Extraordinary Creatives

Whether you plan on doing your own press, or working with a publicist, you need to understand how press actually works. Because if you don't, you can't brief a PR person well, you can't tell whether the one you're paying is any good, and you certainly can't do it yourself. After 35 years of generating press for individual artists, commercial galleries, biennials, festivals, and an institution running 2.5 million visitors a year through its doors, I'm sharing what I've learned about getting work covered, and what most artists get wrong before they've written the first line. Before we get into it — if you're not already following the podcast, hit follow now so this lands in your feed each week. There's a lot in this one and you'll want to listen back. We recently brought two specialists into the Coaching Membership for separate Expert in Residence sessions on this exact subject.  Laura Davis with 25 years as a journalist, formerly arts editor at the Liverpool Daily Post and Liverpool Echo, now writing freelance and running Raised Voices - her audience-development practice.  David Field — Cultural Communications Strategist and Business Development Consultant, with nearly 20 years in cultural sector communications across in-house and agency, now running a boutique consultancy working with art businesses, art fairs, publishers and galleries across Europe, the Gulf and Korea. They gave members the publicist's strategic view in two separate sessions. Two complementary angles on the same problem - both available in the Coaching Membership on replay at  https://cerihand.com/membership/ KEY TAKEAWAYS Most artists are sending beautifully crafted, completely useless press releases - a wall of text disguised as news - and then wondering why nothing lands. Until you can answer “why should this journalist care about this now, for their readers?” you're not actually pitching, you're just announcing. Often, the pressure point isn't the wording, it's the structure: one sharp sentence of what's genuinely new, one image that tells that story at a glance suddenly makes your work look like something an editor can say yes to. BEST MOMENTS “A press release is not a marketing leaflet for your work. It's a piece of writing aimed at one specific reader, a journalist on a deadline deciding very quickly whether your story is one they can sell to their editor.” “If you can't say what's new in one sentence, you don't have news yet. You have an announcement.” “Press is not the goal. Press is a by-product. The goal is to build the kind of practice, the kind of story and the kind of relationships that make press almost inevitable.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

My guest today is the artist Charmaine Watkiss, whose extraordinary creative journey took her through film, shoemaking, and advertising before she became fully wedded to her art practice. It's a path that has given her work a deep sense of craft, storytelling and material sensitivity and I know will inspire so many of you. Her paintings are held in public collections across the UK, and she is currently showing a new commission in the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition Artists First: Contemporary Perspectives on Portraiture. We explore how Charmaine actually accesses her ideas. She describes the physical rituals that help her enter a flow state in the studio, how drawing, sculpture, and painting each unlock different ways of thinking, and why the work itself often reveals its direction through the materials. We also talk about responding to museum collections, including her recent commission From the ones who came before… for Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, where she worked with objects from the museum's World Cultures galleries to imagine the women who carried botanical knowledge across the African diaspora. We explore why her own figure often appears in the work, and the quiet but powerful role plants play in her paintings as carriers of memory, healing, and connection. It's a fascinating conversation about intuition, research, ancestry, and the slow unfolding of ideas through making. KEY TAKEAWAYS Ideas often begin as something half-visible - a feeling or fragment sensed before it can be understood. The work starts by accessing that inner terrain. Then the materials speak back, slowly revealing a direction you couldn't have predicted. Working with collections isn't neutral; artists are in dialogue with what's missing as much as with what's there. Teasing out and sharing knowledge that would otherwise be lost or misrepresented. BEST MOMENTS “My wanting to connect to plants is because plants have the answers, and plants give us life as well.” “I'm not really interested in making work about trauma. I'm interested in making work about emancipation and about healing.” “She is not trying to claim a definitive narrative. Instead, she creates space for memory, reflection, and reverence. Her practice reminds us that art can be a form of cultural care and repair.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://charmainewatkiss.com https://www.instagram.com/mswatkiss HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

You leave the event. At first, it's fine. And then, somewhere between the coat rack and the journey home, it starts -  That conversation, that sentence, that moment you wish you could rewind. Why did I say that? That sounded awkward. I should've said something else. They probably think I'm …. And just like that, the whole night begins to shift. Not as it happened, but as a story about what you got wrong. We've been building this over the last few episodes: what stops you going, what happens when you're in the room, how you see yourself when you're there. This is what happens afterwards - the replay, the spiral.   This isn't reflection. It's rumination. And if you're a creative person, you are particularly good at it, because your job is to imagine, to create meaning, to connect dots, to tell stories. Memory and imagination sit very close together in the brain.  So, when something feels uncomfortable, you don't just remember it. You reconstruct it. You fill in the gaps, you add interpretation, you build a narrative.  And that narrative feels real, even when it's not accurate.   Today, I unpack why your post‑event spiral feels so convincing, how it quietly keeps you out of the rooms you want to be in, and share 3 practical ways to interrupt the loop so you can follow up and show up without the cringe. KEY TAKEAWAYS Artists rarely just leave an event. They are brilliant at rewriting it. That one sentence, that one look becomes: “I got that wrong.” “They weren't interested.” Not because it happened that way, but because your brain decided it did. When a warped version of how the night went is the only one you listen to, it doesn't just make you cringe - it quietly edits your future. You don't follow up, you don't go back, you stay out of rooms you should be in - your career stalls. Subtly shifting how you think about an event is all that is needed to get things back on track. BEST MOMENTS “Rumination is not about solving problems. It's about trying to reduce uncertainty and emotional discomfort - the mind loops not to find truth but to try and regain control.” “The shift is - change your relationship to the thought. Instead of I got that wrong, try I'm having the thought that I got that wrong.” “Give yourself a more grounded version of the event.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk

Today's episode takes us out of the white cube and into the open air. My guest is Sarah Carrington, Director of The Line, the public art trail connecting Greenwich to Stratford along the waterways of East London. If you've ever stumbled across an unexpected sculpture beside a canal, or discovered art while simply walking through the city, then you already understand the quiet magic of what The Line does. With more than two decades working across curating, public art and cultural strategy, Sarah has helped shape an organisation dedicated to bringing art into people's everyday lives. In this conversation, we explore what it really takes to bring ambitious public artworks into being, how commissions evolve over years, and how artists can begin building relationships with organisations like The Line. If you're curious about working in the public realm or simply love the idea of discovering art as you move through the city, this episode offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes. And Sarah and I are also inviting you to meet us in person. On Monday 13 July 2026, we'll be hosting a special Membership event at Cody Dock, where Sarah will introduce the thinking behind The Line, share insights into commissioning public art, and highlight key works along the route before we walk together through the sculptures. If that sounds like your kind of day, please do click the link in the show notes to join the Membership or visit cerihand.com to join us. For now, settle in and enjoy this conversation with Sarah Carrington. KEY TAKEAWAYS When art lives in the places we walk every day, like The Line does, it stops being somewhere we “go” and becomes something we live alongside. The work comes alive on the viewers terms. The best public artworks don't just decorate a place. They provoke questions. They connect people. They create moments where strangers stop, look, and talk to one another. Public art is a long game: you build relationships, stay with it, and you don't treat the first “no” as the final word - you innovate and adapt. BEST MOMENTS “When they come to The Line, they connect with one another, and they connect with themselves in a new way.” “That great public art doesn't appear overnight. Behind every sculpture or installation, you encounter in the landscape are years of thinking, research, partnerships, and conversations.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://the-line.org HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Have you ever walked into a room and instantly thought: They all know more than me. They're further ahead. They're more established. They've got better work, better contacts, better everything. And before you've even opened your mouth… You've already decided your position. Somewhere near the bottom. Over the last couple of weeks, we've been looking at what stops you in these spaces. First, the story you tell yourself before you go.  Then, how you interpret what's happening when you're there. This week is something deeper. What you believe about yourself in that room. This isn't about the room. It's about comparison without context. KEY TAKEAWAYS When you walk into a room as an artist, it's so easy to decide everyone else is more established, more connected, more interesting – and quietly put yourself at the bottom before you've even opened your mouth. Comparing without context is holding you back. You are taking other people's outside (their confidence, their contacts, their ease in the room) and putting it next to how you feel inside - You have no idea how long it took them, how many awkward nights they've had, or how often they've thought, “I don't belong here,” too. Instead of shrinking and slipping away early, use Ceri´s SHOW checklist - See that you're comparing without the full picture, Hold your physical ground, Offer one small, honest contribution, and Wait before you judge how it went. Learn to stay in the room and build real confidence, one moment at a time. BEST MOMENTS "You're taking a snapshot of someone else's career, confidence or presence and placing it next to your internal experience. And of course, you lose because you're comparing their outside with your inside, you see someone speaking confidently." "Let me be really clear, this does not go away. You can be experienced. You can be established. You can have done the thing you once dreamed of and still walk into a room and think, I'm not sure I belong here." "If you always assume you're the least interesting person in the room, you'll behave like it, and then you'll use that behaviour as proof." “In one conversation, offer something not perfect, not polished, just something - because that's how you start to gather new evidence.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Have you ever left an event and thought: "My God, those people are dull." "People were so rude." "No one made me feel welcome." "Blimey, I'm not doing that again." And by the time you get home, it's not just the event. It's confirmation - "The art world isn't for me." But if that's the story you keep leaving with… it's worth asking what's really going on – After all, not everyone in that room can be an arsehole. What you think you're reading in a room is often not the room at all. Your brain is wired to detect threat. Not physical threat. Social threat. A look. A short answer. A pause. And your brain fills in the gaps: “They're not interested.” “I've said the wrong thing.” “I don't belong here.” So, you withdraw. You close down. You leave early. And just like that… you've created the very experience you were trying to avoid and stop attending events – and miss out on all that they offer.   That's the loop. This week - I'm giving you a simple way to interrupt that negative loop. KEY TAKEAWAYS Your negative read of a room (e.g., “everyone is rude,” “this world isn't for me”) is often not an accurate reflection of what is going on. Your brain isn't passively reading reality; it's predicting based on past experiences and filling in gaps. What you feel in a moment is a mix of what's happening now and what your brain expects to happen. Asking “What else could this mean?” gives you a more open, less fear-driven interpretation. Ceri's KIND process is a simple, four-step way to interrupt the automatic “they don't like me/I don't belong” story. It helps you stay open, calm your body, and take one small extra action so you can create new, more accurate experiences instead of confirming old fears. BEST MOMENTS “What you feel in a moment isn't just what's happening now, it's what your brain expects is happening. So instead of asking, what did that mean? Try what else could this mean?” “Honestly, in a room full of creative people, it simply cannot be true that every single one is an asshole, it just can't. – So, if that's the story you're walking in with, it's worth asking, Is this the room, or is this my lens?” “She wasn't being excluded. She was reacting to a micro moment of uncertainty as if it were rejection.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

There's something I hear all the time from artists, and it sounds very reasonable on the surface. “If I go to that event, it's going to drain me", "I won't have the energy.”  “I'll feel awkward.”  Sometimes you are genuinely exhausted, and the most intelligent thing you can do is not push through, but actually attend to your body, your mind, your nervous system. That's not avoidance. That's care. But what I'm noticing more and more is that many artists aren't making decisions from current exhaustion. They're making decisions from anticipated exhaustion - From memory. Your brain looks at past experiences, and it says: “Last time this felt uncomfortable.” “Last time I felt out of place.” “I didn´t know what to say” - So, let's not do that again. Before you've even left the house, your body has already decided:  “This is going to be draining.” -  “This is not for me.” That pattern doesn't just shape whether you go - It shapes how you experience the room when you're in it. This  episode is about something deeper than networking. It's about who you are becoming every time you choose to stay, leave, speak, or stay silent. The artist who leaves early…or the artist who stays for one more conversation. The one who performs…or the one who gets curious. KEY TAKEAWAYS You're not bad at networking, you're protecting yourself. Your brain remembers past discomfort and pre-loads you to expect the same discomfort at every event. The room isn't the problem, the story is. Two people can have completely different reads on the same moment: one sees “they're just busy,” another sees “they don't care about me.” Neither is objectively right - the story you choose either opens or closes possibility. Your interpretation is often what limits you. Start small: go to one event, stay a bit longer than is comfortable, and have one non-performative conversation. Networking isn't performance, it's discovery.  BEST MOMENTS “Many artists aren't making decisions from current exhaustion. They're making decisions from anticipated exhaustion. From memory.” “Instead of jumping to they don't like me, they're not interested. Try widening the lens. Maybe they're overwhelmed, maybe they're socially awkward... you don´t know.” “This isn't really about networking. It's about becoming somebody who can walk into a space, notice discomfort, and not immediately obey it.” HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

