WHO WORKS AT ART MUSEUMS?

DEMOGRAPHICS[1]

are women
25% of employees are men and 9% identify as non-binary/other gender

are Millennials or Gen Z
36% are Gen X or Boomers. This is near opposite the age profile of museum leadership.

identify as BIPOC
67% of employees are White. BIPOC proportion of employees is down 3% since 2023.

identify as BIPOC
67% of employees are White. BIPOC proportion of employees is down 3% since 2023.

TENURES[2]

Average 9.3 years in the field.
Average 6 years at current museum.
Male and white employees have slightly longer tenure in field and at current institution.

BY ROLE[3]

Among museum leadership, 66% are women, and 80% are White.
77% of Collections staff are White.
47% of Building Operations staff are POC.

Sources

[1] Museums Moving Forward. "Report on Workplace Equity and Organizational Culture in US Art Museums." Oct. 2025. https://museumsmovingforward.com/data-studies/2024-2025/report/who-we-heard-from
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ithaca S+R and Mellon Foundation. “Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey 2022” November 2022. https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/art-museum-staff-demographic-survey-2022/ The survey defines “museum leadership” as “directors, deputy directors, chief executives, chief finance officers, and chief technology officers”.

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MUSEUM’S MISSIONS HAVE CHANGED

We’ve analyzed art museum mission statements.
Almost all American art museums now center the public in their missions.

Three or four decades ago, most American art museums defined their purpose around the idea of collecting and preserving objects for the benefit of the public.

Today, most museums define their purpose in terms of engaging and connecting the public through art. Nearly 60% of American art museums now define their mission in terms of serving the public without even mentioning their collections; another 30% define their missions as a balance between the public and their collection. Only 11% still center objects at the heart of their mission.

WHAT DATA DO THEY SHARE WITH THE PUBLIC?

Despite this shift, it is not always easy for the public to access museum data. We asked art museums if they share number of visitors and financial statements:

  • 43% share neither
  • 40% share one or the other
  • 17% share both

Read Museum Missions & Transparency for more about museums and their evolving missions.

MUSEUM MISSION AND TRANSPARENCY
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HOW MUCH DO ART MUSEUMS SPEND PER VISITOR?

From Remuseum’s database on 153 major American art museums.

With some interesting differences based on size, local MSA, and whether or not they charge for general admission:

Read Remuseum’s Access, Scale & Market Share for more data insights and find out how real museums are building broader audiences.

ACCESS, SHARE & MARKET SCALE
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TRENDS IN MUSEUM DIRECTOR LEADERSHIP

Anecdotal feedback from search firms suggests museum director vacancies are getting harder to fill. While more vacancies may be on the horizon.

Director pool is aging

  • The median age of a museum director is just under age 55 [1]
  • 21% of directors are 65 and older, up 11% from 2017 [2]

Length of tenure may be reducing

Recruiters report that directors used to spend 15-20 years in a role[3], which could be shortening due in part to the pace, level of change and evolving difficulty of roles.

  • More directors with backgrounds in education/ community engagement
  • More internal hires for continuity
  • Hiring for local engagement
Sources

[1] American Alliance of Museums. 2024. "Museum Board Leadership: a National Report, 2024." April 23, 2024. https://www.aam-us.org/2024/04/23/2024-museum-board-leadership-a-national-report/
[2] American Alliance of Museums. 2018. "Museum Board Leadership: a National Report, 2017." January 19, 2018. https://www.aam-us.org/2018/01/19/museum-board-leadership-2017-a-national-report/
[3] Halperin, Julia. 2023. "Does the search for US museum leaders lack transparency?" The Art Newspaper. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/09/01/does-the-search-for-us-museum-leaders-lack-transparency

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GENERATIONAL CHANGES IN PHILANTHROPY

DID YOU KNOW?

$84.4 trillion in assets is expected to move from the Silent and Baby Boomer generations to descendants[1].

This historic transfer of wealth is affecting who gives money and how:

Arts and culture don’t appear on the top three list of giving priorities for younger generations.[2]

“Next-gen” philanthropists are:

  • Skeptical about arts’ impact
  • Looking for transparency on how their money is used
  • Expecting collaborative donor relationships

Young people are interested in non-traditional models beyond fundraising[3], like:

  • impact investing
  • peer giving collectives
  • direct artist support
Sources

[1] World Economic Forum. 2024. "The 'Great Wealth Transfer': What is it and how can women make the most of it?" https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/07/women-inheritance-great-wealth-transfer/
[2] Giving USA. 2025. "Giving USA Special Report: Giving By Generation." https://store.givingusa.org/products/giving-usa-special-report-giving-by-generations-2025
[3] MCW Projects. 2022. "Understanding Next-Gen Funders | How can museums thrive in the next era of private cultural philanthropy?" https://www.mcw-projects.com/insights2020/2022/7/21/point-of-viewm-museum-magazine-understanding-next-gen-funders-how-can-museums-thrive-in-the-next-era-of-private-cultural-philanthropy

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WHO IS VISITING AMERICAN ART MUSEUMS?

