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Not sure about the penultimate sentence of instructions. Does “(a) the above” refer to the first unclued entry, or to all thematic and spaced entries?

I assumed the message given by the first and last characters of the ten non-jumbled thematic clues split into two. The first three words referred to the unclued word generated by the jumbles, the remainder to the other unclued word

Thanks quisling, I’ll proceed with that assumption.

Can someone please explain if the 1st and last characters of the unjumbled thematic clues are 1st and last of whole clue or thematic number in clue, and if they are read in order or must have some action performed on them because mine don't make sense and include a couple of digits.

I'm equally confused. Is it significant that 6 of the 8 unfilled grey cells (centre row) can be filled to make new words? Or is this a happy coincidence?!

I think that as Encota says "characters" the 3 and 6 are to be part of the message. I have the message before the numbers(5,2,3) but nothing after. So maybe that's it? Although the title seems to suggest I might be missing something...

And I'm confused too. I'm not confident I have all the thematic clues (clues where we need the 1st and last characters) - I have assumed they are the ones which refer either to the thematic names, or their artistic creations?

I actually have a full grid, including the middle silvered row, but this row is guess work - yet makes some thematic sense.

Lulu666, you read the first characters of those ten clues in order for an instruction for (a) and then the last characters in clue order for (b). The digits then make sense.

Lulu666
My reply to your query - the whole clue.
Reading each first letter, then each second letter, gives a prompt to one across.
The blurb says “characters” so numbers are in order.

I've never given up on an Inquisitor before, but this one is being cast aside. I have an idea of what is going on, but I really can't be bothered with it. The incomprehensible preamble was a bad start, and I am no fan of the theme.