What can an ink drawing and one line of text really do? In the hands of Guy Richards Smit, it can hold horror and humour in the same breath. It can slice through politics while pretending to be an amuse-bouche between heavier courses. It can make you laugh, wince, and then realise you've been implicated. Born and raised in New York City, Guy is a painter, performer, musician, video artist and, more recently, a New Yorker cartoonist. But that barely scratches the surface. As you'll hear, he's always been fascinated by the vehicles that carry culture, whether pop songs, sitcoms, or the single-panel gag cartoon. From poring over old New Yorker anthologies in his grandparents' dark apartment as a child, to submitting ten cartoons a week with no acknowledgement for over a year before finally getting one accepted, his journey has been about curiosity and commitment. We talk about what he learned from making protest banners at the age of 16 with Keith Haring, about the discipline of making work at speed and trusting that ideas will catch up with action. We explore the economics of cartooning, and how Guy has built a living not from the commission alone but from understanding how to connect with and cultivate collectors. We dive into what it means to stick your neck out politically at a time of deep division. And into his alter egos, those exquisitely awkward, ego-pricking characters that taught him what satire costs and what it can reveal. Above all, this is a conversation about quality and fear. About not hiding behind perfectionism. About being willing to wade knee deep through the messy, human, slightly off-key parts of your practice, because that is often where the gold lives. If you've ever wondered whether one small, strange idea is worth it, this episode is for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS You don't think your small, “too obvious” ideas count. Guy shows us they're often the ones that travel furthest. Guy sent ten cartoons a week into silence. The breakthrough wasn't a lightning bolt; it was repetition. Instead of clinging to one identity, Guy keeps asking, “What's the right container for this idea, right now?” BEST MOMENTS “Sometimes your thoughts, while they bore you, are more surprising to other people.” “Produce. Back your hunches. Don't wait for the perfect idea to drop from the sky. Make ten things. Make a hundred. Let the work shape you as you shape it.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.instagram.com/guy_richards_smit HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

It's one thing when a stranger laughs at your art. It's another when someone who knows you well does. Who laughs matters. A friend scrolling your website and snorting at an image. A partner chuckling at a line in your artist statement. A respected curator friend laughing during a performance, but not at the moment you expected.  Those laughs land differently. They don't feel like feedback. They feel like exposure. And in that split second, something primal happens. We think: I've done something wrong. Artists tell me this all the time. “My partner laughed at the wrong bit.” “My friend said it sounded like nonsense.” “My mum thought it was hilarious.” And the sore feeling that follows is rarely about the joke itself. It's about the rupture. When it's someone close, their reaction doesn't land as interpretation. It lands as truth. And we want those people to understand us. We want our family, our nearest and dearest, to see us wholly. Art and all the weird things we make and love.  We want them to nod and say, yes, I get you. So, when they laugh, or go quiet, or wince, the temptation is to retreat. To soften the edges. To clarify more. To become more reasonable, more legible, more likeable. In this episode, I slow this down. Uncover the four things happening in that moment so you can keep everything in context. KEY TAKEAWAYS The hardest skill in a creative life is trusting yourself to take risks while still wanting love. That tension doesn't go away. You can want your partner to understand your work and still accept that they might not. The people closest to us are not neutral audiences. They carry history, projection, worry. They may fear we're embarrassing ourselves, or them. They may simply not share our taste for strangeness. They can adore you and still not be your audience. Who laughs and at what matters? A renowned curator laughing at the wrong moment might be data about where you place your emphasis in future. BEST MOMENTS “Wanting to engage an audience is healthy. Wanting to be liked is different. Engagement is about connection. Being liked is about approval.” “Humour and awkwardness in art are not accidents. Often, they are the work. They are access points.” “Small retreats accumulate, and slowly the special sauce disappears - When someone you love laughs at your work, pause before you retreat.” “If everybody nods politely and no one is destabilised, you may have made something tidy, but tidy is not the same as alive.” HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Welcome to the 200th episode of Extraordinary Creatives: two hundred conversations with artists, thinkers, makers and cultural leaders about the strange, beautiful, often messy reality of building a creative life. And I couldn't imagine a better guest to mark this moment than the brilliant John Lloyd CBE. One of the great creative architects behind some of the most loved comedy formats of the past fifty years. He began at the BBC in the 1970s and helped create programmes that have become cultural landmarks: The News Quiz, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Blackadder, Spitting Image, and the long-running curiosity engine that is QI.  Along the way he co-wrote the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series with Douglas Adams, directed the iconic Genesis “Land of Confusion” video, and has won more BAFTAs than almost anyone alive. But what struck me most, isn't just the scale of his career, it's the way he thinks about creativity itself. John talks openly about the difficult things that shaped him and the strange truth that some of the most uncomfortable moments in life later reveal themselves as gifts.  He reminds us that every creative life includes adversity, and that the ability to transform those experiences into fuel - into insight, humour, empathy or invention – is what stops artists giving up. John is a powerful reminder that great ideas take time. Some of his shows took years to get made. Whether you're a writer, artist, musician - or simply someone trying to make meaningful work  - there is wisdom in this conversation. KEY TAKEAWAYS When we stay with an idea long enough - clearing away the sand, listening more deeply than we speak - what looks ordinary begins to reveal its own quiet, astonishing shape. There are two selves. There's the little yaky person in your head - then there's the true self, which only arrives when you're in the zone, when you're in the state of flow. The heartbreaks, the projects that fall apart - those “disasters” become compost, feeding the work we were actually meant to make. BEST MOMENTS “Creativity is like archaeology. You shovel mountains of sand… and eventually you uncover the sphinx.” “Ideas appear. The difference with creative people is they notice them.” “Deep listening means you're paying attention with not just your ears, with your whole body.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.instagram.com/johnlloydqi https://www.qi.com HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

In the last episode, we talked about rhythm.  About what happens when life knocks you sideways and you walk back into the studio feeling foggy, brittle, or slightly foreign to yourself. We spoke about regulation, about re-entry, about restarting the engine gently instead of demanding brilliance on command. But there's something else that often happens after the dust settles. Something quieter. More destabilising. Sometimes it isn't only your creative rhythm that's been interrupted. It's you - You've changed. And that's where things get complicated. You go through something significant. An illness that forces you to slow down. A divorce that reshapes how you understand intimacy. Redundancy after years in the same role. Children leaving home and the house suddenly carrying a different kind of silence. You step back into your studio, and something feels slightly off. The work you were making before isn't wrong, it isn't bad, but it doesn't quite sit the same way in your body. It feels like clothes that used to fit and now don't. We're taught that consistency matters, that we should maintain our voice, that we should build a recognisable trajectory, so people know what they're looking at. So, when something internal shifts, panic sets in. That can be deeply unsettling. Yet, as you will see, it is actually something to be welcomed, embraced and used as fuel. KEY TAKEAWAYS After big life events (illness, divorce, kids leaving, etc.), your old work can feel like clothes that no longer fit, not because it's bad, but because you are different now. Life changes you - it should. If you are different, the work must reflect that difference, or you will begin to feel like an imposter inside your own practice.  Instead of asking how to recover your old voice, a more honest question is, Who am I now? What occupies my thoughts when I wake up? What feels tender in me? Those recurring thoughts are not distractions. They're signals. They point towards the seam that wants to be mined next. BEST MOMENTS “You're not meant to return to who you were. You're meant to create from who you're becoming, life will change you. It should.” “If your work never shifts, if your questions never deepen, if your textures never evolve, something is probably stuck.” “So perhaps this week, instead of trying to replicate what once worked, you sit with a quieter question, what wants to be made now?” HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

In this episode I'm joined by the extraordinary Wet Mess - performer, shapeshifter, and maker of work that sits right on the ecstatic fault line between desire, politics, embodiment, confusion, and joy. We centre the conversation around their solo show Testo that's been touring over the past year. It's a work born from a live, personal question: whether or not to take testosterone, and what that decision means socially, physically, psychologically. We talk about how you can stretch a reveal across an hour. How pacing and punctuation shape tension. How repetition changes meaning depending on the intention you bring to it. How the same action can land differently in different cities and how trans experience is heard through different filters. We dig into training - how Wet Mess conditions both body and mind to hold euphoria, anger, and absurdity without collapsing under it. How they choreograph points of view. How entertainment spaces have taught them things the art world did not. And how stepping into cabaret felt, at one point, like a liberation and even a rejection of fine art's constraints. There are real insights here about what performance can hold that white cube spaces sometimes struggle to contain. About how spectacle and seriousness are not opposites. About what you learn by attending to the same process over and over again until it deepens. And alongside the artistic revelations, we also speak candidly about touring, sustainability, hiring a producer, stacking the finances so the work can travel, and how to prepare and decompress when your body is the medium. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! KEY TAKEAWAYS Spectacle isn't a distraction from seriousness; it's one of the few containers big enough to hold euphoria, rage, and politics at the same time.   When your body is the medium, sustainability isn't a luxury add‑on. Training and decompression are part of the choreography, or the work doesn't last.   Testo doesn't resolve whether to take testosterone; it lets us sit inside the risk, desire, and possibility of not yet knowing.   BEST MOMENTS  “A lot of the process of performing is caring so much about what the audience receive, and then also letting go of that, because you can never fully control it.” “I got really interested in what it means to reveal, how you can stretch that out over an hour-long show taking off layers of costume, of self, and kind of getting deeper and showing different layers of oneself or possibilities.” RESOURCES https://wetmesswetmess.com/ https://www.instagram.com/wet_mess HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