And how do they compare to the general population?

Museum visitor data from Collaboration for Ongoing Visitor Experience Studies (COVESArt Museums).Data on the U.S. population comes from 2020-2023 census data.

RACE

White visitation is over-represented vs theU.S. population, and non-white visitation is under-represented (except among Asian/AsianAmericans).

AGE

Contrary to popular belief, art museums attract a higher percentage of young adults compared to their role in the population. Visitors over 45 are under-represented in museum audiences.

EDUCATION LEVELS

Education levels represent the biggest gap between museum visitors and the general population. Those without college degrees makeup 39% of the population, but only 7% of museum visitors.

HOUSEHOLD INCOME

Higher income visitors are over-represented among museum visitors, compared to households with income less than $50,000 a year. Museums attract middle-class households at levels close to their national averages.

Read Remuseum’s Case Studies in Innovation: Audience Development for more data insights and find out how real museums are building broader audiences.

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT
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demographic trends
in museum boards

museum boards are aging

  • The average art museum trustee is 68 years old.
  • In contrast, 74% of the U.S. population is under 60.
  • Museum trustees are older than average nonprofit trustees (only 43% of whom are over the age of 55).[3]

of museum trustees are over age 50[1], up 8% since 2017[2]

young trustees bring unique characteristics

  • Boards with higher percentages of members aged 39 and younger are more involved.
  • They are more likely to ask others for donations, have concrete fundraising expectations and provide more fundraising contacts[4].

Boards are almost Half Female

  • Nearing U.S. population, 52% female

of Museum trustees are female, up 4% vs. 2017

Racial diversity is up

  • 23% of boards report having only white members, down from 46% in 2017
  • Museum boards remain less diverse than the U.S. population, which is 56% non-Hispanic white
  • Non-White museum trustees are younger, with an average age of 58[5].

of Museum board members are white, down 7.9% vs. 2017

Sources

[1] American Alliance of Museums. 2024. "Museum Board Leadership: a National Report, 2024." April 23, 2024. https://www.aam-us.org/2024/04/23/2024-museum-board-leadership-a-national-report/
[2] American Alliance of Museums. 2018. "Museum Board Leadership: a National Report, 2017." January 19, 2018. https://www.aam-us.org/2018/01/19/museum-board-leadership-2017-a-national-report/
[3] BoardSource. 2021. "Leading with Intent: BoardSource Index of Nonprofit Board Practices." https://leadingwithintent.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/2021-Leading-with-Intent-Report.pdf
[4] Lilly Family School of Philanthropy with Johnson Grossnickle + Associates and BoardSource. 2018. "The Impact of Diversity: Understanding How Nonprofit Board Diversity Affects Philanthropy, Leadership, and Board Engagement." https://scholarworks.indianapolis.iu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/fa039f5c-a986-4ee4-8a60-186078d1fafe/content
[5] Black Trustee Alliance and Ithaka S+R. "2022 Art Museum Trustee Survey: The Characteristics, Roles and Experience of Black Trustees." 2022. https://sr.ithaka.org/publications/the-bta-2022-art-museum-trustee-survey/

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HOW MUCH HAVE MUSEUM COLLECTIONS GROWN?

A 2018 survey by the Association of Art Museum Directors reported that their roughly 200 member museums (representing most of the country’s largest art museums) held over 16 million objects [1] at that time. Applying an annual growth rate of 2% (which may be low[2]), we estimate they hold around 18 million objects today.

AND HOW MUCH DO THEY COST?

A 2002 study estimated the cost of storing those 9 million objects in 1988 (square footage and capital costs) to be just over $200 million[3]. Adjusted for inflation and collection growth, the equivalent cost in 2025 would be $1.1 billion. Applying a formula by museum architect GeorgeHartman in the same period (1988)[4], the cost of storing/maintaining the 18 million objects today might be $2.8 billion or more.

One museum conducted thorough internal research into the total costs of its own collection (including indirect/staffing costs). Using their 2017 estimate of $106 per object, and adjusting for inflation, we can estimate 18 million objects would cost at least $2.4billion.

DID YOU KNOW?

These costs represent between 28-70% of overall museum budgets?

Sources:

[1] “Art Museums By the Numbers 2018.” Association of Art Museum Directors. https://aamd.org/our-members/from-the-field/art-museums-by-the-numbers-2018
[2] Robin Pogrebin. “Clean House to Survive? Museums Confront Their Crowded Basements.” The New York Times, March 12, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/10/arts/museum-art-quiz.html
[3] Ann Stone. “Treasures in the Basement An Analysis of Collection Utilization in Art Museums” Rand Corporation. 2002. https://www.rand.org/pubs/rgs_dissertations/RGSD160.htm
[4] Gretchen G. Bank, “Determining the Cost: Architect George Hartman’s Formula,” Museum News, Vol. 66(5), 1988, p. 74.

