PODCAST · arts
Extraordinary Creatives
by Ceri Hand
Extraordinary Creatives: The Premier Art PodcastWelcome to the Extraordinary Creatives podcast, your gateway to the world of exceptional artists and creative leaders who have defied the odds to make a significant impact in the arts and beyond.Hosted by Ceri Hand, creative coach, curator, and seasoned arts and business insider, this podcast offers a wealth of insights into art and creativity through in-depth interviews. Ceri’s extensive experience and genuine passion for the arts make every episode a treasure trove of inspiration and practical advice.At the heart of Extraordinary Creatives is the belief that creativity is essential for success. However, it is the courage, confidence, and resilience to dare to be different that truly transforms the world. With her warm, playful, and straight-talking style, Ceri delves into the ideas, processes, mindsets, victories, and challenges of trailblazers who have paved the way in the arts.Ceri’s mission is to support 100,000 artists and arts
Episodes
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The Journey Back to Yourself: Letting Go of Who People Expect You to Be with Gabriella Cilmi
My guest today is the wonderful Italian-Australian singer-songwriter Gabriella Cilmi. Many of you will remember her breakthrough hit Sweet About Me, which became a global success when she was just sixteen. Since then she's toured the world, won awards, shared stages with some of music's biggest...
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The Work That Didn´t Sell
I was watching The Big Deal, the new programme with Steph McGovern on the BBC, and I came away with more thoughts than will fit into one episode. Most of them can wait. Today I want to use one thing from it, because it landed directly on top of something that comes up in my membership every…
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Why Returning to “Failures” Can Be the Most Creative Act of Your Life with Wreckless Eric
Some artists spend their whole lives trying to outrun the work that made them famous. Others spend their lives trying to find their way back to themselves. Today's guest has somehow done both. Wreckless Eric exploded onto the music scene with Whole Wide World, a song that became part of popular...
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You're Not Avoiding the Task, You're Avoiding the Feeling
There is a page in Emma's notebook that has been written out, in more or less the same words, most weeks for months. Five things on it. Email the curator she met last spring. Book the studio visit. Get the new work up on the website. Finish the residency application. And every week, in that big...
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What Does It Really Take To Create Extraordinary Work With Another Person With Ain Bailey and Elaine Mitchener MBE
What does it really take to create extraordinary work with another person? Not just the exciting bits of making, but everything that happens behind the scenes. Building trust. Navigating creative differences. Talking honestly about money. Knowing when to compromise and when to hold your ground.…
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When Your Big Idea Becomes Your Big Job
I was looking at an artist’s proposal recently for a really significant exhibition, and it was one of those proposals where you can immediately see that the artist has really thought about the opportunity. They haven’t just taken some existing work and thought, right, where can I put this?…
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What If Creativity Is Really an Act of Investigation? With PJ Raval
PJ Raval has spent his career asking a deceptively simple question: whose stories are we willing to see, and whose stories have we been taught to ignore? He's an award-winning Filipino American filmmaker whose documentaries explore identity, community, justice and belonging. Across films…
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How to ask for what you need without becoming 'The Difficult One'
'I don't want them to think I'm difficult.' I've heard that sentence more times than I can count, usually about four minutes after somebody has told me the best news of their year. They’ve landed a gig, an exhibition, commission. The residency they've wanted since art school. We celebrate, then…
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Why Making Bad Work Is the Secret to Great Art with Simone Brewster
Welcome back to Extraordinary Creatives. Today's guest is the remarkable Simone Brewster. Simone is an artist whose work moves between sculpture, painting, jewellery, furniture, architecture, and public installation. On paper those disciplines might seem worlds apart, but beneath them all is one...
