Summer Teen Program: Storytelling & Narrative Media Specialist

Beam Summer Studios is a program that offers youth an opportunity to develop large, showcase projects within a collaborative, studio-like environment. They will work within one of five groups based on specialized fields of interest (i.e. fashion, food, music, design, storytelling) to explore new skills and create projects that will be experienced in two public-facing engagements: a mid-summer Studio Day and the culminating youth-run festival: The Otherworlds Fair. The public festival will take place on Governors Island on August 16th. Area specialists will collaborate directly with two youth leads and a team of ten youth participants to design and produce spectacular projects!

At Beam Summer Studios, youth participants aged 16-22 work within teams that cover different aspects of culture to collaboratively produce large scale projects for the youth-run festival: The Otherworlds Fair. The area specialist for each specialty team is the adult staff member who will guide in the creation of showcase projects and a form of public engagement of that project - they will be the main person responsible for creating the project structure and training their team on relevant skills and materials. The area specialist will work collaboratively with two youth leads - one group manager and one project manager - and a group of ten youth participants, and should be willing to learn and offer knowledge toward a variety of skills to support participants in their unique design process. This person should be confident and well versed in a craft and willing to expand within it by engaging in behind the scenes prototyping and research on new tools and materials, based on youth interest.

Storytelling & Narrative Media Specialist Job description:

The Storytelling & Narrative Media Specialist should be experienced in one or more related media, some examples include performance-based or physical-media based narrative production. Some examples include video, spoken word, puppetry, photography, graphic novels, animation, and/or other storytelling skills.This group has access to a large outdoor festival stage, fabrication shop with ceramics, wood and metal facilities, an indoor studio and outdoor spaces on Governors Island.

Qualifications of strong candidates:

• Experience with project-based learning or other collaborative work, bonus if with young people.  
• Experience in translating ideas or 2D designs into projects on a proposed timeline 
• Specialization and passion for sharing a craft, process and/or material
• Imaginative, able to be flexible and resourceful in responsive to youth needs and input
• Highly collaborative, able to ask questions, offer insight, and celebrate teamwork 

Responsibilities: 

• Training and Project Inception 
• Trains youth staff on specific tools and materials within their thematic area, has a birds eye view of what’s possible, provides idea inception to their group and acts as a critically engaged collaborator. 
• Takes charge of pre-determining what form the final project takes at the festival and what tools and materials could be used to develop the project (for example, determining that the group will make a fashion show / performance / large interactive sculpture that uses x, y and/or z materials but not predetermining what that project is or looks like exactly).
• Supports the group to determine how their project will be activated in a teaching engagement both during the summer and at the festival.
• Does due diligence to make projects durable, engaging, good looking and safe for a public audience of all ages. 
• In the month of June, responsively develops project and training plans by sharing ideas with and incorporating feedback from Youth Leads 
• Scope and Pacing 
• Takes authority, with help from the Project Director, on discerning what their team can and can’t do, based on understanding of scale, time available, spatial constraints, festival scope and budget. Within the scope of what’s possible, they are also responsible for pushing their team to be ambitious in their creative vision. 
• Cohesion and Group Dynamics 
• Responsible for moving the project forward on a proposed timeline, maintaining cohesiveness of the group project, and adjusting according to realistic constraints.
• Work with young people’s ideas in a process of back and forth.

Work Schedule

• June 14 - July 5: Training and planning, 60 hours total (exact schedule to follow)
• July 8 - August 20: Implementation, (including Friday August 1 and Saturday, August 16)

Hourly wage: $27/hr

Working hours during implementation period:   Monday -Thursday 9:45-4:45, (must be available Friday, August 1 and Saturday, August 16)

How to Apply

1. Familiarize yourself with our organization by checking out our website (beamcenter.org), Instagram (@beamcenter.org), and Youtube (youtube.com/beamcenter).
2. Apply on the job page of our website (beamcenter.org/work-with-us). 
3. Email the following in one pdf file to [email protected]:

• Cover Letter  - Please describe your skills and experience! (<300 words)
• Resume
• Work sample (work photos, curriculum, link to website, etc)

05/01/2025