Read More Art for More People in More Places for more data on the growth of collections, and case studies for how museums are using collections differently to better serve the public.

MORE ART FOR MORE PEOPLE IN MORE PLACES
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Kimerly Rorschach

Kimerly Rorschach was the Interim Director and CEO of the Seattle Art Museum in 2023-2024, having previously served as the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Director and CEO for seven years, until her retirement in 2019. Prior to that, she was director of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University (2004-2012) and the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago (1994-2004).
 
At the Seattle Art Museum, Rorschach built and diversified the collection and exhibition program, presenting groundbreaking exhibitions including Disguise: Masks and Global African Art (2015), Chiho Aoshima: Rebirth of the World (2015), and Figuring History: Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas (2018), among many others. She also established an increased focus on local and regional artists within the context of global collections and programs, and built wide-ranging partnerships in Seattle’s fast-growing and increasingly diverse communities. Under her leadership, the museum also centered and elevated its work around equity and inclusion, a top priority in the museum’s strategic planning and board and staff recruitment. She led a $150M campaign to strengthen the museum’s endowment, and to fund a major renovation and expansion of the historic Seattle Asian Art Museum, one of SAM’s three sites.
 
At Duke and the University of Chicago, Rorschach provided transformational leadership, raising the profile of these university museums and advocating for the unique value of the arts in higher education. She was the founding director of the Nasher Museum at Duke, quickly establishing it as a top university art museum with a distinctive program and supporting the creation of a groundbreaking contemporary collection focusing on artists of color. Throughout her career, she has made it a priority to mentor students and first-time museum directors.
 
Rorschach holds a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and a PhD in art history from Yale. She is a past president of the Association of Art Museum Directors. Rorschach also serves on the advisory board of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, and she is the current Board President of the American Federation of Arts in New York.

Juli Goss

As the Chief Strategy Officer at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Juli Goss builds a culture of data-driven decision making. She founded the team conducting research and evaluation internally and has since launched the museum’s Center for Audience Research & Evaluation, a group who contracts with arts and cultural organizations across the nation to help them learn, grow, and create better audience experiences through data. Goss leads the organization’s internal and external research, strategic planning and measurement, and database analytics and has served as expert advisor on numerous nationwide research and evaluation studies across art and science museums. She holds an M.A. in Educational Studies from Tufts University and a B.A in History from Hendrix College.

Martha Winans Slaughter

After training at the Museum Studies Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Martha served as a curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and then moved into leadership positions as Director and Curator of the Herron Art Gallery at the Indiana University Herron School of Art & Design; Executive Director of the Evanston Art Center; and then Executive Director of the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. Martha later translated these experiences into board service, first at KMAC (founded as the Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft) where she served as both Board Chair and Interim Director, and later at the Speed Art Museum (where she also served as Board Chair) and Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, where she serves As Vice President of the Board of Trustees following service as Visual Arts Coordinator and director of Bernheim’s artist’s residency program. She brings a rare combination of expertise as a curator, institutional leader, and expert in board governance.

Vivian Zavataro

Vivian Zavataro is the Executive and Creative Director of the Ulrich Museum of Art. She is a museologist who specializes in contemporary art, community engagement, and audience-centric curatorial practices. Zavataro successfully led museums through fundraising campaigns, strategic planning, accreditation processes, exhibition and program development, and financial evaluations. 
Before accepting her appointment at the Ulrich Museum of Art, Zavataro was the Director and Chief Curator of the John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art at the University of Nevada, Reno. During her tenure, she established an operational endowment, grew the museum annual budget and staff, created a robust internship program, expanded and diversified the museum’s audience, led the strategic planning and accreditation processes, brought the museum’s storage up to standards, mentored staff in museum practices and policies, drafted and adopted all core documents, and initiated important partnerships with local institutions and other colleges on campus. 
Prior to her leadership roles, Zavataro worked at different capacities at renowned arts organizations, such as documenta in Kassel, Germany, the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, NV, SFMOMA in San Francisco, CA, and the J. Paul Getty Foundation in Los Angeles, CA. Her exhibitions have been funded by major national entities, such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the Terra Foundation for American Art. She holds a Masters in Heritage and Museum Studies from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and is currently pursuing her PhD in Curatorial Studies at the Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland. 

