Meet Anita Kucharczyk

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anita Kucharczyk a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Anita, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience comes from motivation, having clear goals, and maintaining a big-picture perspective beyond whatever challenge is immediately in front of me. I’ve learned that struggle is inevitable—if there’s no struggle, things tend to become boring quickly. While I don’t enjoy the struggle itself, I’ve accepted it as part of the journey.

What keeps me going is remembering what I’m striving for and knowing that every small improvement eventually leads me closer to my destination. The most important thing is clarity about where you want to go and what you want to achieve. Once you have that clarity, you’ll find a way to get there, and obstacles won’t seem insurmountable. It might sound cliché, but this approach has served me well so far.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m passionate about two main areas of my career: working as a Creative Director at The Experiential Co. (TEC) and developing my practice as a fine artist.

At TEC, where I’ve worked for the past six years, every project is unique, which constantly challenges us to find innovative approaches. For example, we transformed a ballroom ceiling in Washington DC into a Sistine Chapel-inspired masterpiece for a private event, and created a projection-mapped opening ceremony for the Philadelphia Phillies that told the story of the team and the city right on the baseball field. It never gets boring, though it can push creativity to its limits, especially during busy seasons. What keeps me motivated is responding to our clients’ needs, brainstorming with fellow creatives and technologists to find the best solutions, and traveling on-site for project installations.

As a fine artist, I’m currently working on a solo exhibition exploring the theme of the duality of immigrant experience. Working with oil paintings on canvas and objects, I’m creating a series that captures the sensation of living between two worlds—a direct response to my journey in the US since moving here in 2019. Additionally, over the past several years as a member of Tiger Strikes Asteroid, a non-profit artist collective, I’ve curated two group exhibitions featuring Polish artists and co-curated several more for international cultural exchanges in our gallery at the Bendix Building in Downtown Los Angeles. I particularly enjoy when artists travel to LA for their openings—it’s incredibly rewarding to introduce them to US audiences and facilitate these cultural connections.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Looking back over my ten years in this field, three elements have been particularly transformative in my career.

First, I’m deeply grateful for my traditional fine art training in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. This foundation gave me a solid understanding of lighting, composition, and color theory that I apply daily across all my work. Whether commercial or fine art, the goal is always to create strong visual impact, and having training in color theory, composition, and a vast library of art historical references that can create dialogue with the past only serves new projects in a positive way.

Second, staying curious has been crucial for acquiring new skills. After two years in the Painting department, I decided to simultaneously pursue studies in New Media. This dual education expanded my expertise into animation, photography, and video creation—skills that prove invaluable in my current work.

Third, participating in international projects has profoundly shaped my worldview and cultural understanding. Over the years, I’ve had opportunities to work on projects across the US, in Japan, India, and Poland, to name a few. Observing how people from different backgrounds think and solve problems has been educational in ways I never expected. It keeps you humble, adaptable, and open-minded.

For those early in their journey, I’d recommend: embrace traditional foundations in your field, never stop being curious about adjacent skills, and seek international or cross-cultural experiences whenever possible.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

I deeply value clients who demonstrate trust in our capabilities and creative vision. Our most successful projects happen when clients or agencies approach us with a project brief and then give us creative freedom to develop both the conceptual and technical aspects from start to finish.

This trust allows us to dive deeper into the project, plan comprehensively, and offer truly bespoke solutions. When clients are open to our expertise and willing to let us take creative ownership, we can deliver our most innovative and impactful work. It’s a collaborative relationship built on mutual respect and shared commitment to excellence.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://anitakucharczyk.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anita_kucharczyk/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-experiential-co/
• Other: https://tec.design/
  https://www.instagram.com/theexperiential/
  https://www.tigerstrikesasteroid.com/

Image Credits

Profile picture and picture 8 by Dylan Roscover, Artwork pictures: courtesy of the artist (animation stills 1 and 4 derived from Vigeland’s sculptures | 3 and 7 derived from Caravaggio’s paintings | 6 derived from Rodin’s sculpture | 2 and 5 oil paintings).