Center for Curatorial Leadership Announces 2025 Fellows
The Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL) is pleased to introduce the 2025 cohort of Fellows. Now in its eighteenth year, the CCL Fellowship is the preeminent leadership program for curators, providing them with the skills and tools needed to become visionary leaders of art museums and cultural institutions worldwide.
This year, we are introducing two new exciting aspects to our program. CCL made the decision to offer the 2025 Fellowship tuition-free and as a result we received the highest number of applications ever – a 44% increase over previous years. In recognition of this vibrant demand, we are welcoming our largest cohort to date: fourteen outstanding curators from across the globe. This decision was guided by CCL’s core value of advancing equity in the field of curatorial leadership and our commitment to removing access barriers for applicants to our program.
The 2025 cohort has been selected by a group of leading museum professionals for this highly competitive program, each curator bringing with them a distinguished record of academic and curatorial achievement and a shared commitment to creating a more dynamic, equitable, and inclusive museum field. The cohort reflects the diversity and expansiveness of curatorial practice today, representing a range of institutional contexts, including ten institutions new to CCL, and expertise spanning thousands of years of artistic creativity across the globe.
CCL’s Fellowship program prepares curators to positively influence, evolve, and shape the future of museums. Remaining responsive to the changing museum landscape, the curriculum emphasizes innovative, cross-disciplinary, and values-driven approaches to leadership and centers the social responsibilities of museums. The program offers a generative space for learning and connection where members of the cohort can share ideas, problem solve, and support one another as they collectively work to make change in their institutions and in their communities.
We admire the great accomplishments and achievements of these exceptional curators and are excited by their potential as the next generation of institutional leaders. With this sense of promise and purpose, CCL is proud to welcome the eighteenth cohort to our growing network of over four hundred and twenty five alumni whose impact extends across the museum sector and beyond.
Congratulations to the CCL Class of 2025!
The 2025 CCL Fellows (listed alphabetically):
Rehema C. Barber, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Mounia Chekhab-Abudaya, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs, Museum of Islamic Art
Kim Conaty, Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator, Whitney Museum of American Art
Francesca Du Brock, Chief Curator, Anchorage Museum
Courtney Gilbert, Assistant Director & Curator, Sun Valley Museum of Art
Healoha Johnston, Director of Cultural Resources and Curator for Hawai’i and Pacific Arts and Culture, Bishop Museum
Erica P. Jones, Senior Curator of African Arts and Manager of Curatorial Affairs, Fowler Museum at UCLA
Shalini Le Gall, Chief Curator, Portland Museum of Art
Margot Norton, Chief Curator, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
María Elena Ortiz, Curator, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
David Pullins, Jayne Wrightsman Curator, Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Pavel Pyś, Curator of Visual Arts and Collections Strategy, Walker Art Center
Marina Reyes Franco, Curator, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
Kevin Tervala, The Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Chief Curator, Baltimore Museum of Art
Image Caption: The 2025 CCL Fellows (from left to right) are Rehema C. Barber, Mounia Chekhab Abudaya, Kim Conaty, Francesca Du Brock, Courtney Gilbert, Healoha Johnston, Erica P. Jones, Shalini Le Gall, Margot Norton, María Elena Ortiz,David Pullins, Pavel Pyś, Marina Reyes Franco, and Kevin Tervala. Images Courtesy of 2025 CCL Fellows.