Ceri Hand is a creative mentoring coach who has had an extensive career across the visual arts world, both within galleries and established institutions such as Somerset House and the Tate, as well as working with contemporary artists including Pipilotti Rist and Jeremy Deller. 

We caught up with Ceri to find out more about her career, her thoughts on the contemporary art world and what she is excited about for this year's Open.

You have had an amazing career across the visual arts world, from all this experience what do you see as the future of contemporary arts in the UK? 

The honest answer is that we are at an inflection point. The public funding ecosystem that sustained so much of what we know as contemporary art culture in the UK has been significantly weakened. The Arts Council has less to give. 

There seems to be an increasing misalignment between funders and the organisations and artists they might otherwise support. Individual giving has contracted with the cost-of-living crisis. And yet the work being made right now, by artists I see every week, is extraordinary. 

What I believe is this: the future belongs to artists who understand that the old gatekeeping model is crumbling, and that this is both terrifying and genuinely liberating. The future of the art world is increasingly direct to consumers. A growing number of artists are building meaningful, sustainable practices without waiting for an institution to validate them first. 

The artists who will shape what comes next are the ones who take their community seriously. Not community as a marketing strategy, but as the genuine ecology that sustains creative life. 

There are also urgent structural questions we cannot afford to ignore. We need to have a much more honest conversation about who gets access to resources, who is seen and supported by institutions, and how we shift money towards artists earlier in their careers before they burn out trying to survive the gap between making serious work and being paid seriously for it. A recent shift by funding bodies, deciding to withdraw from established organisations and instead invest in diverse-led ones, was uncomfortable for many and celebrated by others. I think this discomfort was necessary, and I think we need more of it. 

The future of contemporary art in the UK will be shaped by the artists, the communities, the independent curators, the passionate collectors, and the local authorities brave enough to make the case for culture as essential infrastructure. 

What do you think are some of the challenges facing artists in both creating and selling work – and what advice would you give them? 

In coaching thousands of artists, I have found that the challenges cluster into two territories that feed each other in a loop: inner blocks and outer barriers. Most career advice only addresses the outer ones. I care deeply about both. 

The inner challenges

The single biggest thing that holds artists back is fear dressed up as practical concern. Fear of being seen. Fear of rejection. Fear that the work is not good enough yet. Fear of what selling might mean about who they are as an artist.  

Here is what I say to that: confidence is the compound interest of a creative life. It builds slowly, through the repeated practice of showing up for your work and doing the next small thing. Rick Rubin puts it simply: finishing our work is a good habit to develop because it builds confidence. Not willpower. Not heroic effort. Confidence that comes from having conditions that allow you to finish, again and again. 

The outer challenges 

On the practical side, the challenges are real and I will not minimise them. Making a living from art is genuinely hard. Many artists spend years waiting to be discovered by a gallery when they could be building relationships directly with the people most likely to buy their work. 

The people most likely to buy your work are already within two degrees of separation. They are not abstract future collectors. They are real, warm, close. 

My advice is to start treating selling as an act of communication rather than commerce. When someone buys your work, they are saying: I see what you made, I value it, I want to live with it. That is not a transaction. That is a relationship. 

The single most important piece of advice 

Stop waiting for permission. Build your own champions. Cultivate ten people who genuinely believe in your work, in your life as it is now, before you have a gallery, before you have a major commission, before you feel ready. Build those relationships with curiosity and generosity, not need. Go to other people's openings. Follow up thoughtfully. Send a note of thanks to a funder even when you don't need anything. These small, consistent acts of human connection are the invisible infrastructure of a sustainable creative career. And the artists who do this, who really commit to it as a practice, are the ones who are still making work twenty years later. 

What excites you about being part of the 173 Annual Open selection panel? 

Being asked to join the selection panel for the 173rd Annual Open is a real honour, and honestly, one of the best kinds of work there is. Looking at art, genuinely sitting with it, arguing for it, being surprised by it, is something I never take for granted. I do it every day in my coaching and curatorial life, and it still gives me that same charge it always has. 

An artist makes something, believes in it enough to submit it, and the work speaks directly. That kind of courage deserves to be met with real attention, and I intend to give it exactly that. 

The RWA's emphasis on sales and sustainability matters to me enormously. Helping artists earn from their practice is not separate from the cultural conversation, it is central to it. Over £150,000 in sales at last year's show is a figure worth celebrating loudly. 

I cannot wait to get into the selection room with Sheryll, Paul, Hamish, Angela, Katie and Sarah. It is going to be a brilliant, lively process, and I am here for all of it. 

To any artist considering submitting, I want to say this: do it. Don't talk yourself out of it by convincing yourself the work isn't ready. The RWA's Annual Open has genuinely launched careers and connected artists with collectors who went on to support their practice for years. An exhibition like this is not just a display opportunity; it is an active sales platform, a chance to get your work in front of over 10,000 visitors, and a reason to invite your own champions, collectors, and supporters to come and see it. 

Find out more and submit your work to the 173 Annual Open Exhibition. Deadline for applications is 22 June 2026.