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What Chronic Illness Taught Me About Creativity
There's something I've been thinking about for quite a while now. It's something I've talked about with close friends, but hardly ever publicly. Not because it's a secret. And certainly not because I'm embarrassed by it. I think, if I'm honest, I just never wanted it to define me. But over the…
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Drawing with Light, Playing with Time with Reuben Wu
I first met Reuben Wu when I was Director of Exhibitions at FACT in Liverpool, and he was one of the coolest musicians in the city, co-founding the band Ladytron and shaping a distinctive sound that travelled around the world. Years on, he's one of the most singular photographers working anywhere…
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Why Avoidance Feels So Productive
Welcome to the Extraordinary Creatives Podcast. I'm Ceri Hand. A former gallerist, curator, now coach to creatives all over the world. I help them to make a bigger impact with their work and earn more money doing what they love. Recently, I have been noticing something, and I wonder whether…
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Your Creative Work Matters and You Have The Talent To Bring It To Life with Ela Thier
We're told that creative talent is something you either have or you don't. Ela Thier has spent nearly 40 years disproving this crippling myth. A New York–based writer, director, actor, and founding director of The Independent Film School, she’s helped more than 65,000 artists find and develop…
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Inside the Art Surgery - Thirty Minutes, Real Questions, Honest Answers
Every week inside the membership, artists send in their questions. Career challenges, pricing dilemmas, difficult clients, creative blocks, gallery relationships, commission nightmares, confidence crises. Ceri works through them live, unfiltered and at pace, with more questions landing in real…
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Fast Robots, Slow Clocks: How To Design Art That Lasts Beyond Your Lifetime with Zander Rose
Somewhere inside a mountain in the West Texas desert, a clock is being built to keep time for ten thousand years. All mechanical. Wound by whoever makes the day-long hike to reach it. Designed so it´s chimes never ring the same sequence twice. Zander Rose has spent nearly thirty years building…
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Public Art: The Four Questions Every Artist Must Answer
I'm Ceri Hand, and this is Extraordinary Creatives. Thirty-five years in the contemporary art world as a gallerist, curator, commissioner of public art, institutional director, and now coaching artists and creative leaders worldwide to make a bigger impact and earn more money doing what they…
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Late Starts, Long Breaks: A Survival Guide to the Art World with Hettie Judah
The art world runs on storytelling. The story of the artwork. The story of the artist. And one of the most seductive stories of all, the one that says if you got your toe over the line out of art school, your career goes onwards and upwards from there in a straight line. My guest today, Hettie...
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Why Most Artists Lose Money On Their First Public Art Commission (Part 8 of 9)
Artists – most of you who take your first public art commission lose money on it. Not because the budget was bad, but because nobody told you a public commission is not a bigger version of a private one. It is a different job, with a different shape, and the work that does not appear in the brief…
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We Move Through Scales of Blue: Making Art That Holds More Than One Truth with Phoebe Boswell
Ninety-six per cent of Black British adults don’t swim regularly. That's the statistic from the Black Swimming Association that my guest came across while she was deep in research about bodies of water / about what they hold, what they absorb, what they promise. Phoebe Boswell is a Kenyan-British...
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The Six Roles Artists Get Hired For In Public Art (Most Don't Realise They Have A Choice) - Commissions Series, Part 7 of 9
Artists if you've ever been invited into a public art commission, here's the thing nobody tells you. Most of you assume you've been asked to make a single artwork. A sculpture, an installation, a piece. You usually haven't. There are six different roles you might be playing inside that project…
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Building a Sustainable Truly Creative Practice Without Selling Out - with Luke Jerram
Imagine setting fire to half your art budget before lunchtime. Seven hot air balloons grounded in a field. Fourteen speakers. The Birmingham Symphony Orchestra waiting to be paid. And a city council expecting you to reach a hundred thousand people by the end of the week. That is the kind of…
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How To Stop Commissions Eating Your Profit (Part 6 of 9)
Artists — if you take commissions, here's the number that should frighten you. Scope drift, the polite, gradual expansion of a commission beyond what you agreed, eats twenty to thirty per cent of the original fee in unpaid work on most commissions I see. That isn't a margin problem. That's your...
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The Work That Lasts Speaks To What Is Stuck, Not What Is Comfortable with Lucia Pietroiusti
The art that stays with you isn't the art that pleases you. It's the art that names the thing stuck at the back of your throat — the one you couldn't quite say out loud — and then makes it real. That's Lucia Pietroiusti. Curator of the Golden Lion-winning Sun & Sea, Head of Research & Emergence…
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Artists, Get Paid To Think Before You Get Paid To Make (part 5 of 9)
This episode is part of a nine-part series on commissions. How to prepare for them, respond to them, deliver them, and, crucially, how to stop them burning you out. If you haven't followed the podcast yet, hit follow so you don't miss an episode. Today, episode 5 of 9 - If you only listen to one…
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Trust Discomfort As Part of Your Creative Language with Amartey Golding
Amartey Golding makes chainmail sculptures that are seductive, threatening, funny, and deeply unsettling all at once. And in this conversation, he explains why discomfort might be one of the most important tools an artist has. Raised between London, Ghana, Rastafarian culture, council estates…
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Artists, Don't Reply To That Commission Enquiry — Filter First - Part 4 of 9
This episode is part of a nine-part series on commissions. How to prepare for them, respond to them, deliver them, and, crucially, how to stop them burning you out. If you haven't followed the podcast yet, hit follow so you don't miss an episode. Today, episode four of nine. And this is where the...
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Don't Wait For Permission To Build The World You Want To Live In with Ian Giles and David Shenton
I have two guests on the podcast today, and they have made something extraordinary together. The first drew queer Britain into being for sixty years and quietly refused to call any of its art. It paid the mortgage. It was cheaper than being a window cleaner. He published the world's first LGBTQ+...
