Extraordinary Creatives

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

 

**

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 [email protected]

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 [email protected]

**

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/