Extraordinary Creatives

How to Talk About Personal or Vulnerable Work

If you're making work that comes from somewhere deeply personal, how much do you actually have to tell people about where it came from? I've been thinking about this bec

Sustain the Thing That Sustains You: Finding Your People, Backing Your Work and Building an Art Career with Robin F. Williams

What happens when you expect your art to become your entire “existential dread receptacle”?  That brilliant phrase comes from my guest today, Robin F. Williams, and it o

How Your Creative Obsessions Can Help You Find Your People

I want you to think about somebody whose opinion of your work really matters to you.  Perhaps it's a curator you've admired for years, an artist whose practice you find

Who Gets Remembered in Art and Why? with Alona Pardo, Director of The Arts Council Collection

Some of the decisions that shape art history never make it into the official record. They happen in conversations, through relationships, and because somebody is prepared

What I'm Looking For When I Select Art For Open Calls And Prizes

When I’m selecting for an open call or art prize, I might be looking at hundreds, sometimes thousands, of artworks. So, what actually makes me stop at one and think, hang

The Weight of Imagination: Art, Memory, and Making with Andy Holden

What would it be like to meet every version of the artist you’ve been over the last twenty years? That’s essentially what Andy Holden has just done. For his new book, W

What Kind of Art Makes You Glad to Be Alive?

What kind of art makes you glad to be alive? I don't necessarily mean the work you think is important, the artists you're supposed to admire or the exhibitions everybody

What Art Can Do About Climate Change? - with Alice Sharp and Rana Begum

What can art do about climate change that science, facts, and frightening headlines can’t? That question has driven curator Alice Sharp for more than fifteen years. As A

When Research Hasn't Become Art Yet

At a recent exhibition opening, I was talking with an artist whose work I admire. We were looking at work that was beautifully made and meticulously researched, yet someh

Learning How to Really Look, Understand And Uncover The Story with Daniel Crouch

How does a sixteen-year-old looking for beer money become one of the world’s leading dealers in rare maps, selling extraordinary objects for millions and occasionally out

What Four Days Learning About Trauma Taught Me About Creativity

What if the thing that you keep calling procrastination, lack of confidence or self-sabotage isn’t quite what you think it is? What if one part of you desperately wants t

Preparing for Viral Success Without Burning Out with Freddie Yauner

What do you do when an artwork you’ve been quietly developing for years suddenly goes stratospheric? And how do you turn a hit into a career-changing opportunity without

Stop Hoping Somebody Will Discover You

“I don’t know enough people” might be one of the most convenient lies artists tell themselves. And before you get cross with me, hear me out. If you tell yourself, you d

What Creativity, Leadership and Community Mean When Your Life Changes Drastically with Andrea Grover

Andrea Grover has spent nearly thirty years championing artists who take risks. And right now, she’s taking a few of her own. She’s turned her dining room into an experi

When Someone Else's Envy Lands on You

Today, I am talking about a feeling that most of us know intimately. A feeling that most of us don’t talk about: Envy. This episode is about both kinds, which turn out to

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 glob

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. T

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 gues

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 sp

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