Scott Stulen

Scott Stulen is the CEO and President of Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Stulen is the former Curator of Audience Experiences and Performance at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, now Newfields, Project Director of mnartists.org at the Walker Art Center and Associate Curator at the Rochester Art Center. He is also a practicing visual artist, curator, writer, and DJ. Stulen has an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Minnesota and a BFA in Sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. At the Walker, Stulen co-curated and developed the Open Field project, reframing the museum as public park, town square and platform for experimentation, including the first Internet Cat Video Festival. At the IMA he created the first Audience Experience and Performance curatorial department in the country, launched the ARTx program, commissioned new performances and site-specific installations, and launching new earned-income initiatives to welcome diverse audiences. 
Now at Philbrook, Stulen is guiding the museum to become a recognized national model of sustainability, relevance, and community impact. Through his leadership Philbrook has diversified the collection, added dozens of new programs and revenue platforms, and established the museum as inclusive, welcoming, and accessible the community. He is currently leading the first major building addition to the campus in nearly 30 years, a programming pavilion nestled in Philbrook’s gardens slated to open in 2025.

Stacey Shelnut-Hendrick

Stacey Shelnut-Hendrick has over 30 years of museum experience focused on museum-community integration, object-based learning and engagement, and audience development.  Holding key positions at the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Crocker Art Museum, and as Executive Director of the Star-Spangled Banner Museum, Stacey is known for creating innovative programming that redefines how museums serve, support, and work in concert with their communities.  A provocateur within her profession, Stacey has received numerous awards and honors, including being named a 2022 Exceptional Women of Color (EWOC) Honoree and the 2017 Museum Educator of the Year by the National Association of Art Education.  Stacey is one of the founders of the Forum for Leadership in Art Museum Education (FLAME) and continues to serve on FLAME’s national leadership team.  
Currently, Stacey Shelnut-Hendrick is the Deputy Director of Public Engagement and Learning at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, where she hopes to be part of a broad museum movement, that leaves no doubt that museums can be relevant, just, and essential to all.

Adam Levine


Adam M. Levine, the Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey director of the Toledo Museum of Art and a scholar of ancient art, is a transformative leader with a deep conviction that art inspires and museums are change agents. Levine is the 11th director of TMA since its distinguished founding in 1901.
Prior to embarking on his directorship at TMA in 2020, Levine was the George W. and Kathleen I. Gibbs director and chief executive officer of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida. Under his leadership at the Cummer Museum, Levine oversaw numerous strategic initiatives, including the reconstruction of its historic gardens, expansion of its educational offerings and the implementation of innovative membership and audience development programs with dramatic gains in visitorship.
Levine originally joined TMA in 2012 as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, a two-year post-doctoral program designed to prepare the next generation of museum leaders, and went on to increasingly senior management roles at the museum, ultimately serving as deputy director and curator of ancient art. During his six-year tenure at TMA, Levine curated a diverse range of exhibitions, advanced the Museum’s first campus master plan, and shared oversight of TMA’s $16 million budget and 250 employees.
Levine graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College, where he majored in anthropology, art history, and mathematics & social science. He continued his studies as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he earned his master’s degree with distinction and D.Phil. in the history of art. He has published widely and is a frequent presenter on topics ranging from ancient art and interpretive strategies, to museum and management practices.
Combining his interests in mathematics and art, in 2009 he co-founded Art Research Technologies, a data and research company that has since gained a following in the commercial art world. He founded the Global Database of Antiquities the same year and has previously consulted for several departments at Sotheby’s and for Art & Auction Magazine, for which he provided quantitative analysis of the art market.

Colleen Jennings-Roggensack

Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, arts leader and visionary is Vice President for Cultural Affairs for Arizona State University and Executive Director of ASU Gammage. Jennings- Roggensack established the ASU Gammage organizational mission of Connecting Communities™ which allows ASU Gammage to go beyond its doors to make a difference in the community through the shared experience of the arts.
As Arizona’s only Tony Awards® voter and Vice Chair of the Road for The Broadway League Board of Governors, Jennings-Roggensack has made a lasting impact on the Valley and nationally through arts advocacy. She also serves on the Black Theatre United Summit and the 7G Committee. Jennings-Roggensack is a founding member and Vice Chair of Creative Capital Board and Senior Advisor to Women of Color in the Arts, former Association of Performing Arts Professionals board president, served on the National Council on the Arts at the bequest of President Clinton. and is a Life Director of the Fiesta Bowl.
She is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2023 Distinguished Award from The Broadway League, 2021 Arizona’s 48 Most Intriguing Women, 2021 City of Tempe Arts and Culture Community Impactor, 2020 National Coalition of 100 Black Women Education Legend, 2019 Valley Leadership Woman of the Year, 2019 ASU West Pioneer Award, National Society of Arts and Letters Medallion of Merit, Valle del Sol’s Mom of the Year, 2017 Halsey and Alice North Board Alumni Award, Association of Performing Arts Presenters’ Fan Taylor Award, Black Philanthropy Initiative Honor, The Broadway League’s Outstanding Presenter and Arizona’s Governor’s Arts Award. In 2012, The Arizona Republic recognized Colleen for Arizona’s 100th Anniversary as one of the individuals who had the greatest impact in the era.
Jennings-Roggensack has artistic, fiscal and administrative responsibility for the historic Frank Lloyd Wright designed ASU Gammage, ASU Kerr, with responsibility for Mountain America Stadium and Desert Financial Arena for non-athletic activities. She oversees the activation and transformation of Mountain America Stadium into a year-round hub of cultural activity as ASU 365 Community Union. In 2020, Colleen was also appointed by ASU President Michael Crow to co-lead the Advisory Council on African American Affairs.

