Remuseum has announced the launch of The Vanguard, a new award and accelerator programme designed to support innovative leaders across museums and performing arts institutions. Developed in partnership with the Doris Duke Foundation, the initiative introduces a $100,000 annual award alongside a year-long accelerator aimed at turning ambitious ideas into tangible change across the arts sector.
Launching at a moment of increasing pressure on cultural organisations, The Vanguard positions itself as both recognition and infrastructure. Up to ten leaders each year will be selected for their forward-thinking approaches to strengthening institutions, with funding directed to their organisations and structured support designed to help refine, test and implement new models. The programme marks a notable shift towards treating institutional innovation with the same seriousness—and investment—as artistic practice.
“At a difficult time for the arts, innovative solutions are more important than ever, but too many arts leaders operate in a risk-averse culture (and with a lack of risk capital) that makes it hard to try out new ideas,”
said Stephen Reily.
“Because of the creative sector’s acute need for forward-thinking leadership, The Vanguard seeks to surround such leaders with praise over doubt, and to recognize and support them (as a group) as the vanguard showing us a way forward.”
The initiative builds on Remuseum’s ongoing research into the structural challenges facing cultural institutions—from declining attendance and funding gaps to entrenched organisational norms that prioritise stability over experimentation. While artists are often encouraged to take risks, leaders operating within institutions frequently lack both the capital and the institutional permission to do the same. The Vanguard addresses that imbalance directly, offering both financial backing and a framework for sustained development.
“Innovation is scary and innovators are often written off as heretics. Some of the most transformational ideas in the arts were deeply unpopular when they were first proposed. This award recognizes and supports leaders with the temerity to blaze new trails on behalf of the power of the arts to improve our lives and society,”
said Sam Gill.
Central to the programme is a year-long accelerator that begins with a residential retreat at Shangri La in Honolulu, followed by monthly coaching sessions, peer gatherings and collaborative workshops. Designed specifically for cultural leaders, the curriculum has been developed by Jenny Larios Berlin alongside Gregory Bunch, with input from Bill Aulet. The programme culminates in a public presentation, positioning each cohort not only as recipients of support but as contributors to a wider field of shared knowledge.
“The Vanguard Award is a welcome and vital addition to the arts and culture field,”
said Mariko Silver.
“In this period of significant cultural shift, brave and entrepreneurial leaders need the support and resources to be bold. The award’s invitation to center the public and build sustainability into the arts ecosystem reaffirms the essential relationship between investments in the arts and the creation of shared civic space animated by imagination and vision.”
Eligibility is open to leaders of US-based nonprofit visual and performing arts organisations with annual budgets exceeding $1 million, with applications opening in May 2026 and the first cohort announced later in the year. Over time, the programme is designed to evolve into a network, with past recipients mentoring future participants—an expanding ecosystem of institutional experimentation.
More than a prize, The Vanguard reads as a structural intervention—an attempt to shift how leadership, risk and innovation are valued across the arts. By backing ideas at the point where they are most vulnerable—before they are proven—it reframes experimentation not as a liability, but as a necessary condition for the future of cultural institutions.
