Behind the Scenes

NAME: Helen Black
JOB TITLE: Marketing & Projects Officer

Key Responsibilities: I lead on the marketing activity for work which originates from the Citizens’ Learning and TAG department, i.e. The Citizens’ Community Company, YOUNG Co., TAG, drama classes and lots of educational and participatory projects. I work closely with everyone in this department and with Cat and Alison in Marketing.

How long have you worked at the Citizens? I started with TAG in July 2002 when the company were based in the Merchant City. TAG and Citizens’ re-integrated nearly two years ago and I’ve worked in the theatre since then.

Did you have to train specifically to do your job? I did a marketing degree at Strathclyde…actually a Joint Hons with manufacturing engineering. I have been an arts marketer since 2000, but have found that many other folk doing this job don’t have any marketing related qualifications. You can get into it without having specialist training because there are so many courses you can go on after you start. The TMA run a brilliant intensive week course called the Essentials of Marketing which was great for making contacts and the AMA run loads of training. What’s your favourite thing about your job? Without trying to sound too “worthy” you can really feel proud of what’s achieved in the end. I also like working on new projects all the time. I guess some jobs are very repetitive, but the joy of this job is that with each new project or production comes a brand new set of themes, ideas, target audience etc. So it’s refreshing to be able to get your teeth into lots of new subjects.

What’s your least favourite thing about your job? There just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day! The piles of paper and to-do lists just grow and grow.

My hero is… Henry Rollins (Rollins for President!!)

You probably don’t know this about me, but… I have 3 Blue Peter badges, all runners-up badges. I drew a stamp (a Kingfisher by a river), I designed Santaworld in Lapland and I designed a boss for the roof of York Minster, after it burnt down. Actually…you might know this, I tell everyone!

My first ever album was… Running in the Family by Level 42

My desert island luxury would be… my cat

I wish I could… play the guitar. I also wish I could spend less time in front of a computer and more time out in the countryside.

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