Diane Jean-Mary

Diane Jean-Mary (she/her) is a cultural executive with a personal mission to shift society’s lens to preserve, protect, and invest in marginalized communities. Diane is Executive Director of Black Trustee Alliance, a nonprofit organization committed to advancing racial justice in the arts. In this role, Diane oversees all aspects of BTA’s growth and organizational development—building and activating the Black trustee community, developing tools for effective leadership, and publishing insights and guidelines to inform the field at large. 
A speaker at 100+ presentations, workshops, and retreats, Diane brings transformative discourse to the creative sector, exploring a range of topics such as the future of cultural experience, the makings of fandom and consumer activism, post-pandemic trends in corporate social responsibility, restorative capital and reparative justice, Black voices for the future of culture and creativity, and more. 
Prior to joining BTA, Diane served as a principal strategy consultant fueling organizational capacity in the areas of brand strategy, growth scaling, and social impact. In earlier roles, Diane headed up cultural agency LaPlaca Cohen as Partner & Chief Strategy Officer, influenced corporate strategy in a first-of-its-kind music streaming analytics and partnership development team at Sony Music Entertainment, and served as a Senior Management Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. 
Diane earned a B.A. in Economics and Latin American/Caribbean Studies from Columbia University, with a concentration in Film Studies. She holds professional certifications in Positive Psychology (University of Pennsylvania), International Business (Georgetown University) and Narrative Filmmaking (FAMU Film School of Prague).  
Outside of her work as a cultural leader, Diane maintains a life-long creative practice as a film writer and director. 
Diane is a strong believer in finding communities that help us flourish:  
Harvard Business School SVMP and MLT have given her the gift of peer leaders, entrepreneurs, and change-makers of color all striving for greatness. 
Eric Jordan Tennis, Team WRK, and OPEX Brooklyn have coached her to find strength in challenge, go after goals that scare her and have a hell of a good time while doing so. 
Ghetto Film School and FilmShop are her film families, nurturing her creative voice and providing accountability, critique, and support for her work.

Daniel Hemel

Daniel Hemel joined the New York University School of Law in June 2022 as a Professor of Law. His wide-ranging research explores topics in taxation, intellectual property, administrative and constitutional law, and nonprofit organizations. He has published more than fifty scholarly articles and essays in law reviews and economics journals, including in the Columbia Law Review, NYU Law Review, Stanford Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Journal of Economic Perspectives, and National Tax Journal. His academic work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, multiple federal courts of appeals, and the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States.
In addition to his scholarly writing, Hemel has published dozens of essays and op-eds on tax policy, constitutional law, and current events in leading national newspapers, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. He has testified before Congress and the California State Assembly on tax topics, and he has assisted U.S. senators, House members, and state lawmakers in drafting tax legislation. He is a co-editor of the Journal of Legal Analysis, and he serves on the Board of Directors of the National Tax Association and the Environmental Law Institute.
Hemel graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College and earned an M.Phil with distinction in International Relations at University of Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He then earned his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, he served as visiting counsel at the Joint Committee on Taxation and clerked for Judge Michael Boudin on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Judge Sri Srinivasan on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan on the U.S. Supreme Court. He has held visiting professorships at Harvard Law School and Stanford Law School, and he served for seven years on the University of Chicago faculty, where he was a Professor of Law and Ronald H. Coase Research Scholar.

Sam Gill

Sam Gill is the third president and CEO of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF), a New York-headquartered, national philanthropic organization that supports the performing arts, medical research, the environment, and child well-being. He also serves as president of several operating foundations that run under DDCF’s umbrella, including the Duke Farms Foundation, which operates a center for environmental stewardship in Hillsborough, N.J., and the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, which operates a museum for learning about the global cultures of Islamic art and design in Honolulu as well as a New York-based grants program with a related mission.  
Prior to joining DDCF in April 2021, Gill was senior vice president and chief program officer at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, where he oversaw more than $100 million in annual grant making across the foundation’s programs, in addition to managing Knight’s research and assessment portfolio and its grants administration function. Previously, he also served as vice president of Freedman Consulting, LLC. 
Gill also served on the board of the Philip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Miami and on the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, a project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He attended the University of Chicago and the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. 

