Arts To Hearts Podcast

The creative economy is worth nearly $10 trillion. So why do most artists never see a cent of it?
That's the question Charuka Arora, founder of Arts to Hearts Project, brings to Nina Orm in Episode 6 of Season 6. Nina, founder of Creativity Meets Capital, has spent her career across finance, entrepreneurship, and politics and is now building the financial infrastructure the art world never gave its artists.
Her argument is simple and a little uncomfortable: artists aren't broken because they're bad at business. They're broke because nobody ever built them a system. Galleries take 50% (sometimes 70%). Art schools teach craft but not contracts. And the "starving artist" gets romanticised instead of paid.
This is one of the most practical money conversations we've had on the show.
We cover:
Where the trillions in the art world actually go and why so little reaches artists
Why the gallery model is built the way it is, by design
The "starving artist" myth, and why Nina wants it gone
The one financial habit every artist should start today
The 10-10-10 rule for creatives who don't have a big income to play with
Why multiple income streams protect your creative freedom
How to read a P&L and why you're already a business
Ownership, copyright, and why "the law is what makes things real"
Whether you've never sold a piece or you're already earning from your work, this episode hands you a system for your money and a backbone for your career.

So, grab a coffee and a notebook you'll want to take notes on this one.

Artists create the work. But do they really understand the business behind it?
In Episode 6 of Season 6, Arts to Hearts founder Charuka Arora is joined by Nina Orm, founder of Creativity Meets Capital, for a powerful conversation about the side of the art world many creatives are never taught to navigate: contracts, copyrights, ownership, licensing, negotiations, and the decisions that can shape a career long after a deal is signed.
Many artists spend years mastering their craft, yet very few are taught how to protect their work, understand their rights, or confidently navigate the financial and legal realities of the creative industry.
Together, Charuka and Nina explore why understanding the business of art is no longer optional, what artists should know before signing agreements, and how ownership and knowledge can become some of the most powerful tools in a creative career.
Because making great work is only part of the story.
Understanding how to protect it is the other.
And if you've ever felt intimidated by contracts, confused by copyright, or unsure how the business side of art really works, this episode is for you.
Tune in this Tuesday for the full conversation.

There's a question that follows almost every artist. Some days you barely notice it. Other days it's the loudest thing in the room. But it's always there: Will I ever make it?
Will anyone see my work? Will I ever become the artist I imagine myself to be? And the hardest part there's no report card, no promotion, no guaranteed timeline. Just you, your work, and a lot of uncertainty.
In this solo episode, Charuka Arora Founder of Arts to Hearts Project talks through the question every artist is too afraid to say out loud and the quiet myths we carry about what "making it" is supposed to look like. After working with thousands of artists through Arts to Hearts Project, she's noticed something: most artists don't quit because they lack talent. They quit because they're exhausted by the story, they're telling themselves about where they should be.
This is an honest, gentle conversation about success, comparison, burnout, and the small belief that keeps real artists going.
In this episode:
Why most artists are struggling with uncertainty, not with their art
The guilt of doing "five jobs at once" and why the system was never built to be kept up with
Myth #1: that success happens overnight (and what's really underneath every "overnight" story)
Myth #2: that success looks the same for everyone
Myth #3: that more is always better
Why play and "bad work" matter more than strategy
How to let jealousy become a compass instead of a wound
The one question worth more than "Will I ever make it?"
If you've ever felt behind, invisible, or quietly afraid you'll never get there this one's for you.
Press play. Then go make the thing you'd make even if nobody noticed.

For most of her creative life, Charuka Arora Founder of Arts to Hearts Project believed creative success belonged to a certain kind of person people from the right city, the right family, the right circles. She did not see herself in that picture. A decade of building Arts to Hearts Project changed her mind.
After six years of building Arts to Hearts Project and interviewing more than 200 artists, curators, gallerists, and art fair founders, she has come to say something out loud: she was completely wrong. In this episode of Season 6 of the Arts to Hearts Podcast, Charuka walks listeners through the evidence that changed her mind and the one pattern she keeps seeing on repeat in every person who has built something real in the creative world.
She also shares the hardest part of her own story pulling herself together to show up for this podcast and this community in the weeks after losing her mom in 2021 and why those days ended up mattering more than she understood at the time.
The episode explores:
Why 90 percent of the successful people she has interviewed came from no privilege at all
The real reason some artists' careers suddenly "compound" after years of nothing
Why commitment to one direction beats waiting to find the perfect one
How a simple collage series she emailed outsold within three days
The two kinds of people who see a problem and which one actually builds a career
What she would say to anyone sitting in a corner right now thinking this isn't for them
This conversation feels less like career advice and more like an honest reminder that meaningful creative work is usually built slowly, quietly, and long before anybody else notices it.
If you have ever felt behind, late, small, or unqualified for the life you want this episode is the permission slip you didn't know you were waiting for.

What if creative success has nothing to do with being born in the “right” place, having connections, money, or belonging in certain rooms?
In Episode 4 of Season 6, founder of Arts to Hearts Project, Charuka Arora, will talk about the difficult realities behind building a creative life rejection, grief, uncertainty, showing up with no results, and continuing anyway.
From growing Arts to Hearts from a simple Instagram blog into a global creative platform to navigating self-doubt, loss, and years of invisible work, this conversation is for every artist, writer, photographer, collector, and creative who has ever questioned whether they’re capable of making it.
Because the real question isn’t whether the path is hard.
It’s whether you’re willing to keep walking it anyway.
And if you’re sitting somewhere right now feeling lost, discouraged, or ready to give up, this conversation is for you.

Tune in this Tuesday, June 9, 2026, for the complete conversation.