The Clore Fellowship is a programme of tailored leadership development for a cohort of exceptional leaders in the cultural sector.
We award around 24 Fellowships each year to leaders in areas such as the visual and performing arts, museums, libraries, archives and heritage, film and digital media, and cultural policy and practice. The Fellowship Programme is for leaders with ambition and vision who can show how they might take their leadership to the next level. The programme is learned through experience, not taught, and is grounded in contemporary leadership theories and approaches.
The Fellowship programme has a formal structure but the direction, themes and content is tailored to each individual’s needs.
There is a strong emphasis on learning about you and your leadership through self-reflection, learning from speakers and peers in your cohorts.
Residential content will explore authenticity in leadership; values; coaching skills; inclusive cultures; strategic planning; finance; governance, the practice of leadership in action; impact; influence, wellbeing/ restorative care in leadership, as well as the opportunity to learn from guest leaders.
The programme format blends opportunities for facilitated reflection, taught content, discussion and debate through a variety of whole and small group, small solo activities. There will be plenty of time to meet with your peers, get to know each other and learn from one anothers’ professional, lived and learned experiences.
The Fellowship is
• A self-directed programme where you determine our own personal learning journey
• Heavily focused on self-reflection, rather than taught content
• An opportunity to learn new things about yourself, where you will gain most by stepping out of your comfort zone, to explore who you are and would like to become as a leader
• An opportunity to get your teeth into knotty questions facing the cultural sector
• An opportunity to learn with and from others in a cohort of peers from across a range of artform/ cultural sector areas
The Fellowship isn’t
• A business management course or creative enterprise focused programme (although you may wish to learn more about these areas as a part(s) of your Fellowship)
• Training (although there is the opportunity to attend taught courses/ training as part of your Fellowship activity)
• A qualification or accredited programme
Programme Details
The CloreFellowship takes place between September 2024 and May 2025 and includes:
- Two 5 – 10 day residential courses and 3 days of skills-based workshops, including travel, accommodation, meals, and refreshments. You’ll learn about yourself, your leadership, and explore the skills and strategies of leadership. You’ll work with facilitators, Clore Leadership staff, associates, and speakers. You’ll hear from a range of guest leaders about their leadership journeys.
- Climate Assembly – connecting with leaders in the UK and internationally around climate emergency, action, and collaboration.
- A 360° leadership profile – to explore what that means for you and your leadership.
- A secondment – usually 6 to 8 weeks in a UK-based cultural organisation, in a field different from your own, to stretch your leadership learning.
- Up to £4,000 development budget – to spend on your learning and associated costs (e.g. conferences, courses, study visits or books).
- £14,000 bursary – financial support for time away from work during the Fellowship, paid to you or your employer (as appropriate). For UK/ Ireland Fellows only.
- Mentor or coach support – a package of individual support as you journey through your learning
- A provocation piece – you will produce a piece of research on a leadership topic of your choice
- A collaborative enquiry project – alongside members of your cohort you will explore contemporary leadership learning questions, and present your findings at the second residential.
- Access budget provision for D/deaf or disabled and neurodivergent Fellows, or for those with caring responsibilities.
- Opportunity to apply for a supervised research project funded through the Arts and Humanities Research Council, after completing the Fellowship.
Why Choose the Clore Fellowship?
We’re looking for leaders who are:
- Dynamic, strategic, and collaborative
- Intellectually curious, creative, and possess emotional intelligence and integrity
- Entrepreneurial and passionate about making a difference through culture
- Ready to take on significant leadership challenges and effect change
- Who are deeply reflective, able to ask themselves honest and searching questions
This adaptive program is for leaders from across the cultural sector, who are ready to make a step change in their leadership careers and the cultural sector. Whether working independently or as part of an institution, you should demonstrate an aptitude and appetite for effecting significant change. We’re committed to increasing the diversity of leaders in arts and culture and particularly welcome applications from leaders from the global majority, and D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent leaders who are currently under-represented in the sector.
Testimonials
Costs & Funding
The Fellowship Programme is generously supported by a range of funding partners. The cost of all Fellowships, with the exception of self or employer funded Fellowships, are fully funded.
Included in your funded Fellowship:
- The cost of two residential programmes including tuition and all course materials.
- Travel to and from plus accommodation, meals and refreshments for the duration of the residential courses.