Miki Garcia

Miki Garciawas appointed Director of the Arizona State University Art Museum in December 2017. She was previously the Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara from 2005-2017. At ASUAM, Garcia set a vision to center art and artists in the service of social good and community well-being and is working to reimagine how museums can be more accessible and equitable civic cultural organizations. Prior to this, she worked at the Public Art Fund, N.Y.; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin; and the San Antonio Museum of Art. She has completed numerous scholarly and professional publications and has taken part in juries and guest lectures, the most recent being Expo Chicago; School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Curatorial Leadership Summit, Armory Show; American Alliance of Museums; Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue; Creative Capital and the National Endowment for the Arts. She currently sits on the Board of Trustees for the Association of Art Museum Directors; the Vassar College Frances Lehman Loeb Museum Leadership Council; and the Exhibition Committee for American Federation for the Arts. 

Carol Coletta

Carol Coletta is President and CEO of Memphis River Parks Partnership, a public-private partnership responsible for five miles of public property along the Mississippi River. Its mission is to work with and for the people of Memphis to trigger the transformative power of the river. She led a new riverfront concept plan, the renaming and redesign of two parks with confederate associations and a 5-mile bike-ped trail. Underway are master plans for two major parks and construction of Tom Lee Park, designed by Studio Gang and SCAPE, opening September, 2023. Built with 44% MWBE contractor participation, the park's new entrance is only six blocks from Tennessee's poorest zip code.

She came to the Partnership on loan from The Kresge Foundation where she was Senior Fellow in the American Cities Practice. She led the foundation's initiative, Reimagining the Civic Commons, a national effort to demonstrate that transformative public spaces can connect people of all backgrounds, cultivate trust, create more resilient communities, and generate greater value in neighborhoods nearby.

She previously served as VP of Community and National Initiatives for the Knight Foundation, a national foundation with deep local roots in 26 U.S. cities. She managed a portfolio of more than $50 million annually in grants and a team of 18 in eight offices across the country to drive success in cities. She was recruited to Knight to lead a new portfolio created from merging two departments. Her strategic focus at Knight was to understand how robust public life can accelerate talent, opportunity and engagement. To do that, she deployed grants, challenges, research, local leadership development, and convenings of professors, policymakers and practitioners. In particular, she has led a national inquiry into the value of economic integration on America’s cities and how to achieve it.

Carol led the start-up of ArtPlace, a public-private collaboration to accelerate creative placemaking in communities across the U.S. The collaboration included 13 leading foundations, eight federal agencies, and six of the nation’s largest banks.

She served as president/CEO of CEOs for Cities, a Chicago-based network of urban leaders from 45 of the nation’s top metro areas. She also led the Mayors' Institute on City Design, a collaboration of the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Conference of Mayors and American Architectural Foundation to help mayors tackle their thorniest civic design challenges. Carol created and hosted the public radio show, "Smart City."

Jim Bildner

Jim Bildner is the CEO of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation (www.drkfoundation.org), one of the largest venture philanthropy firms in the world. DRK has made more than 235 investments in early-stage non-profit and for-profit social enterprises working to solve complex societal issues including systemic poverty, food and water insecurity, access to healthcare and economic opportunities, sanitation, homelessness, criminal justice, social justice and climate change and adaptation strategies. In the aggregate, its portfolio organizations have directly impacted more than 400 million lives. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and a Senior Research Fellow at the Hauser Institute for Civil Society and the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University. At the Kennedy School, his research interests include understanding the role of private capital in solving public problems, extending the capacity of foundations to solve complex societal issues and the sustainability of public and private systems when governments disinvest in these systems. At HKS, he teaches MLD 836, a foundational course on the role of for-profit and non-profit social enterprises in creating social impact and lasting impact when tackling complex societal issues.  
Among his many board affiliations, he is a trustee of The Kresge Foundation and chair of its Investment Committee. He serves on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations including Public Citizen Foundation, Education SuperHighway, OpenBiome, JUST Capital, The GroundTruth Project, Service Year Alliance, the Healthy Americas Foundation (National Alliance for Hispanic Health Foundation, and a number of boards of arts and culture institutions including the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Dallas Symphony Association, Pérez Art Museum Miami, The Africa Center, and on the Board of Advisors of the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College. He is a Trustee Emeritus at Case Western Reserve University, an Overseer Emeritus of the Boston Symphony, and an Emeritus Trustee of the board of the Lizard Island Research Foundation in Australia. He is a member of Young Presidents and a member of the Chief Executives Organization. 
In his board service, Mr. Bildner serves on the Investment Committees of boards with aggregate endowments in excess of $4 B as well as a member of numerous finance, investment, and/or audit committees of these boards.    
Mr. Bildner earned his AB from Dartmouth College, his MPA from Harvard, his J.D. from Case Western Reserve School of Law and an M.F.A. from Lesley University. He is a member of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 2008, Mr. Bildner was awarded the Dartmouth Alumni Award for service to the College and to his community. 

