2002) and profitable organisation. It is also a Grade I listed building as it is to be considered of special architectural and historic interest. This means that there are an extensive amount of features of the original building, such as the handrails, the plaque at the bottom of the South Staircase, the majority of the Auditorium balcony, most of the building floor and more. As a result of the Grade I listing, there is extra control over what changes can be made to the interior and exterior.

The De La Warr Pavilion is supported by Trustees, such as our honourary patron and comedian Eddie Izzard. The Pavilion also works with and belongs to a number of groups and networks, like Bexhill Museum, Hastings and Rother Arts and Education Network, Contemporary Visual Arts Network South East and many more.

HISTORY

‘A modernist building of world renown that will become a crucible for creating a new model of cultural provision in an English seaside town which is going to lead to the growth, prosperity and the greater culture of our town.’ – The 9th Earl De La Warr, 1935

The mayor at the time of 1935, the 9th Earl De La Warr, persuaded Bexhill Town Council to launch an international competition for the design of a seaside Pavilion with the intention of encouraging tourism. The competition was won by architect Erich Mendelsohn and interior designer Serge Chermayeff and the original model showing their intentions is exhibited at Bexhill Museum. The model included an outdoor swimming pool and the Pavilion’s own pier, however these features were not progressed as a result of lack of funding.

The De La Warr Pavilion officially opened in 1935 by the Duke and Duchess of York after an £80,000, 11 month long project. During World War II, the Pavilion was temporarily shut and suffered damage to its West wall. The wall was repaired shortly after the War and the Pavilion reopened, but in the coming years fell into a state of decline and neglect. In 1998, a bid was proposed to the Arts Council Lottery Fund but it failed. The Council then intended to transform the Pavilion into a J.D. Wetherspoon, however this caused outrage among locals when word got out. A new bid in 2000 then secured £6 million from the Arts Council and Heritage Lottery for the Pavilion’s restoration and redevelopment.

The Pavilion is now a successful centre for art, architecture and live performance.

FACILITIES

• Auditorium – capacity: 996
• Studio – capacity: 60
• Bar/Cafe
• Rooftop
• Gallery
• Foyer
• Shop

Skye Brockhurst organised for her and I to go on a Building Tour, hosted by one of the Front of House team. There was a great deal of information about the De La Warr Pavilion that I did not know, despite it being present in my hometown for the entirety of my childhood and some 65 years before that. I was lent a book about the Pavilion for an afternoon, De La Warr Pavilion, the Modernist Masterpiece by Alastair Fairely, that I read thoroughly in order to learn as much as possible about the history behind it. I consider it important to learn about the history of anything I am involved in as I always grow a larger interest in it, and I feel that it furthers my understanding and knowledge. I have learnt to do this particularly since Live Event 2, where my event Tea Hearts at the Priest’s House Museum took place as there is also history surrounding this venue.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

During my first week of work placement, the Event Manager I was working closely with, Skye Brockhurst, went  through the organisational structure of the De La Warr Pavilion. She explained that there are two sides to the organisation; commercial and charitable, and also that there was not a strict hierarchy within the Pavilion’s structure. Nevertheless, this does not affect its success.

I was working as part of the Venue Hire team, which classes as a component of the commercial side of the organisation. It was only when I started responding to hire enquiries that I realised how many potential clients tried to subsidise the De La Warr Pavilion’s standard fees and rates; to which I repeatedly had to reiterate that we too are a charity and our rates are in most cases non-negotiable. 

By working with the different teams and departments within the De La Warr Pavilion, I learnt how to communicate in a professional manner and cooperate; this also applies when communicating with clients. The teams that I worked with most frequently were the Directors, Finance, Tech, Cafe/Bar and Front of House; this was mainly when I would send out directives that I had written to ensure that all the relevant teams did not have any problems with what had been organised. Working in the environment that I did at the Pavilion, really increased my confidence and I am looking forward to applying this newly found confidence to future units in Level 6, particularly Live Event 3. Previously, at the time of Live Event 1 and 2, I was extremely nervous when talking to people I did not know, both in person and on the phone; however I now feel that I can communicate confidently in a friendly, approachable and professional manner.

MY ROLES

During my time on work placement, I worked on an extensive amount of events. These ranged from annual, regular clients, such as the NHS for their yearly awards ceremony, to completely new venue hires like The Guardian and Observer Fashion Photoshoot. This meant that I learnt to apply a lot of developing skills that I had acquired from previous units in Levels 4 and 5 at university and then put them into physical practice. My developing skills ranged from time management, organisation, and confidence to computer skills and professionalism. I learnt to reinforce these skills by overlooking and planning several events at one time and the responsibility that comes with it.

