Volunteer Forum is an association of young people ages 18 to 24 who are interested in careers and professional practice in contemporary art.

Why Join?

Members have access to voluntary opportunities organised during exhibition installations. Whilst taking part you will gain opportunities to work directly with artists, curators and technicians in our programme completing tasks supporting the delivery of ambitious artists’ projects. It’s a great way to gain hands-on experience and get stuck in at a busy and active artist-led organisation.

The forum is designed as a first step into professional practice. We want members to gain as much learning as possible through their time spent with us. Alongside temporary voluntary roles we offer support, guidance and mentoring through informal learning opportunities. These are member-led and can include portfolio and work feedback, CV and job application support and grant writing guidance for first time applicants – it’s really open to the needs and interests of participating members.

If you’d like to join and become part of a growing community of young people interested in the arts, or learn more about the programme and upcoming opportunities we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch via info (at) autoitaliasoutheast.org.

Partnership Opportunities

Auto Italia has collaborated with higher education institutions and local authority partners across London as part of the Volunteer Forum. This includes Tower Hamlets Volunteer Centre; Central Saint Martins Diploma in Professional Studies, BA Fine Art and BA Culture, Criticism and Curation; Chelsea College of Art BA Fine Art; Kingston University BA Fine Art.

If you are a higher education partner or third sector organisation and would like to learn more about opportunities to partner with Auto Italia on professional development programmes please get in touch info (at) autoitaliasoutheast.org.

Volunteer Policy

Auto Italia began its life as a volunteer artist-run project in 2007. Since then the organisation’s programme has been made possible through the huge contributions of time and energy from members of our community. Our core principles for engaging with volunteers include:

• Volunteering at Auto Italia is led by you. We try our best to match you with tasks and projects that suit your interests and learning needs.
• We welcome requests if you have a more specialist learning requirement such as working with audio visual equipment or exhibition build and construction.
• There is no minimum time in which you can volunteer your time at Auto Italia. You can take part for one hour or a number of days. We prefer to limit individual contributions to no longer than ten days for each project so that members are not over stretched.
• Mentoring and guidance opportunities are member-led. We welcome requests from current and recent members for this professional development support.
• The aim is to ensure that you continue to gain learning from your experience. We therefore welcome members to volunteer on multiple projects if you would like to do so.
• Volunteering is between Monday – Friday and 10 to 6pm. We provide up to £10 per day towards lunch and travel costs for each day that you take part.
• We acknowledge that things can go wrong. We have an appointed Safeguarding Officer and internal complaints procedure to ensure you are supported on site.
• We always welcome feedback on how to organise volunteering opportunities better in the future. Volunteers are offered a feedback form upon completing a temporary voluntary role to provide this information anonymously.