Rod Bigelow

Rod Bigelow has served as Executive Director of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art since 2013, guiding all facets of the museum’s development and reflecting his more than 20 years of experience in management of arts and cultural institutions. He joined Crystal Bridges in 2010, serving as the deputy director of operations and administration, focusing on organizational and policy development as well as construction activities leading up to the museum’s opening in November 2011. In that role, he led Crystal Bridges’ strategic planning process, resulting in a comprehensive plan guiding the museum’s focus. During Bigelow’s tenure at Crystal Bridges, the museum has welcomed more than 6 million visitors. 
Prior to joining Crystal Bridges, Bigelow was Chief Operating Officer at the Toledo Museum of Art, where he implemented a federal grant program to increase funding for the museum’s sustainability projects, initiated collaboration with local non-profit organizations, and coordinated planning and pre-construction activities for a new contemporary gallery space. He was appointed Interim Executive Director at the Toledo Museum of Art in 2009. Bigelow previously served as director of administrative and financial services at The Art Institute of Seattle, where he oversaw financial aid, accounting, facilities, and retail activities. 
Bigelow is a board member of Triple Aught Foundation, the Art Bridges Foundation, and a member of the Association for Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the America250 Arts & Culture Council and the External Advisory Group for the Atlanta University Center’s Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective.

Rehema Barber

Rehema C. Barber is the Director of Curatorial Affairs for the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (KIA). Previously, Barber held positions at the Tarble Arts Center at Eastern Illinois University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Memphis, The Amistad Center at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, among others. She has participated in the Art Writing Workshop sponsored by the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and AICA-USA, the Getty Leadership Institute, the Japan Foundation’s Curatorial Exchange Program, and was a 2001 Saint Louis Art Museum Romare Bearden Fellow. Notable exhibitions include Bare Walls, No Boundaries, Young Americans, Social Habitat: The Porch Project by Heather Hart, Painting Is Dead?!, a Dark Matter…, and In the Eye of the Beholder. For the KIA specifically, notable exhibitions included Yun-Fei Ji: Tale Tales of Scavenger, Africa Imagined: Reflections on Modern & Contemporary Art, and Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century, the latter of which was a collaboration between herself and Larry Ossei-Mensah. In 2020, Barber helped conceive of the reinstallation plan and theme for the KIA’s permanent collection and previously consulted for the Harvey B. Gantt Center and the Cincinnati Art Museum. Besides being an essayist for the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Shape of Abstraction catalogue, she has contributed to various publications such as The Commercial Appeal, Fiber Arts, International Review of African American Art, Number Magazine, and the Routledge Reader Series among other platforms. Barber holds a B.A. from Roosevelt University, an M.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a past certification in Elementary and Secondary Art Education from the University of Missouri, Saint Louis.

Remuseum announces The Vanguard, an award and accelerator for innovative leaders in the visual and performing arts, in partnership with the Doris Duke Foundation. The Vanguard’s $100,000 annual award will recognize up to ten leaders who are exploring new ways to strengthen arts institutions, and a year-long accelerator will help them refine, implement, and evaluate their ideas. The first award and accelerator of its kind, The Vanguard celebrates leaders who are ready to center the public in their work in new ways, building models for increased relevance and sustainability in the arts.

Download The Vanguard Application Handbook

BACKGROUND
THE PROGRAM
Eligibility AND APPLICATION
INFORMATIONAL WEBINARS
FAQ

Background

While the nature of cultural production, audience tastes and methods of engagement (to say nothing of institutional missions themselves) have changed radically, the standard presentation and business model of “high” arts and culture has changed little over the last century.

At the same time, both museums and performing arts institutions have exhibited increasing symptoms of unsustainability (declining audiences, rising costs, and shifting philanthropic interests that may not favor the arts). Those symptoms now manifest as a generally acknowledged crisis, in which the recent loss of federal funding may represent a longer-term shift in which the old social contract for the arts – one in which the arts were recognized as a source of civic strength, worthy of investment for the benefit of all – may have dissolved.

Most leaders acknowledge that their institutions need new ways to matter to more people. Heeding this call, some innovative leaders want to accelerate the transition. They begin not with the “format”—how the art is delivered—but with the “benefit”: who and what is the art for? 

Why are such leaders rarely getting to put their ideas to work? In no small part because, at a time when we need new ideas more than ever, a culture of fear has left most leaders without enough capital (reputational or risk capital) to put new ideas to work on their own. 

This fear derives from many sources: cautious boards that may lack context to know what mission-driven risks are worth taking (and may fear backlash from any number of sources); donors and audiences who fear losing things they cherish; colleagues who defend norms even when they threaten institutional missions (and their jobs); and even the press, which can sometimes adopt its own limiting standards of what arts institutions should be or do.

Former Ford Foundation CEO Darren described those fears in detail when he wrote (in a 2024 New York Times op-ed) that “we penalize bold leadership when we should be rewarding it.”

The purpose of The Vanguard is very specifically to offer that reward and to overcome those fears by supporting leaders ready and willing to explore new ways to center the public in their work, thereby driving increased relevance and sustainability for their organizations.  

