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A lot of arts organisations genuinely want to support artists. I believe that.

But so few of them actually talk to artists before they build the scheme. So few start with the question. What do you actually need?

That gap, between the intention and the conversation that never happens, is where artist development falls apart.

Artists are not passive. They are naturally entrepreneurial, collaborative, generative.

They need genuine investment.

When organisations build around what the artist actually needs rather than what the venue has, something extraordinary happens. The return on genuinely investing in an artist is enormous. Not just culturally but also economically.

We really don’t like to talk about how much power arts organisations hold in this relationship.

Because we think we are the good guys.

Because we have the mission statement.

But power without accountability, without genuine listening, without asking the question before you build the programme, is still power being used in one direction.

The most radical thing an arts organisation can do right now is sit down with an artist before they design anything. Ask what they need. Build from there from the artist.

Because artists are not the beneficiaries of the arts industry. They are the engine of it. And when we finally build systems that treat them that way, everyone wins.

I would love to know your examples of brilliant artist development.

Who is doing this really well?

Which organisations, which programmes, which people have genuinely invested in artists, asked the right questions, and got it right?

Drop them in the comments. Let’s build a list worth sharing. by @thatcreativityco

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3 months ago

A lot of our friends are struggling at the moment, and they think it’s their fault. It’s not. It’s so bloody hard to quantify how deep class structure runs in the arts. A lot of the time we don’t want to focus on it, and I do this all of the time because we live in this world where there is infinite capacity to make things happen on an individual level. Capitalism teaches us that if we focus individually, we can just push through and make a break.

So many of my friends who are at the top of the game in the theatre and dance industry can’t pay their rent, can’t pay their mortgage, can’t afford to have kids, despite being on tour with the biggest musicians in the world, doing shows at the Hollywood Bowl, Las Vegas, Barbican, Sadlers Wells, Glastonbury, you name it.

The shallow side of equity in the arts is this idea that everyone is welcome in the kitchen; everyone can come in, and the Arts Council and a lot of DEI programs perpetuate this idea that everyone’s welcome. What they don’t do, what they don’t understand, is that not everyone can afford to stay in the kitchen, and so a lot of the work around inclusivity focuses on welcoming rather than retaining.

In the UK, we really don’t like to talk about class because we think we’ve shackled off our imperial structures, and that because class structures aren’t as visible as they once were, we don’t have factories, here, in the way that we did. We don’t have mines, here, in the way that we did, because empires have outsourced that to other countries, and we scroll past the videos of the kids in Congo navigating avalanches in mines because that’s no longer our reality.

I fundamentally believe in our ability to make change and progress in our lives and push towards the things that we want to have and be. But I see so many other organisations and coaches just ignoring the realities that working-class creatives live with and the inherent barriers that come with not having generations of safety and structure.

No one talks about the unseen effort of navigating those hurdles. Being a working-class artist often feels like you are running a hurdle race next to someone else who is doing a 400m sprint. by @thatcreativityco

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4 months ago

I needed to write this today 🥵

A lot of my clients and community are struggling with burnout at the moment.

And something that we discovered is a common thread, is the stress created by the gap between where we are and where we want to be.

There is a tendency to beat ourselves up for the results that have not yet blossomed.

By identifying what seasons we’re in we can get better at having clarity around what results we can expect from that season.

If we are in a planting period, the result is not that something has grown, but that we have sown the seeds.

So if you’re starting a Substack, you’re in a seeding phase, the result is not hitting 1000k subs. The result is publishing 100 ideas.

If you’re researching ideas on a new book, allow yourself to gather, don’t beat yourself up for not immediately producing an output.

And if you’ve been creating or producing your work for a focussed period of time, it’s ok to have a slower pace for a few weeks or months whilst your recuperate.

Being clear on your focus for the next few months is one of the greatest acts of creative generosity for yourself.

What season are you in right now? by @thatcreativityco

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17 days ago

Make it exist by @thatcreativityco

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a month ago

Help us make your perfect artist development programme

We’ve spent months talking to you in our comments, DMs and emails about artist development.

A lot of organisations genuinely want to help artists

But so few of them actually talk to artists before they build the scheme. So few start with the question. What do you actually need?

That gap, between the intention and the conversation that never happens, is where artist development falls apart.

We Don’t want artists to feel passive. You are naturally entrepreneurial, collaborative, generative.

You need genuine investment.