You know that strange moment when you walk back into your office or studio after something big has happened……and it feels unfamiliar. The light's the same. The table's where you left it.  Your brushes are exactly as you abandoned them. But you're not. That's the bit no one prepares you for. I was speaking to an artist recently who had just come back from caring for a parent after a sudden bereavement. She said, “I'm desperate to get back into my practice. I need it. But I can't seem to think." That sentence, that tension, stayed with me – I need it, but I can´t. Because when life throws something heavy at you - death, illness, divorce, redundancy, even something that looks positive but is destabilising -  your system shifts. You go into care mode. Logistics mode. Survival mode.  You become vigilant. You are tracking hospital updates. Or legal emails. Or financial spreadsheets. Or your child's temperature at 3am. Vigilance is not the same state as creativity. Creativity asks you to soften. To wander. To sit with uncertainty without solving it. After shock, your body doesn´t want to wander. It wants to secure. And then we stand in the studio and say to ourselves, “Right. Back to it. Let's make something extraordinary.” – no wonder it doesn´t work. I explore why flow disappears after life shocks, what your nervous system is actually doing, and how to return to your work without bullying yourself. KEY TAKEAWAYS After a death, redundancy, illness, divorce, or any major life shift, creativity doesn't just snap back into place. You don't restart at full speed. You idle the engine.  Often, what we call lack of focus is actually grief that hasn't fully moved through. Grief doesn't always look like crying. Sometimes it looks like distraction, fog, a strange flatness. Creativity is a downstream of regulation. If the river is in flood, you don't shout at it. You wait for the waters to settle -You're not behind. You're rebuilding rhythm. Rhythm is different from output. Rhythm is showing up in small, contained ways, until your body trusts the space again.  BEST MOMENTS “You can't out discipline a dysregulated body. You can't bully yourself back into flow. Flow requires safety, not perfection, not control, but safety.” “When athletes recover from injury, they don't return by running a marathon, they rebuild muscle memory. Creative practice is no different.” “Returning after shock is one thing - creating after you've changed is another.” HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today's guest has shaped the creative lives of millions. Julia Cameron has been called “The Queen of Change” by The New York Times, and whether you've done Morning Pages for decades or only heard of The Artist's Way in passing, you've felt her influence ripple through contemporary culture. What struck me most in this conversation was her devotion to simplicity and trying. Her tools are not complicated. They are repetitive. Ordinary. Almost deceptively so. Three pages. A walk. A date with yourself. And yet — they ask for something many creatives resist: discipline without drama. Practice without novelty. Showing up without fireworks. We like complexity. We like newness. We like to overthink. Julia invites us back to something far braver - consistency. We talk about trusting internal wisdom, or what she describes as seeking guidance both inwardly and outwardly. We explore the stream of consciousness as something different from a diary, different from a sketchbook — a way of accessing the subcutaneous layers of knowing that we've often been trained to ignore. Decades on, she is still delighted. Still open. Still curious. Still learning from the community her work has helped to grow. She does not cling to authorship as ownership. She sees herself as a vehicle. The work belongs to the people who practise it. There is something quietly radical about that. This conversation is an invitation to return to the basics. To stop waiting for the breakthrough and instead build the ritual. To trust that the simplest tools, repeated, can change a life. KEY TAKEAWAYS Morning pages, walks, and artist dates aren't self-help chores; they're how you quietly outlast trends, algorithms, and your own boredom. Those simple tools become radically effective, especially when you are using them decades in. Julia Cameron doesn't banish her critic. She calls him Nigel. Thanks him. And keeps creating anyway. Trust your inner wisdom, even when it´s messy. If you've been waiting for a breakthrough, maybe the breakthrough is repetition. BEST MOMENTS “I think procrastination is actually fear in a fancy dress.” “A believing mirror is somebody who reflects back to your strength and your promise.” “Fear can be present, and we continue. Criticism can speak, and we continue. Doubt can whisper, and we continue. Not because we've eliminated those voices. But because we've built a practice strong enough to hold them.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://juliacameronlive.com HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

You don't get a medal for exhausting yourself in the name of community. A brilliant artist in my world recently asked a question that so many of you will recognise. Let's call them Kenny. Kenny runs socially engaged projects. They work with communities over weeks, sometimes months. Workshops turn into conversations. Conversations turn into drawings. Drawings become objects. Objects evolve into sound pieces. Eventually, it all lands as an installation with sculpture and layered audio. It is rich. It is generous. It is complex.  And the budget never quite matches the reality. Kenny finds themselves topping up production costs. Paying for extra studio time. Covering additional fabrication. Giving more hours than were funded. Holding the emotional labour that was never costed. They asked me, should I scale up to bigger institutions with bigger budgets, or should I reduce what I deliver? If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. Here is what is really happening.  If you've ever felt stretched thin by a commission that looked generous on paper but drained you in reality, this one will land.  I break down how to design modular versions of your practice, how to cost invisible labour properly, and how to stop reflex over-delivering just to secure the opportunity. KEY TAKEAWAYS Many artists, especially socially engaged artists, end up producing three projects under one fee - Community workshops. Research and relationship-building. Drawings, objects, sound, sculpture. Installation. Coordination. Care – And when the budget only stretches for one strand of that work, they quietly top it up themselves. - More hours. More energy. Design the project to fit the budget, not the other way round. Always pay yourself properly, and if the full ecosystem of your practice costs more than the fee use one of the 3 options Ceri shares to bring balance back and avoid burnout. Designing modular versions of your practice means you stop pouring the whole symphony into every commission and instead offer clear tiers that match the budget, so the work stays true without draining you. BEST MOMENTS “When you consistently top up a commission with your own time and money, you are not being noble. You are subsidising someone else's remit with your personal capacity.” “What you can't do is quietly over deliver and hope someone notices.” “Open your last project, calculate how many unpaid hours you gave, multiply that by your day rate, look at the number, then ask yourself, would I agree to that again knowingly?” HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

In today's episode of Extraordinary Creatives, I'm joined by Jenn Ellis, founder of APSARA Studio and a curator whose work moves between institutions, vineyards, churches, theatres, and digital space with remarkable fluidity. Jenn grew up in a family of theoretical particle physicists, studied law, and then pivoted into art history. That background shows. Her approach to art feels investigative, architectural, and deeply relational. She thinks about time not as something measured by clocks, but as something lived, layered, and tested. In this conversation, we talk about long-term commitment to artists, the power of positive disagreement inside collaboration, and why site matters as much as concept. We explore Terra, her exhibition across UNESCO heritage vineyards in Burgundy. We unpack AORA, the digital sensory world she built during lockdown. And we speak candidly about contracts, rate cards, negotiation, ego, Instagram performance, and what it really means to care for artists inside complex systems. Jenn is rigorous, warm, and clear-eyed. She understands budgets as well as beauty. She believes in boundaries. And she asks one of the most important questions a creative can ask: how is this bigger than you? If you are building a practice that needs both imagination and structure, I hope this episode will land with you. KEY TAKEAWAYS To curate is to care - sometimes care means challenging, tweaking. Testing. Pushing for something stronger. The absence of disagreement doesn't mean the work is good. It might mean no one felt safe enough to question it. In a culture that rewards visibility over substance, the real work is shifting our focus from credit to contribution. When we stop performing for the headline and start caring about what's genuinely built between people, the work gets deeper and is far more likely to outlive the moment. BEST MOMENTS “You might like the work, but if it's not a personality match, then it's going to be a very long upward hill…. Ask, can I make it sing? And can I make it sing with you?” “Long standing relationships often have healthy friction. Action where two people are trying to get to the best outcome.” “Professionalism is not the enemy of creativity. Contracts protect care. Rate cards protect energy. Boundaries protect longevity. These are not cold tools. They are scaffolding.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://apsarastudio.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/jenncellis https://www.instagram.com/apsara.studio HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Do you ever ask yourself, why do I keep inventing massive projects when all I really want to do is make my own art? Why do I keep building infrastructures for other people when what I actually crave is to be in the studio, in rehearsal, on a stage? And why, at the end of these enormous, impressive undertakings, do I feel quietly resentful? If this lands in your chest, stay with Ceri and learn how to avoid this trap KEY TAKEAWAYS Impressive collaborative projects can be draining. Yet they feel far safer than standing there with one vulnerable artwork and saying, “This is enough.” - Empire projects offer access, validation, funding, titles - a sense of being legit. When you're the organ grinder, the monkey, the organ and the music, something shifts. You stop making decisions based on creativity. You start making decisions consciously or unconsciously based on compliance. It's not that big structures are bad - some people are meant to build institutions. If you are not one of them, ask - If there were no funders, partners, or applause, what would I still make and what would I stop building altogether? – then, create the pieces you really want to make. BEST MOMENTS “Maybe the next bold move is not another empire. Maybe it's a small, precise, unapologetic piece of work, one performance, one painting, one body of work, one show. No Empire required.” “If you grew up believing art alone couldn't sustain you, building an infrastructure can feel like the sensible compromise.” “Collaboration can be electric. Working with people at your level or beyond, can sharpen you, stretch you make you braver.” “There's a difference between building something because it genuinely expands you and building something because you're trying to fill a gap.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Before we begin, a gentle note: in this episode we speak about death, grief, psychosis and depression. If you're feeling tender, you might want to pause and come back when the time feels right. It will be worth it. Today, I am joined by the extraordinary artist Eddie Peake. Eddie builds exhibitions the way some artists use paint. Space, for him, is a material. He constructs environments that place you inside the liminal fourth wall, that charged threshold between viewer and viewed, between participation and observation, between ecstasy and horror. In his shows, the audience becomes a protagonist. We talk about masculinity stretched to breaking point, about desire and shame, about the theatre of intimacy and the politics shaping our cultural moment. Eddie pushes back on what the art world calls authenticity, questioning whether expression itself has become a learned, conservative language dressed up as radical. In an age of populist politics and market-ready aesthetics, he asks what it really means to resist. If you're an artist wrestling with identity, politics, envy, burnout, or the fear that your work is either too much or not enough, this conversation will resonate. I hope it moves you as much as it moved me. KEY TAKEAWAYS   ·      The fourth wall isn't just a boundary; it's a live material. Treating space as something you can sculpt, like Eddie does, lets the viewer become a character inside the work, not a distant observer. ·      Fluorescent colour can carry psychic weight. What looks euphoric on the surface can also signal overload, instability, and states of mind that don't sit neatly in polite language.   BEST MOMENTS   “This is your reminder that creative life is not linear. There are seasons of immersion and seasons of withdrawal” “I really believe it's important to take Our time and not to feel a sort of outside pressure to be moving at 7000 million miles per hour at all times.”   RESOURCES https://www.instagram.com/eddie_peake   HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.   ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/   **   Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/   ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

When your brain says - I don't know who would buy this, I don't know where to find them. I don't know how this would ever work, it is lying to you. What if “I don't know how” isn't a fact. What if its anxiety dressed up as logic. What if your brain is quietly converting uncertainty into impossibility.  Once that story settles, you stop try. You don´t need to test formats. You don´t need to ask different questions. You don´t need to risk being wrong. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone.  In this episode, I unpack why “I don't know how” is rarely a business verdict and more often a nervous system response. If your practice feels “hard to sell,” this one's for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS “I don´t know how” is not a verdict, it's a skill gap. There are countless things you once didn't know how to do, invoice, negotiate, install, work, apply for funding, price confidently. Your brain doesn't predict your competence. It predicts your danger. Anxiety confuses unfamiliar with unsafe. Turn “I don't know how” into a research brief. Instead of spiralling, ask: What exactly do I not know? Is it pricing? Editioning? Finding aligned collectors? Be precise, then fill those gaps - Ceri shares exactly how. Accept that certainty is a fantasy. No artist has a guaranteed buyer before they begin. They build belief alongside action. BEST MOMENTS “When your brain says, I don't know, it's often trying to protect you from visibility, rejection, or financial disappointment. It's not offering a business forecast.” “Instead of asking, how might this translate for me? Your mind asks, how can I prove this does not apply to me? - That's anxiety trying to maintain control.” “Study their CVs. Look at collections listed, public and private. Screenshot it. Create a folder called Proof. You are not allowed to catastrophise without data.” “Test one price point. Anxiety hates experiments because experiments create reality.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today I'm in conversation with the extraordinary Sarah Boris, an artist who treats symbols like building blocks and colour like architecture. Her practice moves between sculpture, drawing, printmaking, painting, and bookmaking, yet everything she makes feels connected by a rigorous, playful logic. You migaht know her Fragile UK Flag, a reimagined Union Jack made from delicate tape and paper, exhibited at the Design Museum in London and now held in major public collections including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France A national emblem made vulnerable. A bold gesture made breakable. But this conversation is less about icons and more about expansion. We dive into her modular works, a vast body of over one hundred drawings that evolved into nesting sculptures, furniture modules, and her largest sculpture to date. We talk about scale not as ego, but as curiosity.  And then there is Time for Peace, a conceptual clock that quietly marks the peace symbol four times a day. No grand spectacle. Just a subtle interruption in the rhythm of time. This episode is about systems and softness. About building something precise without losing play. About committing to a visual language so fully that it begins to grow its own architecture. KEY TAKEAWAYS Nothing is fixed. Elements can shift, nest, expand, contract. A drawing can become a sculpture. A book can become a building. A word can hold two languages at once. Let your smaller works teach you how to build bigger ones. Let your practice evolve in modules rather than leaps. If you've been sitting on an idea that feels too playful, too colourful, too structural, or too ambitious - test it, stack it, and see what it becomes. There is quiet power in artists championing one another. If someone can't find you, they can't commission you. If they can't commission you, they can't support your ideas. BEST MOMENTS “Being in a different place, with different light, different language, different constraints, can unlock entirely new bodies of work - a reminder that context is not a backdrop. It's a collaborator.” “If I hadn't had the website, this beautiful story wouldn't have happened.” “She handles cultural signs with care, but she isn't afraid to rework them.” “I was self-sabotaging in so many areas.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://sarahboris.com https://www.instagram.com/sarahboris_ldn PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative.

