Extraordinary Creatives

• Introducing Beat the Block Podcast Shorties – Your Weekly Creative Kickstart

  I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can help more of you be braver, create the work you truly want to make, and stop second-guessing yourself. It feels urgent. So, I’m launching a new weekly short podcast episode called Beat the Block – a no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point shot of creative support. Each week, I’ll share three tips drawn from Donkey's years in the arts – learned from the incredible arts and business people I’ve worked with, interviewed, and coached, to the burning questions that come up daily inside my mastermind circles, membership and coaching sessions with artists and arts professionals worldwide. EPISODE RESOURCES Instagram: @batterseaartscentre Facebook: @BatterseaArtsCentre bac.org.uk PODCAST HOST BIO With over 30 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/ **** Build Relationships The Easy WayOur 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.

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• Authentic Leadership & Cultural Innovation with Tarek Iskander of Battersea Arts Centre

  From growing up in the Middle East where theatre was banned to leading one of London's most innovative cultural spaces, Tarek Iskander's journey is a masterclass in transformative leadership. In this candid conversation, he reveals how his NHS background shapes his mission driven approach at Battersea Arts Centre, championing bold, experimental work while making art accessible through initiatives like "pay-what-you-can" ticketing. His insights on nurturing youth creativity, navigating institutional challenges, and reimagining the arts sector's future offer invaluable lessons for anyone interested in cultural leadership and social impact. KEY TAKEAWAYS Tarek had to radically shift his natural coaching leadership style during COVID-19. He took on more direct control to protect his team from difficult decisions, showing how crisis management can push leaders outside their comfort zones. Through Battersea Arts Centre youth programs, Tarek discovered that having staff who came from local communities mattered more than architectural changes or pricing strategies. His street teams of young people recruiting other young people proved more effective than traditional outreach. Having grown up where the theatre was banned, Tarek's conviction about art's vital role in society led him to transform BAC into a vaccine hub during lockdown while maintaining creative programming - demonstrating how arts venues can serve multiple community needs. Coming from outside the traditional theatre world, Tarek leveraged his outsider perspective to restructure BAC's financial model, generating 50% of income from private business while making performances accessible through pay-what-you-can ticketing. When faced with pressure to post black squares during Black Lives Matter, Tarek chose to commission Black artists to respond creatively instead of making performative gestures. This was a decision that initially received pushback but was later vindicated. Despite ticking only two of the ten criteria for the Arts Council job, Tarek spent a week preparing intensively for the interview, demonstrating his belief that hard work can overcome perceived qualification gaps. Rather than trying to do everything, Tarek made tough decisions to stop running BAC's museum and co-working space to focus on the core missions of supporting creativity in young people and artists. As someone who describes himself as "incredibly shy," Tarek had to overcome significant self-doubt to take on public-facing leadership roles, learning that internal demons often pose bigger challenges than external ones. BEST MOMENTS "Growing up in the Middle East where pretty much most of theatre or live performance was banned for most of my childhood... I had very little exposure to the arts." "I think we never think of our next gen or youth programs as an end to something else... If you believe that the world can be a better place, those new creative ideas are going to come from that next generation." "The biggest obstacles ahead of us are the ones we put up ourselves." "BAC is small enough to be naughty and not have to play by the rules necessarily, but maybe big enough that people often take notice when something happens." "I'm very allergic to things that feel performative or just words.” "Art and performance is so vital that keeping it going and supporting artists and audiences and young people to engage in those ways feels like really critical work." "Don't let the barriers up yourself. Let other people put them up for you." "Sometimes the demons within are probably much tougher than the demons without." EPISODE RESOURCES Instagram: @batterseaartscentre Facebook: @BatterseaArtsCentre bac.org.uk PODCAST HOST BIO With over 30 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/ **** Build Relationships The Easy WayOur 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.

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• The Feminist Laugh: Althea Greenan on Archives, Art, and Activism

  Join Ceri as she speaks with Althea Greenan, curator of the Women's Art Library at Goldsmiths. From slide libraries to digital archives, Althea shares her experiences and activism through preserving and championing women's art for over 30 years. This episode is an exploration of how archives can be living, breathing spaces that inspire movements and create change. Through personal anecdotes and revolutionary projects, Althea reveals how small acts of documentation can spark massive cultural shifts and why archives are not just about the past, but about building feminist futures. KEY TAKEAWAYS The Women's Art Library began as a slide collection, where artists could submit documentation of their work for £8 per year, creating a democratic, non-hierarchical approach to archiving women's art. Throughout her career, Althea has maintained that archives should remain non-hierarchical and accessible, keeping the Women's Art Library's original mission of being open to all researchers, whether academic or independent. Through decades of work, Althea has witnessed how a single image or document can spark significant cultural change, proving that archives are not passive repositories but active agents of transformation. The transition from analogue to digital hasn't diminished the importance of physical archives; the tactile nature of slides, posters, and documents carries important historical and emotional context. Self-archiving was a revolutionary act for female artists in the 1980s and 90s, creating visibility and professional opportunities outside traditional art world structures. Contemporary artists and researchers continue to find new ways to activate and interpret the archive, proving its ongoing relevance to current artistic practice. The concept of "des oeuvre" suggests that artists' work extends beyond traditional studio practice to include teaching, curating, and institutional change. The power of feminist archives lies in their ability to create intimate encounters with ideas and spark movements, even through small scale interactions. BEST MOMENTS "Archives are living entities, sparking connection, care, and joy." "A lot of the labour and the care and the personal evidence of inscription that artists very carefully made on these slide mounts is not evident in collections that are digitised." "It's hard to be a thinker, a maker and be on the edges of society sometimes." "Sometimes all it takes is one person to say, 'Hey, I think you might like this,' to spark curiosity and shift someone's entire worldview." "When do you stop being an artist is the question and how much of this work that you're doing really should be seen as part of your artistic practice." EPISODE RESOURCES https://www.gold.ac.uk/make/ https://sites.gold.ac.uk/animatingarchives/ Yes to the Work!: The Women's Art Library https://www.art360foundation.org.uk/media - film by Holly Antrum commissioned by the Art360 Foundation PODCAST HOST BIO With over 30 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/ **** Build Relationships The Easy WayOur 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.