The Program

The $100,000 grant that accompanies each award will go to that leader’s institution, to support ideas developed in The Vanguard’s 12-month accelerator program. That program begins with a week-long retreat at Shangri La, the Doris Duke Foundation’s global center for culture and ideas in Honolulu, Hawaii, followed by a year of monthly coaching sessions, regional peer gatherings, and collaborative workshops, culminating in a public presentation of their work and findings to the broader arts community. The accelerator and its curriculum, tailored specifically for cultural leaders, has been designed by Jenny Larios Berlin, entrepreneur in the creative and tech sectors and Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, and will be co-taught with Gregory Bunch, entrepreneur and Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and will be advised by Ethernet Inventors Professor of Entrepreneurship Bill Aulet, Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship.

By year’s end, members of The Vanguard will have built an intellectual kinship with each other while modeling a spirit of innovative leadership for the field. Remuseum will continue evaluating and sharing their work as case studies for cultural organizations broadly, and future classes will continue expanding a Vanguard of leaders (10, then 20, and on) who build models of success for cultural organizations in the 21st Century, allowing arts & cultural institutions not just to survive but to support a stronger and more pluralistic civil society.

Eligibility and Application

The Vanguard Award is available to leaders of U.S.-based nonprofit visual and performing arts organizations with annual operating budgets greater than $1 million. This threshold serves as a guideline rather than a strict requirement, reflecting an organization’s capacity for leaders to devote time, with their staff, to the 12-month accelerator. The selection process will begin through an open call beginning on May 18, 2026, with winners announced in the fall. 

Download The Vanguard Application Handbook

Applicants will be reviewed by an expert panel, and awardees will be selected based on both their demonstrated willingness to lead in new ways and their track record for implementing new ideas in their institutions. As The Vanguard itself grows over the coming years, members of previous cohorts will serve as mentors to future recipients, creating a sustained network of cultural innovators.

Informational Webinars

Remuseum will host two informational webinars on The Vanguard, Sign up links are below: 

Questions can be submitted using this link. If you want your question to be addressed at the Informational Webinar on May 14, 2026, please submit it by May 12, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Applicant Eligibility

Review and Selection Process

The Idea

Travel and Time Commitments

Funding Partners

The Vanguard has been generously funded by the Doris Duke Foundation, David Booth, the Alice L. Walton Foundation, the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, the Arison Arts Foundation, Pilot House Philanthropy, Amy and David Abrams, the Hill Art Foundation, and the Jasteka Foundation.

About Remuseum

Remuseum was founded in 2022 as an art museum think tank focused on relevance, financial sustainability, and governance. Remuseum has published research on those topics and supported innovative museum leaders applying informed, mission-based innovation to challenges faced by the field. Remuseum was inspired and funded by entrepreneur and philanthropist David Booth and supported by Alice Walton and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; it received additional support from the Ford Foundation and the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. In 2026 Remuseum became an independent nonprofit organization, still closely affiliated with Crystal Bridges, to develop and support The Vanguard.

Remuseum’s Founding Director is Stephen Reily, one of the few people who has served on numerous museum and arts boards and also led a major art museum for an extended period. He has served on the boards of the Speed Art Museum, the New Museum for Contemporary Art, Creative Capital Foundation, and the American Federation of Arts. In 2017 Reily became Director of the Speed Art Museum, and during his tenure of 4+ years, the Speed originated exhibitions that generated national attention for relevance and adaptability; increased access and visitation; and turned budget deficits into operating surpluses. A former lawyer and U.S. Supreme Court Clerk, Reily is a serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder of IMC Licensing, a brand licensing agency that has generated over $10 billion in sales for the consumer brands it represents. As a social entrepreneur, his philanthropy includes the Louisville Urban League’s Reily Reentry Project, responsible for a majority of criminal expungements granted in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

About Doris Duke Foundation and Shangri La

The mission of the Doris Duke Foundation is to build a more creative, equitable, and sustainable future. The foundation works across three areas: Arts & Culture; Nature; and Health & Well-being. Visit dorisduke.org to learn more. 

Samsher (Sam) Gill is the third president and CEO of the Doris Duke Foundation. Before joining DDF in April 2021, Gill was senior vice president and chief program officer at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, where he oversaw more than $100 million in annual grantmaking across the foundation’s programs, in addition to managing Knight’s research and assessment portfolio and its grants administration function. Previously, he also served as vice president of Freedman Consulting, LLC. Gill attended the University of Chicago and the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. 

The Vanguard Accelerator will be hosted at Shangri La, a Center for Cultures & Ideas and a Museum of Islamic Art, in Honolulu, HI. Shangri La is part of the Doris Duke Foundation and home to one of the most significant collections of Islamic art in the United States. Originally conceived by Doris Duke as a place to foster understanding across cultures, Shangri La is a creative campus and convening space where artists, scholars, thought leaders and communities come together through residencies, exhibitions, convenings and public programs. Through its collection and partnerships across Hawai‘i and beyond, Shangri La invites new perspectives and shared cultural exchange.