WEEKS 1-2

Upon arrival at the De La Warr Pavilion, I received a Staff Information pack, a Work Placement booklet and a name badge. These documents allowed for me to familiarise myself with staff expectations and impending responsibilities; it was essential that I was provided with this information to ensure that I would know what to do in certain situations (fire evacuation, bomb procedures etc.) and get to know the organisational structure of the Pavilion. In Week 1, Skye informed me of the main processes of event planning.

I mostly worked on the administrative side of things in Week 1 – despite having the experience of Live Events 1 and 2 I did not realise just how much there is to do! I wrote multiple directives for upcoming events as well as identifying documents that were still required for other upcoming events, such as contracts, directives, invoices, forecasts and made a table to keep track of this which Skye and I referred back to throughout the entirety of my time on Work Placement.

Skye gave me the responsibility of handling Dr Alan Whitehead’s “This Earth II” Exhibition which was held in the Studio from 11^th-13^th May 2017. I responded to Dr Whitehead directly via phone and email and ensuring that everything is in place for his arrival to set up and begin the event.

I read up on the Pavilion’s risk assessments for the building and fire safety precautions, as well as modifying and reading through a risk assessment for ESSPA (East Sussex School of Performing Arts) who host an annual musical show: this year was Just Grow Up! I then incorporated information from their risk assessment to the directive for the dates of the musical, which I also wrote. This was quite a lengthy directive to write, as there were many requirements needed from the Front of House, Tech and Bar/Café departments. Requirements included that of: clearing corridors, producing signage “no filming or photography” to reinforce child protection and providing “child-friendly” snacks for intervals. This shows that I have learnt more about health and safety as per one of my learning objectives, as I frequently had to consider factors like First Aid and think of control measures that could be put in place.

I also met with Pippa Moore, head of Fundraising, who talked through crowdfunding campaigns and other techniques that she has found effective in the past. I was aware that fundraising could be a prominent part of Live Event 3, and so I was keen to learn more about this to help me in the future.

WEEKS 3-4

I was given the task of doing wedding venue research so that the Pavilion could become aware of how their wedding packages that they offer differ from other wedding packages with other venues. I had to generally review the surrounding competition of the East Sussex area and get an idea of how our packages could be improved in order to gain more interest in the Pavilion as a wedding venue. I comprised a document full of this information that was organised and easy to view.

A meeting with a Duty General Manager of the Pavilion was arranged so that I could learn about how to create a risk assessment for trade fairs, as per one of my learning objectives. From this meeting, I learnt that trade fairs are an efficient cash cow, and so it is really important that all the risks that trade fairs can bring with them are determined and the control measures that we would need to put in place to accommodate these.

Skye gave me a one-to-one workshop on how to use Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and furthered my understanding of spreadsheets a lot more in general. Skye taught me this whilst we worked on the costings for the East Sussex County Council election count venue hire in order for us to finalise the contract and directive documents and send them out to the respective parties.

I have been attending regular diary meetings, where events, front of house, tech, catering and other relevant teams meet to discuss what has been booked in for the next month and to confirm timings and tickets sold. Events team always bring upcoming directives to ensure timings/numbers are correct and then tech can confirm that they know what’s going on and that there are no clashes in the diary.

Since I’ve been working alongside Skye, the Pavilion has since created a paid, permanent job for my role. To help who replaced me, I created email templates for venue enquiries. I also included details of room specifications, menus and such alike. These are to speed up the responses to enquiries, separating definite rejections from possible venue hires.

I also attended a commercial meeting with Marketing, Sales and Box Office, Director, Bar/Café Manager and Venue Hire that links into my marketing objective. This was to throw ideas around of how the Rooftop Salad Bar could be marketed effectively. The Rooftop Salad Bar will be a new addition to the Pavilion, promoting use of the open accessible rooftop as it is not ordinarily used for much – apart from a few exhibitions and gigs that were held here and there in the past.

WEEKS 5-6

I prepared for the Bexhill Choral Society concert by printing out copies of their music and liaising with the contact, although they were a very straightforward client. I wrote the directive for this, oversaw the rehearsal and ensured that those involved received any help that they required. The concert took place on Saturday 6^th May 2017, it was moderately successful in terms of Box Office sales but was not particularly challenging for me to manage.

I have been answering enquiries via email, many of which are regarding weddings, small studio hires or large hires suitable for the auditorium. It is important that I respond to every enquiry in the email inbox, whether it be with good or bad news for the recipient on whether we can have them as a viable client. Potential events must be approved by the Directors before we confirm with the client.

On my last day of placement, The Guardian and Observer did a high profile, high fashion photoshoot around the Pavilion. I was the main point of contact for this, and my job was to essentially make sure they were happy and reinforce both health and safety when it came to blocking fire exits and such alike, and also ensure that the clients kept to their contracted hours. This went smoothly and was the most responsibility I was given with a client, and was also what I most enjoyed during my time on placement.