If you've listened to the last couple of shorty episodes, you'll know we've been talking about structure. What should be on your website. What can go. And how clarity does far more work than cleverness.  So today, I want to talk about what often happens next. Once your website is clear, calm, and coherent, something interesting starts to happen. Sales begin to trickle in. Enquiries land in your inbox. Commissioners get in touch. Brands reach out. Often quietly, often weeks or months after someone first visited your site. Your website is always working in the background, even when you don´t think anything is happening. KEY TAKEAWAYS Curators, collectors, commissioners, art advisors. They don't always announce themselves when they're browsing, but they browse repeatedly, and your website is where momentum turns into confidence Most people don't land on your website necessarily ready to buy. They arrive curious. Your website's job at that moment is not to persuade it's to reduce friction, clear work, clear information, clear invitations enable people to find out more. When a public art commissioner lands on your site, they're not just thinking “Is this interesting?”—they're scanning for proof you can deliver at scale: images that show your work in the world, a handful of clearly documented projects, and obvious next steps to contact you. Available works pages often outperform full e commerce shops. They feel human. They feel conversational. They invite inquiry rather than demanding commitment. BEST MOMENTS “Your website is not just selling artwork, it's selling readiness, readiness to be commissioned, readiness to work at scale, readiness to collaborate with brands or institutions.” “If someone has to hunt for how to engage you, they often won't, not because they're not interested, but because friction kills intent.” “If you are open to collaborations, say so.” EPISODE RESOURCES 1st episode of the Artist´s website series - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/why-artist-websites-still-matter-and-how-to-make/id1709105337?i=1000751657709 Lakwena episode - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/in-between-worlds-lakwena-maciver-s-journey-through/id1709105337?i=1000739050767 Marianna Simnett episode - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/embracing-the-unconventional-marianna-simnett-on/id1709105337?i=1000658388496 HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative.

In today's episode of the Extraordinary Creatives podcast, I'm joined by the inspiring Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, whose work sits at the intersection of art, ecology, and emerging technologies. Daisy's work explores the politics, value systems, and assumptions that shape how humans relate to the natural world. Her projects range from algorithmically designed gardens created for pollinators, to resurrecting the smell of extinct flowers, and translating living systems into materials such as tapestry and bronze. In our conversation, Daisy shares how working closely with scientists and researchers has refined her relationship to failure. What might be a dead end in scientific research can become, for her, the starting point for an artwork that asks better questions. We dig into Pollinator Pathmaker, shaped by insect vision rather than human taste, and her new public sculpture commission, The Length of a Moment, where the invisible movement of moths becomes permanent form. This episode is an invitation to think differently about how we apply our creativity, who we learn from, and the kinds of worlds our work helps to shape. I am certain you'll be inspired, so please let me know if anything touches you. KEY TAKEAWAYS Making ambitious work is never just about ideas. It's about labour, time, care, and responsibility. About how teams are treated, how boundaries are held, and how ethics show up not as statements, but as daily decisions. When you approach a project as a collaborator who is willing to learn how an organization works, you create the psychological safety needed to pull off truly ambitious, experimental work. Hold the line on your professional boundaries. Clarity is kindness, it's not about being "difficult" - it's being precise. BEST MOMENTS “The flower looks red to us, but a bee can't see red. They can see ultraviolet. So suddenly you realise that the way we think the world looks isn't how it looks at all.” “Her methodologies show us what becomes possible when artists invite in knowledge from academics, technologists, children, and global perspective.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.daisyginsberg.com https://www.instagram.com/daisyginsberg https://pollinator.art HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today, Ceri moves to the next step of the artist website journey. Once you've selected the work and gathered the words, the question becomes: what should definitely be on the website? And just as importantly, what should not.  Most artist websites don't fail because they're missing things; they fail because they're overloaded with too many pages, projects, and text and no clear entry point. Your website is not a storage unit - it's a guided experience. You are leading someone through your work, whether you realise it or not, and the clearer that journey is, the more confident your website feels.  Listen in to learn how to create a structure that supports your practice rather than draining it. KEY TAKEAWAYS If your website feels overwhelming, remove before you add. Take anything off your site you wouldn't actively send a curator to today, such as old projects you've outgrown or sections you feel you have to apologise for. Navigation is your backbone. If the menu is messy, everything else feels messy. Ceri shares a simple menu that works. Give people a "front door" to each body of work. Instead of an endless scroll, group your work by year, medium, or series to provide an entry point that lets the work do the persuading before the language does. Consider how movement affects attention . Moving sideways through work slows the encounter down and deepens the relationship, while vertical scrolling carries the muscle memory of "doom scrolling" so people absorb less. Use text as an invitation. Strangers don't want to wade through long paragraphs before seeing images. Keep text short, place it after the work, and use it to orient the viewer toward your thinking or materials. BEST MOMENTS "Volume doesn't build trust. Structure builds trust."  "Your website gets stronger every time you remove something that no longer represents you."  "Home is the doorway. Work is where they fall in. About is where they trust you. Contact is where they act."  “I worked with an artist who had hundreds of images with no grouping. They thought it made them look prolific. Instead, it made the viewer do all the work.” EPISODDE RESOURCES Episode 122 - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/should-you-start-a-newsletter-as-an-artist/id1709105337?i=1000717594617 https://claire-morgan.co.uk HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today's guest is Rob Lowe, also known as Supermundane, an artist, illustrator, writer, and public speaker whose work uses geometric shapes, colour, pattern, and words to create playful, philosophical, and deeply generous work. With a background in graphic design and over 30 years working across the creative world, Rob has moved fluidly between indie magazine design, publishing, murals, community-led projects, and major global commissions, including designing the influential magazines Anorak and Fire & Knives and creating the visual identity for the Champions League London Final. Whether he's working at the scale of a print, a rug, a classroom, or city walls, his focus is the same: making work that feels rooted in shared human experience. He's also the author of Lost Ordinary Magic, a book of “simple things in a complicated world,” which feels like a neat distillation of his wider practice. In this conversation, we talk about how to make accessible work without flattening it, how projects grow through trust rather than ego, and what it really takes to build a sustainable creative career that protects both your voice and your energy. KEY TAKEAWAYS Caring about the people, the context and the conditions of the work isn't extra; it's the strategy that makes the work deeper, more trusted, and more sustainable. Big commissions don't require a different version of you. They require the same thinking, just at a different volume. Scale doesn't have to mean compromise. You don't have to contort yourself to be legible. You don't have to overproduce to be relevant. You don't have to disappear inside other people's frameworks to make meaningful work. BEST MOMENTS “You can work at the scale of a kid with scissors and glue, and also the scale of a city, and still be doing the same work, just with different volume.” “I work hard, but I don't like stress … I work within what I'm good at, so I'm always working with my strengths, rather than trying to force myself to do something that I think I should be.” “There is obviously a recognisable style, but it's more about how I work and how I think and… I have a certain way of looking and seeing the world.” EPISODE RESOURCES www.supermundane.com www.instagram.com/supermundane PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Despite what we're told, websites are not obsolete. Curators still look at them. Gallerists still look at them. Collectors still look at them. Commissioners still look at them.  Quietly. Carefully. Often before they ever contact you. Your website is where people go when they're deciding whether to take you seriously. Social media shows momentum. Websites show coherence. If your website feels overwhelming, messy, neglected, or like a project you keep putting off, that doesn't mean you're behind. It usually means you've skipped a step.   Most artists jump straight to design. Templates. Platforms. Fonts. Colours. And they do it before they've made the harder, quieter decisions. What actually belongs on here? What am I ready to stand behind? What story am I telling now, not five years ago?  So, today´s episode isn't about redesigning your website. It's about preparing for it.  KEY TAKEAWAYS Artist websites still matter - curators, gallerists, commissioners, and collectors actually use them.  Your website isn't dead. It's quietly doing its job when the right people are paying attention. Your website is not a performance space, but a catalogue of your strongest thinking. It is not an archive. This is a selection of your best work - If someone only ever saw this work, they should understand the kind of artist you are. I don't want anyone landing on your site and thinking, well, now what? So, decide before you design how people can connect with you. This episode is about deciding what needs to be included on your site. The next one is about shaping. BEST MOMENTS “Ask yourself something important - if someone only saw these pieces, would they understand what kind of artist I am?” “Have a portrait image of yourself, ideally in your studio or somewhere that feels human. Smiley helps, warm helps, approachable helps. People want to know who they're connecting with. They don't need mystery here.” “A blank contact page with just an email address or an Instagram handle doesn't feel welcoming. It feels like a closed door.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