- Travel to and from, plus accommodation and associated content costs for skills-based workshops.
- Support from a mentor or coach.
- Development budget of up to £4,000 towards the costs of your individual development programme. This is available to all Fellows (including employer-supported Fellowships)
- An access budget supporting the needs of D/deaf, disabled or neurodivergent Fellows or those with caring responsibilities
- Central support from the Clore Leadership team
Funded Fellowships
For 2024, through support from our funders, we are able to offer the following Fellowships listed with their specific eligibility criteria: (please note you are able to apply for up to 2 Fellowships, providing you meet the criteria).
Cultural Learning Fellowship supported by the Clore Duffield Foundation
Cultural Learning Fellowships support candidates with a background in cultural education, learning, outreach, participation, and engagement (including formal education) living and working in the UK, seeking to extend their leadership into senior roles in cultural institutions.
Culture & Climate Leaders Fellowship supported by The Linbury Trust This Fellowship is open to applicants who are based in the UK and whose work focuses primarily in the field of Culture and Climate Emergency.
Curators Fellowship supported by the John Ellerman Foundation This Fellowship is open to diverse leaders living in the UK and working in curatorial practice.
Dance Fellowship supported by The Linbury Trust and Dancers’ Career Development The Dance Fellowship is open to anyone who has worked as a professional dancer for 8 years, 5 of those years spent in the UK, and who is committed to developing as a cultural leader.
Duffield Fellowship supported by the Clore Duffield Foundation
Duffield Fellowships support candidates seeking to lead medium to large-scale cultural institutions in the UK and will prioritise applicants working in any discipline within cultural institutions of 200+ staff.
Excellerate Fellowship supported by Arts Council England
Excellerate Fellowships support exceptional early-career leaders (aged 24 – 35) working in the cultural sector to fast-track their professional development. These Fellowships are open to candidates who live and work in England within a cultural discipline supported by Arts Council England.
Jerome Hynes Fellowship supported by the Arts Council of Ireland
This Fellowship is open to candidates who live and work in Ireland and who are committed to developing their career as a cultural leader in Ireland.
National Trust Fellowship supported by the National Trust
This Fellowship is open to experienced employees of the National Trust who are looking to make a step change in their leadership career and aspire to more senior roles within the heritage sector.
Tees Valley Fellowship Tees Valley Fellowship supported by Arts Council England and Tees Valley Combined Authority, for arts and culture leaders working primarily within the Tees Valley region.
Theatre Fellowship supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation
These Fellowships support candidates with the ambition to excel as a leader in theatre in the UK.
Transform Fellowship supported by Arts Council England
Transform Fellowships address diversity and under-representation in leadership and will support leaders from diverse backgrounds, including lived experience of ethnic diversity and disability. These Fellowships are open to candidates who live and work in England within a cultural discipline supported by Arts Council England.
Visual Artist Fellowship supported by a-n The Artists Information Company
The Visual Artist Fellowship is open to professional visual artists seeking to develop as leaders in the cultural sector. This Fellowship is for artists living and working in the UK who are working within fine art, applied art, live arts and moving images, sound and text-based practices, digital and animation, participatory, public and community arts.
Self funded and Employer Funded Fellowships
You can apply as a self or employer funded Fellow. The application process is the same as for funded Fellowships. If you are successful and are offered a place, you or your employer would need to have funds available to cover the full costs of your participation in the Programme.
International Fellowships
Through our international partnerships we offer a small number of Fellowships to applicants from India, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Mexico, China, Eqypt and Brazil.
For more information and details on how to apply for a Hong Kong Clore Fellowship please visit Hong Kong Arts Development Fund.
Applicants from India, Lebanon, Mexico, China, Egypt and Brazil, for details of how to apply for a Chevening Clore Fellowship please visit the Chevening website
Self-employed or taking career break
If you are self-employed or taking a career break whilst on your Fellowship, you will normally be eligible for a bursary of £14,000 for UK and Ireland Fellowships, paid directly to you (with the exception of self–funded or employer-supported Fellowships, such as National Trust.)
In part or full-time employment
If you are planning to remain in employment during your Fellowship (and have been awarded a funded Fellowship), your employer will be able to claim a contribution up to a maximum of £14,000 towards compensation for the periods when you are away from the workplace, on receipt of proof that you continue to receive a salary.