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Your Commission Ecosystem: Four Decisions To Make Before The Next Enquiry Lands - Part 3 of 9
This episode is part of a nine-part series on commissions. How to prepare for them, respond to them, deliver them, and, crucially, how to stop them burning you out. If you haven't followed the podcast yet, hit follow so you don't miss an episode. Today, episode three of nine. The first practical...
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Grief, Caregiving and Work That Shines Through It All with Alexis Soul-Gray
Today’s guest is an extraordinary artist whose work feels deeply lived rather than simply made. Alexis Soul-Gray is a British painter exploring memory, loss, and maternal lineage through richly layered works that move between abstraction and figuration. Based in Devon, her paintings feel both...
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The Five Signatures Of An Underpriced Commission – Part 2 of 9
This episode is part of a nine-part series on commissions. How to prepare for them, respond to them, deliver them, and, crucially, how to stop them burning you out. If you haven't followed the podcast yet, hit follow so you don't miss an episode. Today, episode two of nine. The five mistakes I…
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When Music Meets Image: Crafting Emotional Worlds On Screen with Tiffany Anders
Today’s guest is someone who quite literally shapes how stories feel. Tiffany Anders is a music supervisor working across film, television, and advertising, and if you’ve ever been completely pulled into a scene emotionally, there’s a good chance someone like Tiffany helped build that experience....
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Designing The Way You Want To Work - The Mindset Shift Behind Every Commission That Doesn't Burn You Out Part 1 of 9
This episode is part of a nine-part series on commissions. How to prepare for them, respond to them, deliver them, and, crucially, how to stop them burning you out. If you haven't followed the podcast yet, hit follow so you don't miss an episode. Today, episode one of nine. The mindset. Because...
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Great Institutions Aren’t Built On Perfection—They’re Built On Permission with Joe Hill
What does it take to lead an institution in a way that people don’t just visit—but feel they belong to? Today, I’m in conversation with the extraordinary Joe Hill—Director and Chief Executive of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and formerly the force behind Towner Eastbourne’s transformation into one of...
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How to Get Press as an Artist
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...
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Intuition, Research, Ancestry, and the Slow Unfolding of Ideas Through Making with Charmaine Watkiss
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...
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When You Think You Said the Wrong Thing at an Event
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...
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Beyond the White Cube: How The Line Brings Art into Everyday Life with Sarah Carrington
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...
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You’re Not the Least Interesting Person in the Room
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...
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Everyone Can’t Be an Arsehole
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...
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You’re Not Bad at Networking. You’re Protecting Yourself
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,...
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What Refusing to Stick to One Lane Does for Your Art with Guy Richards Smit
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...
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When Someone You Love Laughs at Your Work
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...
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Disaster as a Gift: The Long Game of Creativity with John Lloyd
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...
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When Life Changes You and the Work Has to Change Too
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...
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What Performance Art Holds That White Cube Spaces Can’t with Wet Mess
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…
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When Life Breaks the Creative Rhythm
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...
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Inside The Artist’s Way: Simple Tools That Sustain Brave Creativity with Julia Cameron
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...
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Stop Funding Your Own Burnout: Designing Commissions That Don’t Drain You
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...
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How to Build Creative Worlds That Last with Jenn Ellis
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…
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Why Do I Keep Building Empires When I Just Want to Make Art
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…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Extraordinary Creatives: The Premier Art PodcastWelcome to the Extraordinary Creatives podcast, your gateway to the world of exceptional artists and creative leaders who have defied the odds to make a significant impact in the arts and beyond.Hosted by Ceri Hand, creative coach, curator, and seasoned arts and business insider, this podcast offers a wealth of insights into art and creativity through in-depth interviews. Ceri’s extensive experience and genuine passion for the arts make every episode a treasure trove of inspiration and practical advice.At the heart of Extraordinary Creatives is the belief that creativity is essential for success. However, it is the courage, confidence, and resilience to dare to be different that truly transforms the world. With her warm, playful, and straight-talking style, Ceri delves into the ideas, processes, mindsets, victories, and challenges of trailblazers who have paved the way in the arts.Ceri’s mission is to support 100,000 artists and arts
HOSTED BY
Ceri Hand
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Extraordinary Creatives have?
Extraordinary Creatives currently has 248 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Extraordinary Creatives about?
Extraordinary Creatives: The Premier Art PodcastWelcome to the Extraordinary Creatives podcast, your gateway to the world of exceptional artists and creative leaders who have defied the odds to make a significant impact in the arts and beyond.Hosted by Ceri Hand, creative coach, curator, and...
How often does Extraordinary Creatives release new episodes?
Extraordinary Creatives publishes regularly with 248 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Extraordinary Creatives?
You can listen to Extraordinary Creatives on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Extraordinary Creatives?
Extraordinary Creatives is created and hosted by Ceri Hand.
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