What if artists aren't here to fix the world, but to reveal what's really going on inside it. In this episode of Extraordinary Creatives, I'm joined by Filipa Ramos, a curator, writer, and educator whose work reframes art not as commentary on ecology, but as an ecological practice in itself. Filipa is Artistic Director of LOOP Festival Barcelona, Lecturer at the Academy of Art and Design in Basel, and the author of The Artist as Ecologist, Contemporary Art, and the Environment. In this conversation, Filipa shares vivid examples of inspiring artists and artworks that help us think differently about our relationship with animals and nature. We talk about why artists are often better at raising problems than offering fixes. Why responsibility can immobilise creativity. How beauty, affect, and emotion still matter. And how working relationally, slowly, and collaboratively can be a powerful alternative to extractive, spectacle-driven models of success. This conversation is for artists who feel the weight of responsibility and expectation. For anyone worried their work isn't doing enough - for those searching for ways to make art that is rigorous, ethical, and deeply alive. KEY TAKEAWAYS Art does not need to rush toward answers. Your work does not need to explain itself in a single sentence to be valid; it's allowed to be complex, relational, and full of questions that unfold over time. Ecology isn't a theme you illustrate; it's a way of relating – letting the places you move through, and the animals and people you share them with, reshape what you notice and how you see it. The promise of big institutions can be hollow. Often, real agency comes through the platforms you build with others, not the ones that “choose” you. BEST MOMENTS “Artists are not here to provide solutions, but to complicate the story. To expose fragility. To create space for shared sensing, shared listening, shared not knowing.” “That's why art is so important. It's not trying to remediate. It's not trying to provide a simple answer. It's attempting to find alternatives.” “The most meaningful, long-lasting work often happens outside the biggest institutions, through collaboration, care, and time.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.instagram.com/filipaaaaaaaaaaa https://loop-barcelona.com https://www.fhnw.ch/de/personen/filipa-ramos PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today, Ceri talks to those of you who know exactly what they need to do but still can't quite bring themselves to do it. Not because you don't care. Not because you're incapable. But because the task feels loaded.  It might be an email you keep rewriting. A proposal you keep circling. A conversation you know you need to have. You stay busy. You prepare. You research. You tweak. And somehow the hardest thing never quite gets done. It's a common experience for so many of the artists Ceri works with. So, you only need to listen in to find out how to get the things you´re avoiding done. KEY TAKEAWAYS We tend to think prioritising is a logical skill. Decide what matters most. Do that first - In real life, especially in creative work, prioritisation is emotional. When a task carries emotional weight, the brain treats it differently. When you avoid a task, it's rarely about laziness - it's your nervous system protecting you from something that feels risky.   You don't need more discipline; you need systems that fit your brain: visible time slots, clear steps, templates, and processes to follow. The fewer decisions you have to make, the better. Separating thinking from doing and working alongside others makes emotionally heavy tasks feel doable, not overwhelming.   BEST MOMENTS “Difficulty prioritising isn't about knowing what matters. It's about regulation. Attention, emotion, and effort are linked.” “Make time visible. Short defined time blocks with a timer help counter the feeling that a task is endless. When time is visible, the brain can relax.” “Separate thinking from doing.” “Use a shared presence, working alongside someone else, even silently, helps many people stay anchored. This is often called body doubling.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today's episode brings together two extraordinary creatives whose work has helped shape contemporary culture through a shared commitment to curiosity, counterculture, and championing unique voices. Ceri is joined by sisters Francesca Gavin and Seana Gavin, each working across different mediums but united by a belief in following instinct and staying close to what feels urgent and alive. Francesca is one of the most influential figures shaping how contemporary art is written about and presented today. She is Director of Visual Arts at Murmur, Editor-in-Chief of EPOCH, and a regular contributor to publications including the Financial Times. Her curatorial work spans major international contexts, from co-curating Manifesta 11 in Zurich to exhibitions at institutions such as Somerset House and the Palais de Tokyo. She is the author of eleven books on art and visual culture and has hosted Rough Version on NTS Radio for the past nine years, exploring the intersections of art and music. Seana is a London-based artist working primarily in collage, creating dreamlike worlds from vintage photographic material where past and future collide. Her work has been exhibited internationally, from Somerset House and the Serralves Foundation to the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, with solo shows in Paris and London. Alongside this, her work features in major publications, brand collaborations, and collections including Soho House worldwide. Her photography monograph Spiralled, published by IDEA Books, is now in its fourth edition. In this conversation, they talk about creative longevity, instinct, and how to build a practice that remains porous, rigorous, and true over time. KEY TAKEAWAYS Creative longevity isn't about having a perfect plan. It's about staying close to what you're genuinely curious about, paying attention to what keeps returning in your life, and trusting those repetitions enough to follow them. Work becomes more resilient when different strands feed one another - writing into curating, music into thinking, collage into archives, archives back into books and shows. BEST MOMENTS “For me, personally, originality is that unique point of view or something fresh that they're saying - there's often a spirit in there that you can sense in the way something's been made.” ““It's very intuitive. It's almost like I'm going into a meditative state… I gather up lots of material that might fit in with that imaginary world… and then something starts to happen.” RESOURCES https://www.presentfuture.be https://www.francescagavin.com https://www.instagram.com/seanagavin https://murmur.earth HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals - https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com

There is something quietly brutal about making work that only exists for a day. You build it. You rehearse it. You hold your nerve. The room fills. The moment happens - And then everyone goes home. You are left standing in the afterglow asking a question most artists feel ashamed to ask. How does something this ephemeral actually support my life? Not just my reputation. Not just my sense of meaning. My ability to keep making work. Today, Ceri talks about how one-off events, performances, and live moments can generate income and momentum without turning your practice into merch, without exhausting your audience, and without betraying the integrity of the work. This is about designing afterlives. KEY TAKEAWAYS Artists can sell from one-off events without cheapening the work, overpromoting, or burning out. They can design afterlives for ephemeral work, where income, integrity, and longevity can sit side by side. Think about the entire life cycle of a one-off event and where sales can happen quietly, intelligently and with integrity before and during the event. -  You're not selling the event; you're selling what the event activates. You only need a small, aligned audience, 10–30 people who genuinely understand and care about your work, combined with simple release windows after an event, to sustain an ephemeral practice. BEST MOMENTS “You don't want to flatten something complex into a product, but you also can't afford for every major piece of work to disappear without trace.” “Many artists miss a trick because they think selling only happens after the applause. It doesn't. Before the event, the work is already alive in other forms.” “If an event cannot produce anything that can be held, shared or lived with afterwards, institutions can't sustain it, and collectors can't support it.” EPISODE RESOURCES Ep 166 - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-why-and-what-of-hosting-your-own-artist/id1709105337?i=1000741761586 Ep 167 - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/planning-the-how-turning-intention-into-a/id1709105337?i=1000742246860 Ep 168 - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/what-happens-after-turning-one-evening-into-long-term/id1709105337?i=1000742648123 PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today, I am joined by Marcel Baettig, artist, cultural leader, and founder and CEO of Bow Arts, one of London's most influential arts and education charities. Over three decades, Marcel has quietly built a values-led social enterprise that provides affordable studios and housing for artists, reaches tens of thousands of young people, and continually reinvests in local communities. This conversation isn't just about scale or success. It´s about precarity, why artists need infrastructure as much as inspiration, and how Marcel's own experience of working as an artist shaped Bow Arts. We explore leadership without ego, the long game of cultural change, and why we need to stop treating artists as an afterthought in regeneration. This episode is for anyone who's ever felt the system is stacked against them - and wondered what it looks like to build a different one. KEY TAKEAWAYS We need to stop accepting scarcity as inevitable, to question who systems are really designed for - building a better art world is not a theoretical exercise. It's a daily practice. Sustainable creative lives are built through shared responsibility and leaders who remember what it feels like to be at the kitchen table wondering how the rent will get paid and still choosing to make the work. If we want artists to survive, we must design practical, long-term infrastructure - affordable space, stable income pathways, and owned assets, not just offer prestige moments or short-term opportunities. BEST MOMENTS “Artists thrive when they are trusted, resourced, and rooted in their communities.” “Artists don't just need opportunities. They need conditions. Time. Space. Stability and a sense their contribution to society is not decorative, but essential.”   THE GUEST Marcel Baettig is the Founder and CEO of Bow Arts, a pioneering London charity providing affordable, sustainable spaces for artists to live and work while contributing to their local communities. Originally trained as an artist, he founded Bow Arts in 1994, and it now supports over 1,100 artists across London, runs a major learning programme that reaches tens of thousands of young people, and reinvests significant funds into local cultural life. He is also a founding director of the National Federation of Artist Studio Providers and has advised bodies including the Mayor of London, Arts Council England, and DCMS on creative workspace and cultural regeneration.  https://www.linkedin.com/company/1639152 https://www.facebook.com/bowarts/?locale=en_GB https://bowarts.org/ HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com

Welcome to episode 179 of the Extraordinary Creatives podcast - Should You Quit Your Job to Be an Artist?  There's a moment every artist fantasises about. The email sent. The notice handed in. The clean break. Finally, time, headspace, freedom. But more time doesn't automatically mean better work. Sometimes it means more fear. So, Should you give up your full-time job to pursue your art? Not in theory. Not in Instagram-caption wisdom. But in real life, with real nervous systems, real rent, real doubt, and real ambition. This episode was sparked by a conversation inside her Artist Mastermind Circle.  An artist who'd built a successful business alongside his practice. Financially stable. Thoughtful. Clear-eyed. And still asking himself the hardest question of all. Is now the moment to make a clean break?  KEY TAKEAWAYS Quitting your job won't magically fix your practice. It might give you space.It might also give you anxiety, comparison, and a nervous system in overdrive. Before you burn the bridge, build the baton. Steady the work. Strengthen the support. Then decide. Anxiety has a way of shrinking creativity. It narrows risk. It softens ambition. It pushes you towards safer work, not braver work. That's not a moral failure, that's biology. Before you quit, make sure your work is strong, you're truly committed to sharing it and ready for the time and energy doing that takes. Ensure your inner world is steady, you're supported, and you've tested that your art can actually sustain you. Don't jump; build the bridge. BEST MOMENTS “More time doesn't automatically mean better work. Sometimes it means more fear.” “A sustainable creative career isn't built on bravery alone. It's built on emotional regulation. Your thoughts affect your feelings. Your feelings affect your actions. Your actions create your results.” “Can you manage your inner weather when doubt hits? Do you have tools to regulate yourself, or do you collapse into self, judgement and comparison and shrink?” “The lone, brave warrior fantasy is seductive. And dangerous. It's bullsh**t. No artist gets there alone.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today's episode is with the extraordinary Eva Sajovic, an artist whose art works provoke questions about labour, value, and exchange. We talk about how growing up with her grandma in the countryside in Slovenia shapes not just what she makes, but how she makes it and how that early encounter with political rupture still informs her resistance to spectacle, speed, and extractive systems.  We unpack the emotional, ethical, and practical labour beneath participatory work, and talk candidly about teaching, money, sustainability, and authorship. Eva shares what shifted during her British School at Rome fellowship, and what it takes to build a practice that can hold complexity without collapsing. She also reflects on joining the Artist Mastermind Circle, and why vulnerability is essential to getting the work into the world. KEY TAKEAWAYS Eva´s childhood experiences of scarcity and playing in freedom taught her to explore and be resourceful and that “makeshift” muscle is still at the core of her work.  When you move out of your body and into your head to “solve” the work, it tends to die. Instead let materials, repetition, instinct and sensation lead. Often, the images and ideas are already in your body, waiting for the right process to draw them out. If you work with people, factor in the emotional and ethical labour as part of the project, not an add-on. Build in support, debrief time, and clear roles.  BEST MOMENTS “Art is really about deep care and attention. About what you offer and what you are willing to hold.” “The images are in my body, not somewhere else. They are inside and they come out.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.evasajovic.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/eva_sajovic https://www.arts.ac.uk/whats-on/eva-sajovic-rise-and-fall-of-a-temple PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** The Artist Mastermind Circle: Ready to stop second-guessing and start building next level momentum in your art career? Applications are now open for the Artist Mastermind Circle—a six-month coaching programme for 25 mid-career artists serious about growing their income, network, opportunities, and confidence. Register by 6pm Monday 2nd February: Artist Mastermind Circle Application and take the next bold step. (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6hXd1YpO5MvUq2oRqW3qyqte7BBn5CSkgHG76dXzBMbT66Q/viewform) **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today we're getting into co-representation, the realities of working with more than one gallery, and how to navigate it without damaging the relationships you've worked so hard to build. You've built a body of work that has momentum. You've shown commitment to your gallery. You've done the shows, the fairs, the dinners, the follow-ups. And now you feel ready to build internationally. Not as a vanity move. Not because you're bored. But because your work feels ready to travel, and because you understand that long-term sustainability often requires more than one market.  So, you raise the question with your gallery. And instead of traction, you get drag. The response isn't hostile. It's not a no. It's just… slow. This is where many artists start to doubt themselves. Or worse, start making moves quietly, without support, because waiting feels unbearable. This episode is for that moment. KEY TAKEAWAYS Wanting to expand internationally does not make you impatient or ungrateful, but moving without strategy, clarity or the consent and co-operation of your existing gallery can undo years of careful relationship building. Co-signing you into another territory carries real reputational risk for your gallery and for you and introduces complexity. Instead of quietly scrambling behind your gallery's back, ask for a focused meeting, lay out why this territory and why now, and work with them to define clear criteria, a realistic timeline and a small pilot so co-representation becomes a shared, strategic project rather than a secret escape plan. Use the scripts Ceri shares to help you. BEST MOMENTS “Joint representation only works when there is deep trust, transparency and aligned strategy.” “Your primary gallery should lead on sales strategy and pricing coherence… This coherence is what builds confidence and protects your long-term value. “If the gallery is not acting, you need clarity, not patience without end. So, step one, ask for a decision, not a discussion.” HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** The Artist Mastermind Circle: Ready to stop second-guessing and start building next level momentum in your art career? Applications are now open for the Artist Mastermind Circle—a six-month coaching programme for 25 mid-career artists serious about growing their income, network, opportunities and confidence. Register by 6pm Monday 2nd February: Artist Mastermind Circle Application and take the next bold step https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6hXd1YpO5MvUq2oRqW3qyqte7BBn5CSkgHG76dXzBMbT66Q/viewform ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com

