Getty Leadership Institute selects 62 museum executives and managers for its 2015 Executive Education Programs

2015 classes include 22 international participants and 56 participants from art and culture museums

The Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University (GLI) announced the selection of 62 museum leaders from the United States and 13 countries around the world to participate in its 2015 Executive Education Programs for Museum Leaders. The groups comprise both seasoned museum executives and younger managers tapped as the next generation of museum leaders. Competitive entry into the programs requires nominations and recommendations from the museum field as well as a detailed analysis of the challenges the participants face in the immediate future as they influence policy and effect change at their institutions.

Faculty comes from the top ranks of educational institutions including the University of Southern California, the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College, Babson College, and the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. Guest lecturers include practitioners and specialists in fundraising, marketing, entrepreneurship, and organizational development. The curriculum fosters learning through both theory and practice and aims to enhance museum leadership at the individual, institutional, and societal levels.

Now in their 36th year and generously supported by the Getty Foundation, the GLI Executive Education Programs are the world’s foremost professional development programs designed especially for senior-level museum executives and mid-level managers. GLI boasts over 1,100 alumni from 35 countries. This year’s programs feature six weeks of executive education coursework across the GLI 2015 and NextGen 2015 programs.

GLI 2015 is designed for senior-level executives in their first five to seven years of a leadership position. The program features a comprehensive and intensive curriculum aimed at deepening participants’ leadership skills in order to manage change and forge success in the global museum field. The 2015 Program offers a blended learning environment with two weeks of asynchronous online learning in May and two weeks of classwork in June in residence on the Claremont Graduate University campus in Claremont, California.

The 2015 class comes from collecting and non-collecting visual arts and cultural institutions from around the world. Included in the group are executives from the Smithsonian Institution, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Royal Historic Palaces in the United Kingdom, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Cultural Authority, National Gallery of Ireland, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, USC Pacific Asia Museum, and the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Six participants come from institutions with operating budgets over $50 million annually, seven with budgets over $10 million, 16 with budgets above $2.5 million and four with budgets below $1 million.

Participants in the 36 member (26 women, 10 men) cohort include 11 museum directors, CEOs, and presidents as well as vice presidents and deputy directors who lead museum curatorial, education, exhibitions, collections, planning, development, and public programming initiatives. Senior level managers from cultural heritage and mixed discipline institutions fill out the class to ensure a diversity of perspectives and experiences for group discussions. Participants have worked in the museum field for 14 years on average; have been in their current positions for an average of three years with a mean age of 44.

NextGen 2015 targets mid-level managers in their first three years in their positions. The program introduces fellows to theories and concepts around engaging audiences, influence and negotiation, and design thinking and strategy. NextGen 2015 is a blended learning course with one week of asynchronous online learning followed by four days in residence on the Claremont Graduate University campus.

The NextGen cohort is 26 members strong (22 women and 4 men) and includes participants from the United States, China, Colombia, and Canada. On average, the students are 36 years old, have been in their current positions 2.3 years and have worked in the museum field for just over nine years. Institutions include the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Shanxi Museum in China, Medellin Modern Art Museum in Colombia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Milwaukee Public Museum, Peabody Essex Museum, and the J. Paul Getty Museum.

A complete list of attendees is available here.

About Claremont Graduate University

Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University is the graduate university of the Claremont Colleges. Its five academic schools conduct leading-edge research and award masters and doctoral degrees in 24 disciplines. Because the world’s problems are not simple nor easily defined, diverse faculty and students research and study across the traditional discipline boundaries to create new and practical solutions for the major problems affecting the world. A Southern California-based graduate school devoted entirely to graduate research and study, CGU boasts a low student-to-faculty ratio.


About the Drucker School of Management and the Center for Management in Creative Industries

The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management offers a variety of professional degrees, including MBA, PMBA, EMBA, and the MS in Financial Engineering. Named for the father of modern business management education and world-renowned author and consultant, Peter Drucker, and accomplished global business leader and philanthropist, Masatoshi Ito, the school produces graduates who have a strong sense of social responsibility and a deep desire to make a difference. The school has expanded the traditional path in business education by offering innovative programs focused in the Creative Industries. The Center for Management in the Creative Industries brings together core values and a unique philosophy about business, leadership and management in the arts. The Center is collaboration between Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the School of Arts and Humanities, the Drucker School of Management, and the Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University and features an MA degree in Art Business and in Arts Management with a concentration in non profit management, art museum management, or the management of media, entertainment, and the performing arts.

Major funding for GLI at CGU is provided by the Getty Foundation

The Getty Foundation fulfills the philanthropic mission of the Getty Trust by supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the greater understanding and preservation of the visual arts in Los Angeles and throughout the world. Through strategic grant initiatives, it strengthens art history as a global discipline, promotes the interdisciplinary practice of conservation, increases access to museum and archival collections, and develops current and future leaders in the visual arts. It carries out its work in collaboration with the other Getty Programs to ensure that they individually and collectively achieve maximum effect. Additional information is available at www.getty.edu/foundation.