A unique professional development programme, Clore Fellowships offer recipients a bespoke opportunity to progress their careers across a range of disciplines within the arts and cultural sectors.
The latest cohort includes artists, managers, producers, directors and policy makers from six regions of the UK and eight countries globally.
The organisers say those selected this year have been successful as a result of demonstrating creativity and dynamism, having managed award-winning projects, along with using creative practice to generate new approaches to policy development.
This year’s inductees work across 11 cultural disciplines, with some operating solo projects and others representing organisations of over 200 people.
The year's Fellows
Alia Alzougbi
Naomi Alexander
Lucy Bayliss
Stephen Bennett
Sarah Bird
Emily Brennan
Sade Brown
Eduardo Carvalho
Joycelyn Choi Oi Yee
Sona Datta
Janine Downes
Lucy Harvey
Zhongjiang Ling
Andrew Marcus
Kez Margrie
Botumelo Motsoatsoe
Lina Mowafy
Omeima Mudawi-Rowlings
Refilwe Nkomo
Esther Richardson
Ihitashri Shandilya
Roísín Stack
Melissa Strauss
Putul Verma
Matt Wilde
Speaking as the names were announced, Darren Henley OBE, chief executive of Arts Council England, said: “This exciting group of Clore Fellows are an impressive bunch. They’ll be the creative leaders of tomorrow, making decisions that influence the development of cultural organisations for decades to come.
“We want the people making decisions in arts organisations, museums and libraries to come from the widest possible range of backgrounds – as we know by bringing people with different life experiences together, we see the spark of new creative ideas and ways of working.”
Alumni of the programme include Axel Ruger, secretary and chief executive of Royal Academy of Arts; Kully Thiarai, creative director of Leeds 2023; Jackie Wylie, artistic director and chief executive of National Theatre of Scotland; and Gus Casely Hayford, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.
Major funding partners for 2019/20 Clore Leadership Programme
Clore Duffield Foundation
Arts Council England
The Artists Information Company
Arts Council Ireland
Art Fund
Arts and Humanities Research Council
BBC
Chevening Secretariat (through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
Gatsby Charitable Foundation
Home Affairs Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (through Hong Kong Arts Development Council)
National Lottery Heritage Fund
National Trust
The Linbury Trust
Wellcome Trust
Hilary Carty, director of Clore Leadership, stated that the newest Clore Fellowship cohort “represents the breadth and depth of cultural organisations and practices in the UK and around the globe”.
This 16th cohort of Clore Fellows, she continued, “demonstrates the passion and value our founders the Clore Duffield Foundation place on the leadership of culture. Such a significant investment for the best part of two decades, alongside that of Arts Council England and the many strategic partners who make our work possible, continues to achieve brilliant outcomes and rewards for culture in society.”