This week's podcast guest is the extraordinary David Horvitz, an artist whose work has been exhibited at and collected by major institutions around the world. Witty, poetic, and nomadic, David's work traverses photography, artist books, performance, mail art, sound, the internet, food, and natural environments, engaging systems of language, time, and networks. We talk about why artists should resist being burdened by identity or authorship, what it means to let work travel without you, why erasure can be as generative as making, and how attention, patience and trust shape a long creative life. This is an invitation to rethink how art moves, how ideas land, and why not everything needs to be planned and held tightly to matter. It's juicy, so I hope you enjoy it! KEY TAKEAWAYS You don't need a tidy label or style. Let your work move across mediums. Consistency of spirit matters more than a fixed “brand.” Protect your ability to change direction, even if it risks sales. Stop over managing meaning. Allow your work to circulate, mutate, and find its own audiences in its own time. Trust that small gestures, made with intention, can ripple far beyond what we can see. David reminds us that nerves and doubt aren't problems to fix, but raw material: use that nervous energy, bounce half-formed ideas off people, and let that call-and-response sharpen what the work really wants to be. BEST MOMENTS “You don't have to be burdened by the image you've created of yourself. You could start over.” “Artists need to be inconsistently consistent, if you like, in order to have freedom to kind of roam and be like a free-range chicken.” “Once the work leaves your hands, you don't get to control how it's held.” EPISODE RESOURCES http://www.davidhorvitz.com/ https://www.instagram.com/davidhorvitz/?hl=en PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** The Artist Mastermind Circle: Ready to stop second-guessing and start building next level momentum in your art career? Applications are now open for the Artist Mastermind Circle—a six-month coaching programme for 25 mid-career artists serious about growing their income, network, opportunities and confidence. Register by 6pm Monday 2nd February: Artist Mastermind Circle Application and take the next bold step. (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6hXd1YpO5MvUq2oRqW3qyqte7BBn5CSkgHG76dXzBMbT66Q/viewform) **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Regulation is a creative skill - Anxiety keeps artists busy but stops them finishing. In the last episode, Ceri talked about the fact that you can't make work from a dysregulated life, that no amount of studio time will compensate for exhaustion, financial stress, unresolved anxiety, or a nervous system that never properly settles. Today, she goes a level deeper explaining why even when life is relatively stable, dysregulation still shows up inside the work itself, which is where a lot of artists get stuck.  Ceri demonstrates why artists need to stop waiting to relax after the work is done and instead regulate their emotional state before they step into the studio and shares how to do that. KEY TAKEAWAYS When your nervous system is dysregulated, your brain becomes conservative. It narrows options, avoids risk, and favours movement over resolution. So, starting something new feels safer than staying with something unfinished. Finishing means deciding, committing, being seen - For an anxious nervous system, which feels like danger. Your job as an artist is to walk into uncertainty on purpose and stay there long enough for something real to emerge. That's emotional agility: the capacity to feel threat, doubt, visibility, and not bolt. BEST MOMENTS “Anxiety doesn't always stop you working. Sometimes it keeps you working endlessly so you never have to finish.” “Regulation is not the reward for creative work. It's the capacity that determines what kind of work you're able to make in the first place.” HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** The Artist Mastermind Circle: Ready to stop second-guessing and start building next level momentum in your art career? Applications are now open for the Artist Mastermind Circle—a six-month coaching programme for 25 mid-career artists serious about growing their income, network, opportunities, and confidence. Register by 6pm Monday 2nd February: Artist Mastermind Circle Application and take the next bold step. (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6hXd1YpO5MvUq2oRqW3qyqte7BBn5CSkgHG76dXzBMbT66Q/viewform) Join our free webinar on Wednesday 21st January 6.30pm GMT where we introduce you to the coaching programme, walk you through the online hub, coach live, and answer your questions: Register here. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/KVucmw1WRd2bsBWgPEfn1g#/registration ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today I'm joined by the brilliant Beth Greenacre, a curator, advisor, and art consultant whose career has unfolded quietly but powerfully at the centre of the art world. Beth began working with David Bowie in her twenties and went on to oversee the care, exhibition, and eventual sale of his collection, revealing a deeply personal way of looking, collecting and living with art. Since then, she's built a long-term, trust-led portfolio career advising private collectors, working with artists and estates, and curating exhibitions. In this conversation, we talk about how collectors really make decisions, how intuition is really deeply embodied knowledge and why holding work back can be an act of integrity. This is a rare, generous look inside how the art world actually works, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! KEY TAKEAWAYS Be present. Build relationships patiently. Share your work carefully. Trust that confidence is learned, not bestowed. Quality reveals itself over time, through deep looking, honest editing, and the courage to hold work back until it is ready to speak. Artists are not failing when recognition comes slowly. They're building something with roots. Working with David Bowie taught Beth that confidence isn't about hierarchy or bravado. It's about shared commitment, deep listening, and respect for the work. BEST MOMENTS “My purpose is to acknowledge, celebrate and give space to the power of art to change people's perspectives.” “Nothing meaningful in the art world is built quickly. Not confidence. Not collections. Not trust.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.bethgreenacre.com https://www.instagram.com/bethgreenacre_london PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** The Artist Mastermind Circle: Ready to stop second-guessing and start building next level momentum in your art career? Applications are now open for the Artist Mastermind Circle—a six-month coaching programme for 25 mid-career artists serious about growing their income, network, opportunities, and confidence. Register by 6pm Monday 2nd February: Artist Mastermind Circle Application and take the next bold step. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6hXd1YpO5MvUq2oRqW3qyqte7BBn5CSkgHG76dXzBMbT66Q/viewform Join our free webinar on Wednesday 21st January 6.30pm GMT where we introduce you to the coaching programme, walk you through the online hub, coach live, and answer your questions: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/KVucmw1WRd2bsBWgPEfn1g#/registration ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

There's a romantic idea that if you just shut the door, block the world out, and push through, the work will save you. That you can white-knuckle your way through exhaustion, anxiety, financial stress, hangovers, through everything else falling apart. For a while, maybe you can - willpower is powerful, but it is not infinite. Ceri regularly see artists trying to dominate their minds instead of supporting their nervous systems. Trying to overpower negative thoughts instead of changing the conditions that generate them. Eventually, something gives, leading to work that feels thinner than it used to and burnout. The studio doesn't magically neutralise what you haven't dealt with outside it. Your body, your mind, your fears come with you. In this episode, Ceri unpacks why being in the studio only works when the rest of your life is set up to support the quality of thinking your work actually needs. KEY TAKEAWAYS The studio won't save you if your life is dysregulated, but when your life supports your nervous system, your thinking deepens, your work sharpens, and finishing becomes possible. Work of depth, originality, risk and resonance doesn't come from distraction, so you do need long stretches alone. But every artist who has the capacity to go deep has support from others in their lives. BEST MOMENTS “Capacity doesn´t come from chaos.” “Making your best work is not about heroic effort. It's about building conditions that allow you to finish.” “Finishing our work is a good habit to develop. It boosts confidence.” HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** The Artist Mastermind Circle: Ready to stop second-guessing and start building next level momentum in your art career? Applications are now open for the Artist Mastermind Circle—a six-month coaching programme for 25 mid-career artists serious about growing their income, network, opportunities and confidence. Register by 6pm Monday 2nd February: Artist Mastermind Circle Application and take the next bold step. (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6hXd1YpO5MvUq2oRqW3qyqte7BBn5CSkgHG76dXzBMbT66Q/viewform) Join our free webinar on Wednesday 21st January 6.30pm GMT where we introduce you to the coaching programme, walk you through the online hub, coach live, and answer your questions: Register here. (https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/KVucmw1WRd2bsBWgPEfn1g#/registration) ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/ ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Sophie Coryndon learned early that craft is not decoration, but devotion, time, patience, skill, and care. Her work sits confidently outside conventional categories, moving between art and craft, history, and contemporary imagination.  This conversation is about enchantment in a disenchanted world, about beauty as a serious subject, about what it means to make work slowly with your hands, at a time when speed and visibility are rewarded above all else. We also talk openly about Sophie's experience of being part of the artist's mastermind circle, where she felt stuck before joining, and how having a space to think more expansively has shaped her work and decisions. KEY TAKEAWAYS ·      We're not separate from the natural world. We are of it. When we remember that, we start to see the magic in everything and capture it. ·      The art world is far more varied than it first appears. You don't have to conquer it all  ·      Don´t be afraid to make slowly, to create work that needs privacy, darkness, and time before it is ready to be seen. BEST MOMENTS “What's in the way, is you - always. We are all holding ourselves back.” “Craft is a form of language. When someone takes the time to make something carefully that care travels - even across centuries.” RESOURCES https://www.sophiecoryndon.co.uk/contact https://www.instagram.com/sophiecoryndon HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She has sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals.   ** The Artist Mastermind Circle: Ready to stop second-guessing and start building next level momentum in your art career? Applications are now open for the Artist Mastermind Circle—a six-month coaching programme for 25 mid-career artists serious about growing their income, network, opportunities, and confidence. Register by 6pm Monday 2nd February and take the next bold step - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6hXd1YpO5MvUq2oRqW3qyqte7BBn5CSkgHG76dXzBMbT66Q/viewform Join our free webinar on Wednesday 21st January 6.30pm GMT where we introduce you to the coaching programme, walk you through the online hub, coach live, and answer your questions https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/KVucmw1WRd2bsBWgPEfn1g#/registration   ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership/   ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/   ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com   ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

In this episode, Ceri explores the uncomfortable truth at the heart of a sustainable creative life - good mental health doesn't come from avoiding hard things, but from learning how to move through them. It comes from learning how to deal with them, from building confidence, so that when life feels awkward, lonely, stressful, or uncertain, you won't fall apart or abandon yourself. Yet so many artists quietly organise their entire creative lives around avoiding discomfort. They avoid awkward conversations; they avoid going to private viewings alone. They avoid putting editing dates in the diary. They avoid following up. They avoid staying with work when it feels unresolved. Telling themselves that they're protecting their wellbeing, but often they're doing the opposite – shrinking their capacity. Ceri demonstrates why discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life, especially for artists and shares how to accept and embrace this fact and use it to build the career you really want. KEY TAKEAWAYS Avoidance of stressful situations feels like self-care. But over time, it shrinks your capacity - You can´t build a creative life on evasion. If you avoid the stress of editing, the stress grows. If you avoid the stress of being seen, it compounds. If you avoid the stress of committing to a direction, everything stays harder for longer. Most artists think confidence comes first -Then they'll go to the show. Then they'll talk to new people. It doesn't. Confidence is built after you stay with the discomfort. After you walk into the room anyway. After you sit with unfinished work. BEST MOMENTS “Discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life - not a side effect, not a failure, the price. And if you're an artist, that price shows up everywhere.” “Here's the problem, the things she's avoiding are the very things that will build her confidence.” “Avoiding stress increases stress. Learning how to cope with stress makes us more resilient, and that applies directly to creative lives.” ** If you're muddling through the art world on your own, you already know the cost. Lost time. Avoidable mistakes. Weeks stuck on something that could have been solved in minutes with the right support. Inside the Ceri Hand Coaching Membership, you don't have to do it alone. Each week you can bring whatever you're facing, and I'll help you cut through it fast. Creative blocks, pricing, pitches, confidence dips, applications, all of it. You'll find clarity, and an international artist community, and real guidance from people who understand your world. Join for £10 per month. Cancel anytime. And stop losing years to guesswork. Just sign up here: http://cerihand.com/membership HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network ** Book a Discovery Call To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

