Secret Art Powers
A bookshop near you/buy online, (not a specified venue)
01/08/2025 - 31/12/2025
Production Details
By Jo Randerson (onzm)
Published by Barbarian Productions Ltd.
What secret powers do artists use daily? How might they help us navigate these complex, changing times? Celebrated artist Jo Randerson explores six creative mindsets which can help us dissolve unhealthy power relationships, communicate across difference and to sing while we do it.
“A brilliant and important book by one of New Zealand’s greatest creative minds.”- Bret McKenzie, Flight of the Concords
Sales Points:
• An inspiring call to creative thinking by a celebrated, multi-talented and award-winning Aotearoa NZ artist.
• A NZ feminist alternative to Alain de Botton or Malcolm Gladwell.
• A heartfelt and humorous argument for the value of Art and artists to society.
• Designed by Sarah Maxey and illustrated throughout.
Endorsement:
“Secret Art Powers is a wonderful gift: it feels like exactly what we all need right now and probably forever. It’s joyful and generous and affirming, by which I mean it makes you feel more real, which is such a relief. No one but Jo could do it.”- Freya Daly Sadgrove
“Inspiring, funny, profound, timely, challenging, nourishing… I loved it!… The technocentric world is closing in around us. The future is creativity. The future is in this book. Read it!”- Bret Mckenzie, Flight of the Conchords
Available from Barbarian website:
http://www.barbarian.co.nz/shop
SECRET ART POWERS: How creative thinking can achieve radical change
Author: Jo Randerson
RRP: $35
ISBN: 978-0-473-61397-6
Category: Non-fiction, philosophy, society, humanities.
Format: 198 x 156 mm Extent: 272 pages
Target Markets:
• Artists, arts patrons and audiences
• Readers interested in leadership and creative thinking
• Readers interested in spirituality and societal well being.
About the author:
Jo Randerson (onzm) is one of New Zealand’s most original voices. Her published works include short-story collections The Spit Children, Tales from The Netherworld, The Keys to Hell, the poetry volume The Wind Is Up and We’re On, and a number of plays including Fold, The Lead Wait, and The Unforgiven Harvest. Her writing has won her the Robert Burns Fellowship, an Arts Foundation New Generation Award, the Bruce Mason Award for playwrighting and the NZIFF Patrons Award for her first screenplay Hey, Brainy Man! Jo is artistic director of her own theatre company Barbarian Productions.
Design and cover art by Sarah Maxey
Illustrations crowd-sourced during 'drawing parties' by the creative team and their friends and family.
Theatre , Book , Dance-theatre ,
“I wish I could’ve read this book when I was in drama school”
Review by Chloe Jaques 25th Aug 2025
I pretty much eat the same thing every day. I hardly ever deviate from my preferred choice. It’s not that I don’t like change, it’s just the easiest option. One less thing to think about. One less thing to worry about.
Jo Randerson’s SECRET ART POWERS didn’t worry me but it sure did challenge me. It made me think about the why and the who and the what. And how. It made me think about sentence structures. It made me. Feel. I have free will. Full. Stop. How can I use this to the best advantage? But it’s actually not about winning. It’s about just existing. But. Not really. Jo says, “Let’s change it up; next time vote for Medusa. That’s the more creative choice.”
Choice is such a privilege. And art is power. We can choose to act. Or choose to do nothing. We can choose to watch Netflix. We can choose to stand up and be hopeful. Making art is an action and art is hope in action. This book truly awakened me to just how passive I’ve become when making choices. I often choose the same choice because it’s what I’ve always done. So I appreciate that Jo steadily takes us through six art powers and the ways in which we can utilise them to radicalise change. Change comes from choice, and choice starts with us. I would like to purchase some ‘Risky Territory’ shoes asap, thanks Jo!
It’s funny really. I’m currently working in the depths of corporate hell because maybe I am chasing money, or maybe I’m just too scared to try to be a full-time artist again. Maybe both. There are certainly no metaphors in meetings but I completely agree there should be. Either way, it does make me sad. Sad that maybe I have given up on my dream. Sad that I’ve succumbed to the capitalist rulers. Sad that I passively choose to take this path. But. Thankful that I chose to read this book. Thankful for some perspective and thankful for my choice.
I do feel safe though, reading Jo’s words. It feels like they’re sitting on my shoulder reading softly to me. Choose Medusa. Choose Medusa. I imagine Jo’s turquoise tracksuit and their spiky hair. They are cartoon-like and awesome. Open and vulnerable. They make me feel safe whilst also gently reminding me to lean in and at least choose a different breakfast! Just start somewhere!
In drama school I always got cast as the mother and I hated it. I didn’t feel seen. I felt lame. I felt like a bad actor. I got really depressed during that time and stopped eating. A choice, yes? A solution, no. It’s really useful to not win though! Or so I’ve been told. We can learn so much when we don’t win. And we can actually learn a lot from our mothers. I wish I could’ve read this book when I was in drama school – my clown would really have appreciated it.
To commit to my creative practice, I need to invest 30 minutes of my time. I need to start with choosing a different breakfast. I need to commit to speaking up more in meetings. I choose the meeting metaphors! I choose action. I choose change. Jo says, “A daily practice of disruption keeps the muscular habit of change alive.” I choose to eat the radish! Become the radish! I. Am. The. Radish. And I am radical and so are you!
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