Self/ Employer Supported Fellowship
Self/ Employer Funded Fellowship
If you apply for and are awarded a Self/ Employer funded Fellowship alongside covering your living expenses, you will agree to pay the costs of the Fellowship including the training and development budget, a contribution to the core activities such as the residential courses, mentoring, coaching, etc. and an admin fee to Clore Leadership. The cost is £21,500 inl VAT. The application, selection process and structure of the Fellowships remain the same as for all Fellowships. Do get in touch with us if you would like to discuss this option further.
Information for Employers
If your employee is offered a funded Fellowship, Clore Leadership will invest the equivalent of around £35,500 in their development as a cultural leader, with support from our funders.
The benefits to employers include a refreshed, more skilled and more confident leader, with substantially enhanced knowledge and leadership skills and access to an improved network which can help strengthen the organisation.
Employers of funded UK participants will be eligible to claim up to £14,000 as a contribution for the periods when they are away from work focusing on the Fellowship, on the condition that the organisation provides evidence that it will continue to pay the participant’s salary and benefits throughout the Fellowship.
In addition, all participants receive funding for their individual learning programme, which includes mentoring, coaching, participation in group workshops and a tuition budget to cover secondment expenses, research costs, course fees and study visits.
You should expect the employee to be away from the workplace for a period of around 5-7 months as a condition of the Fellowship offer.
In some instances, you may choose to part-fund/fund a Fellowship for one of your employees. If part-funding you will cover the costs of the Fellows’ agreed salary, employer’s National Insurance, any agreed pension contribution and other current benefits and entitlements throughout the course of the Fellowship and any back-fill within the organisation. In addition, you will need to agree to pay the costs of the Fellowship including the training and development budget, a contribution to the core activities such as the residential courses, mentoring, coaching etc. and an admin fee to Clore Leadership. The application, selection process and structure of the Fellowships remain the same as for all Fellowships.
Do get in touch with us if you would like to discuss this option further.
Access support for your application
You can make your Fellowship application in alternative format (E.g. audio or video) in our applications portal. If you need support email [email protected] or you can call us on 0207 420 9430. If we can’t answer, leave us a message and we will get back to you.
Application Guide in BSL/Audio or captions available here
Supporting your access on the residential course
We will discuss any support you might need with you before you start the Fellowship to make sure we can make adjustments or put the additional support you need in place. We have worked with many D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent leaders previously. The support you need is individual to you, but the kinds of things we have put in place before includes;
- Providing a note taker throughout the residential
- Support for a Personal Assistant to attend with you
- Captioning of online residential sessions
- Supporting the costs of BSL interpreters
- Providing written materials in different formats
- Provision of data bundle to support attendance online coaching sessions
Support for those with caring responsibilities
To help support those with caring responsibilities we provide a Carer’s Support Bursary which can support costs of up to £75 per day towards childcare or other caring related costs during residentials/workshops.
Our venues
Our residential venues have undergone an access audit. Our training spaces are level access, with accessible toilets located nearby. Accessible accommodation is available and we will ask you about your specific accommodation requirements prior to the residential.
Online Q&A’s
If you missed any of our online Q&A sessions you can watch the recording with subtitles below.
You can also view the questions submitted to the Zoom Q&A Here
Dates & Venues
Fellowship Dates
The 2024 Fellowship runs September 2024 – May 2025. You should expect to commit to taking between 6 – 9 months to undertake the Fellowship. Each Fellowship content, shape, and timeline is unique to the individual Fellow but you will be expected to attend the following mandatory whole cohort activities:
• Residential 1: Ashorne Hill, nr Leamington Spa, 16 – 25 September 2024
• Skills Workshops: Wallace Space, 20 – 22 January 2025
• Climate Assembly: Online, 6 February 2025
• Residential 2: Ashorne Hill, nr Leamington Spa, 19 – 23 May 2025
Our timeline for applications to the 2024 Clore Fellowship is:
• Stage 1: Applications Close: Thursday 8 February 2024
• Stage 1: Decisions: Feb/March 2024
• Stage 2: Applications Open: w/c 6 March 2024
• Stage 2: Applications Close: 27 March 2024
• Stage 2: Decisions/Invite to Interview: April 2024
• Stage 3: Interviews: April – May 2024
• Fellowship Decisions: June 2024