I don't know about you but for me, a new year holds up a mirror. Not the soft one that flatters, but the honest one. The one that shows you the thing you want most and the exact shape of the fear wrapped around it. Today is for artists who are done pretending they don't know what they want. This is the year you stop hiding from the thing you want most. Let's make this practical, emotional, and real. Not a manifesto. Not a vision board. A lived year. A designed year. A year where confidence becomes something you build on purpose, not something you hope to stumble into. And since artists always want to know where to begin, I'll tell you. You start with one question. What is the thing you want most but have been quietly avoiding? If you can answer that honestly, the year will write itself. -- Most artists are guessing their way through and staying stuck far longer than they need to. Inside Ceri Hand´s Coaching Membership, you get straight answers and real support through live sessions, portfolio reviews, virtual studio visits, monthly art world experts and community to help you cut through fast. Ceri covers everything. Right now, you can join or gift a full year for £99 - our only discount of the year, available until the first of January. Please join here - http://cerihand.com/membership/ KEY TAKEAWAYS Start with one question, what's the thing you want most, but have been quietly avoiding – If you can answer that honestly, the year will write itself. You know what the one important thing you have been avoiding is because you feel it in your stomach. A flicker of longing and a flicker of dread at the same time. Follow that. It never lies. Your Year begins with one honest decision, one place where your confidence is thin, one skill you avoid, one action you know would change everything, but you never quite take that's your focus for the year. BEST MOMENTS "Readiness is a myth artists use to avoid taking themselves seriously. Start before you're ready. That's what readiness actually looks like." "Confidence is not a feeling. Confidence is a practice. It grows exactly where you feel resistance. It grows in the doorway You've been avoiding. It grows when you stop circling the perimeter of your life, and step directly into the centre." "Identify the thing you want most. Name the fear that sits beside it. Make it the focus of the year. Choose one tiny weekly action that touches it. Repeat until you no longer flinch. Let that momentum bleed into the rest of your life." PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

I wanted to end this year with a simple thing. A thank you. A real one. The kind that comes from the ribs. Because you might not realise how often I think about you when I sit down to plan these episodes. I think about what you're navigating, what might help, what could spark a shift, or soften a blow, or give you a way through a knotty day. And I'm grateful that you're here, listening, building a creative life alongside me. It's been a challenging year for so many of us. We've ridden wave after wave in the social, political, economic, and arts climates. It's been loud out there. Overwhelming at times. And artists, more than most, have a knack for turning all of that noise into blame. Blame for what we didn't finish. For what we haven't achieved yet. Blame for the mythical future selves we think we should already be. My brain does that too. Ambition is a beautiful engine, but it forgets to look back at the road travelled. It forgets the courage it's taken to get here. It forgets what we've survived, created, learned, and quietly carried. So instead of listing everything I've done this year, I wanted to talk about something I rely on every single day. Gratitude. Not the glossy version. The real, grounded, neuroscience-backed kind. The kind that keeps you upright when the world tilts. -- Most artists are guessing their way through and staying stuck far longer than they need to. Inside Ceri Hand´s Coaching Membership, you get straight answers and real support through live sessions, portfolio reviews, virtual studio visits, monthly art world experts, and community to help you cut through fast. Ceri covers everything. Right now, you can join or gift a full year for £99 - our only discount of the year, available until the first of January. Please join here - http://cerihand.com/membership/ KEY TAKEAWAYS We're so quick to measure ourselves against the version of us we think we should already be. The one who's achieved more, finished more, ticked more boxes. But we forget the person who got us through this year. The one who kept showing up when life was heavy or heartbreaking or just plain hard. A new year won't transform your life if you carry last year's avoidance into it. If you're an artist standing at the edge of something important, let this be the year you stop walking around the perimeter of your life and finally step in. BEST MOMENTS “I want to invite you to pause and notice what you're grateful for, not the obvious wins - the quieter things, the things you did for yourself, the things you did for others, the things you survived, the moments of courage no one else saw.” “Confidence doesn't arrive first. Courage does - And courage usually shows up exactly where you feel the wobble.” HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

If you've been listening to this festive-season mini-series, you'll know that in Episode 1 Ceri laid the foundations. The why. The what. The who. The purpose of staging your own event. And in Episode 2 we stepped into the how. The planning. The invitations. The rehearsal. The feedback. The choreography of the night itself. Today, we're entering the part artists often ignore. The after. Because what happens after your event is often far more important than the event itself. The room empties. The fairy lights cool. The paint smell settles. The cushions slump. The adrenaline fades. And there you are, standing in your studio, wondering what it all meant. Did it work? Did it matter? Was it worth it? What comes next? This is the moment artists often mis-handle. They either spring into frantic action or retreat into silence. But the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Slow, steady, intentional follow up. Gentle momentum. Small moves done consistently. -- Most artists are guessing their way through and staying stuck far longer than they need to. Inside Ceri Hand´s Coaching Membership, you get straight answers and real support through live sessions, portfolio reviews, virtual studio visits, monthly art world experts, and community to help you cut through fast. Ceri covers everything. Right now, you can join or gift a full year for £99 - our only discount of the year, available until the first of January. Please join here - http://cerihand.com/membership/ KEY TAKEAWAYS The after is where 90% of the opportunity sits. The event is only the beginning. The reflection and follow up is the bridge to your future. Hosting your own event is not about grandeur, it's not about numbers. Is not about applause. It's about agency, clarity, community, practice, becoming the artist who leads rather than waits. Plan with intention. Invite with care, host with presence. Follow up with warmth, reflect with honesty, and build with steadiness, and in time, your work will move outward into the world with a stronger pulse. Use your event as a catalyst not a climax. BEST MOMENTS “The first hour after everyone leaves is emotional. Everything feels tender. Your self-worth is loud, your exhaustion is louder.” “She tracks which price points people reached for, she jots down which pieces felt alive in the space and which pieces she'd not show next time.” “This is the moment that artists begin to think like both makers and professionals, where they have agency, where they take control of their own creative careers.” HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Welcome to the second part in Ceri¨s three part miniseries on planning an artist led event. This one's called planning the how turning intention into a structured, soulful artist led event. If you listened to Episode 1, you will remember that everything begins with clarity. The why. The what. Who it is for. What you want to learn. What you want to feel. That foundation changes everything. Without it, an artist-led event becomes a swirl of worry and last-minute decisions. With it, the whole thing becomes a living part of your practice. Today, we are stepping into the how. How to plan. How to prepare. How to build momentum. How to invite people. How to rehearse the event. How to gather feedback. How to set yourself up for sales if that is part of your goal. How to hold the energy of the night. We will continue following our two artists, Maya and Eli, because between them they cover so many of the scenarios that artists face. Performance plus sculpture. Painting plus small works on paper. Feedback plus sales. Ambition plus nerves. Limited budgets. Shared studios. Bigger dreams. -- Most artists are guessing their way through and staying stuck far longer than they need to. Inside Ceri Hand´s Coaching Membership, you get straight answers and real support through live sessions, portfolio reviews, virtual studio visits, monthly art world experts, and community to help you cut through fast. Ceri covers everything. Right now, you can join or gift a full year for £99 - our only discount of the year, available until the first of January. Please join here - http://cerihand.com/membership/ KEY TAKEAWAYS You can´t roll straight from the studio into the event. Your work needs a staging environment, a context, a point of view. When planning and preparing an event you need to protect your energy. Block out time to relax as well as time for the event. These blocks create momentum. Holding a room is not about performance. It's about hospitality, and hospitality is an art in itself. BEST MOMENTS “Artists underestimate the mental load of planning. Something I teach all of my artist clients, to create a planning container.” “The order in which you invite people matters. So, step one, warm your warmest people. These are the people who are most likely to say yes.” “For Ellie, her feedback comes in the form of behaviour, which paintings people stand longest in front of which works on paper people touch which price points get interest.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

For those of you who are new to the podcast, and for those of you who've been listening for a while, thank you for being here. As we reach the edge of the festive season, I wanted to offer you something special. A small gift to carry into the new year. A mini-series on hosting your own events as an artist. Not because the world is begging you to. Not because someone has given you the green light. But because your practice deserves oxygen. Visibility. Conversation. Agency. And because too many artists are waiting for someone else to make the first move. If you've worked with me, you'll know I'm a firm believer in not waiting for permission. And I've seen too many artists twist themselves into knots wondering whether it's worth doing something self-initiated. Whether it looks desperate. Whether it's allowed. Whether someone else might quietly judge them. Whether it's pointless unless it's blessed by an institution. But in reality, artists at every stage host their own events. The big names do it with teams and budgets. The early career artists do it with hustle, charm and borrowed gear. Everyone else sits somewhere in the middle. Today's episode is all about the foundation. The why and the what. Why host your own event. What to show. What you're trying to learn. What you're trying to provoke. What you're building toward. -- Most artists are guessing their way through and staying stuck far longer than they need to. Inside Ceri Hand´s Coaching Membership, you get straight answers and real support through live sessions, portfolio reviews, virtual studio visits, monthly art world experts and community to help you cut through fast. Ceri covers everything. Right now, you can join or gift a full year for £99 - our only discount of the year, available until the first of January. Please join here - http://cerihand.com/membership/ KEY TAKEAWAYS Start planning ideally, six months out, at minimum. Why six months? - because momentum in the art world drips rather than gushes. Every decision you make when building your event must flow from a high level of clarity. Otherwise, the event becomes a blur. Too much labour, not enough purpose. Too many hopes, not enough design. When you're clear on why you're holding your event, you're not just “putting on something,” you're designing an experience that has a job to do. BEST MOMENTS “I've seen too many artists twist themselves into knots, wondering whether it's worth doing something self-initiated.” “The three-month window is your sweet spot. Enough time for people to make space in their diaries, but not so far in advance that they forget.” “Both events are small, both events are intentional, and both events are entirely designed around their aims.” HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network ** Book a Discovery Call To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, email us at hello@cerihand.com This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

This is the time of year when the studio hopefully gets a little quieter, inboxes slow down, and we start to take stock. For many artists, that pause comes with a mix of reflection and panic. The question that hangs in the air is: what will next year look like? How will I make it work — not just creatively, but financially? If that thought makes your stomach tighten, you're not alone. Most artists were never taught how to plan income. We were taught to plan projects. But the truth is, when you take charge of your numbers, you take charge of your freedom. So, today I want to walk you through a simple way to design your own £40K year — not as a fantasy figure, but as a structure you can actually build towards. It's not about making 40K exactly, if you need to earn more or less; it's about giving yourself a clear base to make informed choices and stop relying on luck or last-minute opportunities. KEY TAKEAWAYS You can design your own £40K year by mapping your current income streams, sketching your "ideal" income wheel, and using the gap between them as your roadmap for the year ahead. Ceri shares exactly how to do this. Clarity beats hustle. When you identify and break your goals into quarterly, monthly, and even daily targets, and choose one 90-day focus with specific actions, you create momentum without burning out. When Ceri's student Jenny stopped trying to do everything and instead doubled down on two key levers—direct collector sales and small group workshops—she didn't double her workload, she doubled her clarity, and that's what took her from £22K to £40K in a year. BEST MOMENTS “We're working on compounding your actions over time, not going all in, then having to lie down for a month because you've exhausted yourself.” “This isn't just an exercise. It's an act of self-leadership, because the truth is, no one is coming to plan your career for you.” “£40k might sound big, but when you break it into four quarters or 10 collectors or 15 commissions, it's suddenly human sized.” For support with creating and delivering your own £40k+ year, get on the waitlist for Ceri Hand´s Artist Mastermind Circle. Join here - https://cerihand.com/artist-mastermind-circle/ HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel cand achieve your goals. ** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership ** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network ** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

