Founders Laura Harper Lake and Sarah Wrightsman began the Creative Guts Podcast in the spring of 2019, interviewing creatives of all different disciplines and releasing episodes for free. Observing a need for further events and programming that would serve the creative community in New Hampshire, and to create an organization that would live beyond the founders’ tenure, Creative Guts evolved into a nonprofit in 2021. In 2023, Creative Guts was honored as the recipient for the 2023 NH Governor’s Arts Award for Creative Communities. The NH Governor’s Arts Awards publicly recognize outstanding contributions to the state’s arts and cultural life made by individuals, organizations, and communities and are given every other year. 

Creative Guts’ mission is to awaken creativity within people of all ages by curating an environment for connection, collaboration, and the opportunity for gutsy creatives to share their stories with the world. Creative Guts’ program of work is rooted in creating opportunities for people to share their creativity, collaborate and connect with one another, and feel empowered and encouraged to explore their creativity.

Creative Guts serves practicing creatives of all disciplines by offering opportunities for them to share their work and tell their stories through the podcast, zines, events, tiny art exchanges, and more. The organization’s goal is to strike a balance between curated opportunities (e.g., the zines and the podcast) and opportunities that are open to all (e.g. tiny art exchanges, open mics). 

Additionally, Creative Guts aims to serve those that don’t yet identify as creatives by offering programming that aims to unleash the inner artist in all. Our goal is to welcome everyone to the Creative Guts’ community and empower and encourage people of all ages to flex their creative muscles.