The Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL) trains curators to become visionary leaders of art museums. At a time when the demands of cultural institutions and the public are rapidly evolving, the CCL provides curators with essential tools to guide today’s museums and anticipate future challenges. With 425+ alumni spanning 47 countries – including more than 100 who are now museum directors or senior leadership – CCL lifts the museum field as a whole.

Now in its 18th year, CCL’s Fellowship program serves established curators with a record of curatorial achievement, advancing equity, leadership experience, and creative and entrepreneurial thinking. Through coursework and opportunities for practical application, curators learn the financial, managerial, strategic, and fundraising skills required to lead today’s art museums. The five-month program includes in-person intensives; concentrated courses in nonprofit management, finance, negotiation, and other core leadership skills led by Columbia Business School professors and arts leaders; mentorship from a carefully matched museum director anywhere in the world; meetings with cultural, philanthropic, and civic leaders; and other opportunities for growth and development.

Several Vilcek Foundation prizewinners are alumni of CCL’s Fellowship program, including Oluremi C. Onabanjo (CCL 2024), who is the Peter Schub Curator in the Robert B. Menschel Department of Photography at MoMA; and Aimé Iglesias Lukin (CCL 2024), director and chief curator of art at the Americas Society. Francesca Du Brock, chief curator at the Anchorage Museum, is participating in the 2025 Fellowship Program cohort. 

In 2025, Marica Vilcek and Rick Kinsel proposed a grant in support of the Center for Curatorial Leadership’s Fellowship program for 2025 and 2026.