It's that time of year again when we start reflecting on what we've achieved in the year and start thinking and planning for the year ahead. So, I wanted to record something for you on how to set goals that actually work for you. Most artists I know aren't short on ideas — they're short on direction. It's not about working harder; it's about knowing where your effort will actually count. Every January, or halfway through the year when things start to slide, I hear the same refrain: “I just need to be more disciplined.” But discipline isn't the issue. The problem is that most of us set goals that belong to someone else's version of success. We look at what others are achieving — the residencies, the launches, the awards — and think, I should be doing that too. But if your goals don't match your values, energy, and current reality, they'll drain you before they ever develop you. Today, I want to help you create goals that work for you — goals that are practical, measurable, and motivating, not punishing, that won´t slip away. KEY TAKEAWAYS Make your goals specific, time-bound and identify the benefits of achieving those goals. Establish where you are now, work out what could derail you and how you will handle that. Visualise success - Picture the outcome. What does the room look like when those works hang together? The overview of the Seven Essential Steps to Achieving Your Goals framework shared here is the same one Ceri teaches in her Artist Mastermind Circle - a tried, tested and highly effective way to turn vague hopes into a clear creative plan. BEST MOMENTS “Goal setting isn't about doing more. It's about doing what matters most.” “Chaos says, “I must do everything.,” Momentum says, “I'll focus on what creates real movement.” “Commit to the process. Not perfection — persistence. Progress happens through consistent, imperfect action.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today, Ceri speaks the extraordinary Memo Akten — artist, researcher, computer scientist. For more than a decade, he has worked with emerging technologies, AI, Big Data, and our Collective Consciousness as scraped and shaped by the internet, to explore consciousness, perception, ecology and the politics of our techno-lifestyles. He won the Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica, became Google's first artist-in-residence in their Artists & Machine Intelligence programme, and has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Tribeca, the Barbican, ACMI, Mori Art Museum, and the Academy Museum in LA. His collaborations span U2, Lenny Kravitz, Depeche Mode, Max Cooper, Richard Dawkins, Google, Apple and McLaren. KEY TAKEAWAYS Technology is never neutral. It shapes us as much as we shape it. Memo reminds us that behind every dataset is a culture, behind every model is a worldview, and behind every technological leap is a chain of ecological, political and emotional consequences. The world can only meet your ideas if you let them out of hiding. Memo's story is a masterclass in releasing the work before you feel ready. If you are wrestling your way through a project remember - the destination is just the documentary still. Gathering the threads that eventually become something whole is where the real art is. BEST MOMENTS “We can use technology to understand ourselves more deeply, to pay attention to the world more carefully, and to ask bigger, braver questions.” “I very rarely begin a project with an end goal of this is what it should look like, in mind. I usually begin with this is how I want it to behave.” AN UNMISSABLE OFFER If the art world feels confusing, you're not imagining it. Most artists are guessing their way through it and staying stuck far longer than they need to. Inside the Ceri Hand Coaching Membership, you get straight answers and real support. Each week, I run live sessions where you can bring any problem and I'll help you cut through it fast — creative blocks, pitches, pricing, all of it. You'll get coaching with me, the chance to host or attend a virtual studio visit, portfolio reviews, monthly art world experts, and a community who genuinely get it. It's the kind of guidance most artists wish they'd had years ago. Right now, you can join or gift a full year for £99, our only discount of the year, available until the first of January. Join the Membership, or gift it to someone who needs it. We'll get there faster together. Just click here: cerihand.com/membership. EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.memo.tv https://www.instagram.com/memo_akten HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. ** Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, 'Unlock Your Artworld Network', offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ ** Book a Discovery Call To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com ** This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Some artists wait for the perfect show to appear, as if the universe will tap them on the shoulder and whisper that it is finally time to finish the work. But the longer you wait, the further away it drifts. Because unfinished work is safe. It stays in potential, where nothing is at risk and everything is still possible. And waiting feels easier than deciding. But waiting is not how shows happen. Finishing is. Ceri explains how to get unstuck, finish your work and finally show it. -- Most artists are guessing their way through and staying stuck far longer than they need to. Inside Ceri Hand´s Coaching Membership, you get straight answers and real support through live sessions, portfolio reviews, virtual studio visits, monthly art world experts and community to help you cut through fast. Ceri covers everything. Right now, you can join or gift a full year for £99 - our only discount of the year, available until the first of January. Please join here - http://cerihand.com/membership/ KEY TAKEAWAYS There is the quiet belief that if you never finish, you never fail, but you also never get seen. You can't wait for a show to begin. You have to build the show from where you are. Finish the work. Completion builds confidence. Confidence builds momentum. Momentum builds opportunity. If you want to show, you have to practice building one in your studio. Now, regularly. BEST MOMENTS “The shift comes when you decide that a work is the best you can make for this particular moment in your life, that this alone is enough reason to finish it.” “When you don't trust your authority, you fill the space with quantity. You make more instead of choosing better. You wait for a show instead of becoming the person a show makes sense for - opportunities come when you behave as if they already exist.” “Photograph it, sit with it, invite someone you trust to see it, but only after you've formed your own view. If you ask too early, you lose the chance to hear your own voice.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

Today I'm speaking with artist Lakwena Maciver, whose glorious work has wrapped electrical substations, transformed the Bowery Wall, brought hope into a juvenile detention centre in Arkansas, transformed Tate Modern and handbags for Dior, all carrying poignant messages of care. All of this stemmed from a child drawing her own name to anchor a shifting sense of identity. Those early gestures became a life's work centred on hope, connection and the courage to speak into public space without dilution.  We talk about the culture shock that shaped her, the spiritual turning point that unlocked her practice, and the Miami wall that changed her trajectory. We also explore how she navigates large-scale public commissions, studio freedom, working with commercial galleries, licensing and her thinking behind her own online shop and merch. If you've ever felt torn between ambition and intuition, visibility and vulnerability, or the expectation to deliver versus the instinct to stay true to your vision, this one's for you. KEY TAKEAWAYS Embrace your unique journey. Use what you have, stay true to your path and don´t worry about what others are doing or have. Art in public spaces can have a transformative impact - fostering hope, connection, and a sense of belonging, often deeply impacting unseen or marginalized communities. Balancing ambition versus intuition, visibility versus vulnerability, and expectation versus authenticity is ongoing for any creative person. Moving beyond “solo” creation into collaborative and community-focused work renews your creative energy and deepens your impact. BEST MOMENTS “I think I started making work from a place of displacement. So, I started drawing and making artwork as a way of trying to empower myself and speak hope to myself.” “What we protect ourselves from is often exactly where the breakthrough waits - letting something in is sometimes the bravest part of creative life.” “Try and stay in your lane. Use what you have in your hand. Don't worry about what you haven't got and what other people have.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.lakwena.com https://www.instagram.com/lakwena You can sign up for Lakwena´s newsletter at the bottom of this page - https://shop.lakwena.com PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

You can't build a big, brave, creative life if you're still waiting for permission. In this episode, Ceri talks about the quiet poison of approval seeking, which keeps you performing instead of creating, editing yourself to fit in and please people who might never have seen your work. Or if they do, are too entangled in their own insecurities to applaud it anyway. Ceri explains why so many artists fall into the approval trap and how to get out of it should you be stuck there. KEY TAKEAWAYS Most of the artists you're trying to impress are doing the exact same thing —comparing themselves to someone else, chasing a nod from their own invisible panel of gatekeepers.  You don't need to earn respect. You're already part of a living, breathing ecosystem of creativity. The system only works because each of us contributes our vision, our labour, our risk, our weirdness. If you've caught yourself editing your words or watering down your wins to fit in – use the simple exercise Ceri shares to reset how you view yourself, your work and how it is received, so you can stop seeking validation. BEST MOMENTS “In rooms full of artists, she admired, she shrank. She apologised for her success. She made her language more intellectual to prove she belonged. ” “It's a pyramid scheme of validation. Nobody ever feels they've reached the top.” “Respect isn't a prize handed down; it's a by-product of contribution and participation.” “Respect flows horizontally, not hierarchically. And the moment you stop trying to earn it, you start embodying it.” PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/

What happens when two sculptors build not just a life together, but a living artwork? In this week's episode of Extraordinary Creatives, I'm joined by Laura Ford and Andrew Sabin—partners in art and in life—whose decades-long dialogue between material, imagination, and place has produced some of the most distinctive sculpture in Britain today. Their story is one of instinct, invention, and fearless making. Laura's work teems with humour, vulnerability, and human emotion—anthropomorphic creatures who hold a mirror to our tenderness and absurdity—while Andrew's practice has moved from experimental casting to vast public works and the immersive environments of Matt Black Barn, the art-education complex they built from scratch in rural England. Together, they've navigated family, teaching, commissions, resistance, renewal, and the long game of sustaining creative momentum. This conversation is a love letter to material thinking, to risk-taking, and to building a world big enough to hold it all. KEY TAKEAWAYS The art doesn't stop at the sculpture. It continues in the structures Laura and Andrew build, the people they invite in, and the courage to keep creating a life on their own terms. When you make bold or controversial work, the reception is unpredictable, so you have to accept that staying true to your convictions may sometimes cost you opportunities. For Andrew and Laura, sharing their work, through open studios, educational initiatives, and public engagements is central to their philosophy. They believe feedback and interpretation from others are vital for growth, even when it surprises or challenges them BEST MOMENTS “I remember Jenny Lomax coming in and saying, ‘Laura, I love this work, but I'd lose all my funding if I ever showed it' - which was fair.” “The monthly fee from the gallery was nice, but it sort of ate into me…I'd find myself making decisions that I just hated myself for.” “Art and life are never separate—they're intertwined, negotiated, rebuilt, and reimagined daily.” EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.mattblackbarn.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/mattblackbarn https://www.instagram.com/laura_ford_sculpture https://www.instagram.com/andrewsabinsculpture PODCAST HOST BIO With over 35 years in the art world, Ceri has worked closely with leading artists and arts professionals, managed public and private galleries and charities, and curated more than 250 exhibitions and events. She sold artworks to major museums and private collectors and commissioned thousands of works across diverse media, from renowned artists such as John Akomfrah, Pipilotti Rist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Vito Acconci. Now, she wants to share her extensive knowledge with you, so you can excel and achieve your goals. **** Ceri Hand Coaching Membership: Group coaching, live art surgeries, exclusive masterclasses, portfolio reviews, weekly challenges. Access our library of content and resource hub anytime and enjoy special discounts within a vibrant community of peers and professionals. Ready to transform your art career? Join today! https://cerihand.com/membership **** Unlock Your Artworld Network Self Study Course Our self-study video course, "Unlock Your Artworld Network," offers a straightforward 5-step framework to help you build valuable relationships effortlessly. Gain the tools and confidence you need to create new opportunities and thrive in the art world today. https://cerihand.com/courses/unlock_your_artworld_network/ **** Book a Discovery Call Today To schedule a personalised 1-2-1 coaching session with Ceri or explore our group coaching options, simply email us at hello@cerihand.com **** Discover Your Extraordinary Creativity Visit www.cerihand.com to learn how we can help you become an extraordinary creative. This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/