DeVos Institute of Arts Management Welcomes New Cohort of Fellows

May 05, 2021

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland announces a new cohort of six arts managers to its three-year Fellowship program.

The Institute’s Fellowship program serves entrepreneurial executives in the arts and cultural sector who are prepared to look critically at their work, challenge assumptions, and develop rigorous strategies to address the most pressing challenges facing their organizations, regions, and art forms at large. The cohorts will be in residence in Washington, D.C. for a month-long arts management intensive led by DeVos Institute executives, consultants, and experts from the field. Designed for individuals who have dedicated themselves to management, rather than artistic leadership, the program supports leaders in developing, implementing, and refining organizational strategies over a three-year, cohort-based engagement.

Biographies of the new and continuing Fellows are available here.

At the DeVos Institute, we believe that creative practice is an essential expression of the dignity, aspirations, and achievements of individuals, communities, and societies, and that pro-active support for creative practice as a platform for intercultural, and international, cooperation is required in a healthy global society. Led by Institute Founder, Michael M. Kaiser, and President, Brett Egan, the Fellowship is equally tactical and aspirational in exemplifying these beliefs. The program emphasizes critical organizational capacities in long-term artistic planning, marketing, fundraising, board development, and financial management; while provoking broader questions of mission, relevance, impact, and the role of art – and the dialogue it provokes – as an instrument of peace. The program emboldens leaders who leverage creative practice to confront injustice, advance social change, and encourage empathy for other perspectives and ways of life. The program acknowledges a historical lack of equity across communities and philanthropic systems and empowers leaders to build equitable and inclusive systems that assure people of every class, race, geography, age, ability, gender, and sexual orientation have equal access to, and representation in, art and creative practice.

Individuals typically engage in the Fellowship at point of inflection in their career, where an infusion of strategic training, mentorship, peer learning, and reflection is necessary to advance both their work in the organization and their role as a leader in their field. All Fellows share a deep commitment to the role of arts, culture, and creative practice in their respective societies and an inquisitiveness that drives them to engage deeply in the immersive and collaborative environment.

The Institute’s core beliefs can be found here. To date, the Institute’s Fellowship program has served over 250 arts managers from over 50 countries. DeVos Institute Chairman Michael M. Kaiser launched the Fellowship program in 2001 during his tenure as President of the Kennedy Center. In 2008, the Institute introduced the current, intensive model of one month in residence each summer for three years and transitioned to the University of Maryland from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2014.

The DeVos Institute’s Fellowship program is made possible with the support of the University of Maryland.