We want to build our first funded artist development opportunity around what you actually need.

TBH we don’t know if this will work.

It might bloody fail and we’ll walk away with egg on our face.

I’ve never seen this done before, co-creating an ace bid in public. But we are gonna give it a go.

We said in our last post:
The most radical thing arts organisations can do right now is sit down with an artist before they design anything. Ask what they need. Build from there from the artist.

Because artists are not the beneficiaries of the arts industry. They are the engine of it. And when we finally build systems that treat them that way, everyone wins.

So we’re going to do just that.

I would love to know what you would most benefit from. What topics/ workshops/ support/ structures/ resources would change your career or amplify it?

Drop them in the comments and we’ll try to make it happen.

[Images included in this post are great examples of working class art that we are in rush of losing in the next generation

Credits and copyright belong to

Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figurines), David Hockney, 1972

OONA DOHERTY Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus - Thuéâtre de la ville de Paris

Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads. Roy Williams, Photograph: Manuel Harlan

Tracey Emin, My Bed, 1998, Tate Modern

] by @thatcreativityco

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a month ago

We’re really not sure about this! What are your thoughts gang? 👇 by @thatcreativityco

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a month ago

Every artist has heard it. 🙄

From a parent, a partner, a mate at the pub, a stranger on the internet. “When are you going to get a proper job?”

“It’s nice that you do that on the side.”

“Have you sold anything yet?”

Underneath all of those questions is the same belief. That art only counts once money changes hands.

I don’t buy it. And the history of art doesn’t either.

Van Gogh sold one painting in his lifetime. Emily Dickinson kept most of her poems in a drawer. Scott Fitzgerald died believing Gatsby was a failure.

These are the voices we now call great, and every single one of them was dismissed in their own time by people whose names nobody remembers.

The people deciding what sells are not the people deciding what lasts. And the person doubting your work right now is not qualified to tell you whether your work counts.

Your work is next in the line of work that lasts.

So make the work.

What do you say when someone tries to shrink your practice? by @thatcreativityco

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3 months ago

Take one and pass it on

our fav inspirations from IG and @pinterest this week by @thatcreativityco

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3 months ago

Just in case you needed to hear this today.

A lot of us are carrying self doubt around like it’s a personal failing. Like if we just worked harder, believed more, got up earlier, we’d stop feeling like we’re not enough. And I want to say, gently but directly, that’s not what’s going on.

We’ve been taught, most of our lives, that the creative path is self indulgent. That it’s not real work. That the struggle is our own fault for choosing it.

So when the doubt creeps in, when the burnout hits, when we’re staring at a blank page or an empty rehearsal room wondering what the point is, we turn it inward. We make it about us.

It’s not about us.

So many of us are brilliant. Genuinely, seriously, world class brilliant. And still we sit with this low hum of not enoughness that never quite switches off.

I’m currently reading We Need Your Art by @inspiredtowrite . Amie writes about the impostor syndrome, the perfectionism, the inner critic, the burnout. It’s a bloody beautifully helpful reaffirmation of what we do, and what calls to us.

Go find the book. Highly recommend. by @thatcreativityco

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3 months ago

Friday fire 🔥 Some of our favs from this week. Take, save, share what resonates. Leave the rest 😊

Via @pinterest
@maidenstudio
@wetheurban by @thatcreativityco

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4 months ago

A round up of our favourites from this week

Via @pinterest by @thatcreativityco

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5 months ago

I am at my Monthly Masterclass with @thatcreativityco as part of The Creative Collective.

We’ve been discussing the power of sharing our work, and the shame and fear that comes with it.

I’ve been sitting on something for a while that I want to share.

I’m committing to sharing more of my work and process as a creative.

This isn’t about me bragging, it’s about showing up. It’s about choosing visibility over hiding, even when that feels vulnerable.

It won’t be perfect, it might even be a bit crap at times, but I’m hoping through sharing we canget closer together as humans in a time when technology can make everything look great.

And maybe by sharing what I’m making I’m giving you permission to share what you’ve been holding back too.

Our work deserves to be seen. We deserve to be seen.

So every day I write about creativity, about being an artist and living as a creative. I am going to document this more and rather than delivering to you, share my process and behind the scenes.

Whether that is
running @babel_theatre
Coaching @thatcreativityco
Working on productions
Or teaching at conservatoirs

This is a messy post

But messy beats perfect 👌 by @thatcreativityco

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6 months ago