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• Pushing The Boundaries of Photography & Film with Catherine Yass

  Ceri interviews internationally acclaimed artist Catherine Yass, whose groundbreaking lens-based work pushes the boundaries of photography and film. The conversation explores her innovative techniques, including her distinctive method of layering negatives and positives, her relationship with architectural spaces, and her thoughts on time, failure, and resistance in art. This episode offers a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a Turner Prize nominee who continues to challenge conventional perspectives in contemporary art. KEY TAKEAWAYS Catherine discovered her signature blue colour through mistakes while learning to use a 5x4 camera, leading her to deliberately overlay negative and positive images to challenge the idea that photographs must represent reality exactly as we see it. Her early experiences cycling around a deteriorating swimming pool in Tower Hamlets while watching Canary Wharf being built shaped her understanding of architectural power dynamics and social inequality in London. Catherine views her deliberately slow working process with cumbersome equipment as a form of resistance, noting how the industrial revolution transformed time into a commodity that must be used efficiently. For the NHS Swimmers, she asked healthcare workers to perform the same swimming movements twice, creating a temporal doubling that she felt was crucial to avoid the work looking like an advertisement in a public space. Through her High Wire project, Catherine came to value the importance of failure when the performer couldn't complete the walk, realising that sometimes dreams are more valuable than their achievement. Having started by photographing rhinoceros at the zoo, Catherine's fascination with weight, structure and gravity has remained consistent throughout her career, from early sculpture to recent film works. She maintains her artistic freedom by teaching just enough to fund her studio, allowing her to pursue projects without complete dependence on art sales, which she's found can fluctuate dramatically. Her transition from making physical interventions in architecture to photographing spaces emerged from the practical reality that installations are temporary, leading her to document them with photography which then became its own form. BEST MOMENTS "The camera is very big player in it... It's quite like a third character in the room with you before you even start making." "I think through teaching you keep reading... there's a whole process of discussion and learning going on all the time, which is really rich." "Freedom isn't freedom if it treads on somebody else's freedom. So you have to protect people's freedoms." "I was interested in the idea of the subject not being whole, not being sort of complete or reliable or steady." "Slowing things down can be quite a resistance... working with that big camera makes you work in a very organised way." EPISODE RESOURCES Guest Links: https://www.catherineyass.co.uk/ Instagram @catherine.yass PODCAST HOST BIO With over 30 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/ **** Build Relationships The Easy WayOur 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.

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  1:28:23
• Creating Inclusive Cultural Spaces: How Salma Tuqan is Transforming Arts Institution Leadership

  In this episode, Ceri talks about cultural curation with Salma Tuqan, Director of Nottingham Contemporary. From her early days at Art Dubai to influential roles at the V&A and beyond, Salma shares her views on how cultural institutions can evolve, adapt, and remain relevant in challenging times. Salma explores everything from collection strategies to institutional sustainability while highlighting the importance of collective effort and generosity in creating inclusive cultural spaces. KEY TAKEAWAYS Salma's leadership philosophy focuses on building collective effort, demonstrated through her work at Nottingham Contemporary where she leads a team of 70, prioritising collaborative decision making and community input. Throughout her career at the V&A, Salma challenged traditional museum structures by working to integrate Middle Eastern art across departments rather than isolating it, showing her commitment to breaking down institutional silos. Drawing from her Palestinian heritage and early exposure to diverse cultural practices, Salma approaches curation with an understanding that Western categorisations of art aren't universal. In her role at the Delfina Foundation, Salma developed innovative funding models for under resourced regions, creating pools of resources from multiple small contributions to support artists from areas like Central America. At Nottingham Contemporary, Salma prioritises long term artist relationships over one off exhibitions, allowing creative partnerships to evolve naturally from small collaborations to major shows. Rather than arriving with preset plans at new institutions, Salma's approach is to first listen and understand the existing ecosystem before developing strategies collaboratively. Through projects like "While We Wait," Salma demonstrates her commitment to considering the afterlife of exhibitions and ensuring local communities can access the art they inspire. As a director facing multiple contemporary challenges, Salma emphasises the importance of maintaining joy as a form of resistance while building solidarity networks with other cultural leaders. BEST MOMENTS "I'm a big believer in collectively working, and that's a big part of the ethos of my leadership style as well. I believe that things happen with people." "When we look around the world and with everything that's at stake, there's never been a moment where the role of institutions is as important as it is." "There's a lot of focus around the public facing aspect of institutions, particularly thinking about the artistic program and what does that mean when you're platforming artists who are talking about labour issues and simultaneously cutting the hours of the lowest paid workers." "I think joy is also a key form of resistance too." "The V&A is a huge entity, a huge institution, and I spent a lot of time developing relationships first and listening to people." "I really believe that the best work happens and is developed collectively." EPISODE RESOURCES Guest Links: www.salmatuqan.com Instagram: @stuqan PODCAST HOST BIO With over 30 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/ **** Build Relationships The Easy WayOur 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.

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