Emerging Leaders is our intensive course to equip early-career cultural leaders with the essential skills and tools needed to succeed.

Emerging Leaders is a week-long residential programme. We award 24 spaces 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. Emerging Leaders is for early-career 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.

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 and discussion will explore authenticity in leadership; values; coaching skills; inclusive cultures; strategic planning; finance; impact and influence 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 another’s professional, lived and learned experiences.

Emerging Leaders is

Typically for course participants with between 2-5 years’ experience in the cultural sector.
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.

Emerging Leaders isn’t

A business management course or creative enterprise focused programme.
Training.
A qualification or accredited programme.

Download Application Guide

Programme Details

Emerging Leaders takes place in November 2025 or March 2026 and includes:

One 5 day residential course, including 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.

Access budget provision for D/deaf or disabled and neurodivergent leaders, or for those with caring responsibilities.

Why choose Emerging Leaders?

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 programme 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 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.

Emerging Leaders has been designed for individuals at an early stage in their career who aspire to lead. Typically Emerging Leaders course participants will have between 2-5 years’ experience in the cultural sector and will have had some experience of managing projects or people, are perhaps looking to take on an enhanced role and need to acquire new skills to be successful and have undertaken some sector relevant skills development training.

Testimonial

I was selected for Emerging Leaders a few years back and it was life-changing. Helped me take ownership, learn leadership techniques that work, enhanced my professional network and gave me some fab friends and allies
Dhruti Shah

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants to Emerging Leaders need to be able to demonstrate the following:

Have been working in a leadership or change making role in arts and culture between 2-5 years. You will be asked in the application to provide a CV outlining that you meet the level of experience required.
Demonstrate that you are / have an ambition to lead and are making a significant impact through your work/ practice.
Demonstrate a deep commitment, passion, and understanding of the cultural sector and its broader context.
Demonstrate an understanding of your leadership potential.
Demonstrate curiosity, self-reflection and self-awareness and openness to learning about yourself and others.
Be open to sharing your learning with others.

Applicants outside the UK

We do welcome applications to our courses from applicants based or working outside of the UK, but our unsubsidised course fee would apply and you should check your eligibility for any bursary you are applying for. Our course content is delivered in English and overseas course participants would be responsible for making their own travel arrangements and securing the visas neccessary to attend the course.

Costs & Funding

Thanks to funding from Arts Council England and Clore Duffield Foundation we can offer subsidised course fees to eligible applicants.

Band A – 1-15 employees: £600 +VAT
Band B – 16- 50 employees: £800 +VAT
Band C – 51-199 employees: £1,000 +VAT
Band D – 200+ employees: £1,200 +VAT

The unsubsidised cost of an Emerging Leaders course place is £2,500 + VAT. Limited unsubsidised places are available, with priority given to those eligible for subsidised fees. We also offer bursaries detailed in the Bursaries section.

Our courses are supported by Arts Council England and to be eligible for a subsidised place applicants must be:

Working in England (normally in the arts, museums and/or libraries sector)
Committed to developing their career as a cultural leader in England

Included in your Course fees:

The cost of one residential programmes including tuition and all course materials.
Accommodation, meals and refreshments for the duration of the residential courses.
An access support for the needs of D/deaf, disabled or neurodivergent attendees or those with caring responsibilities.
Central support from the Clore Leadership team.

Applicants outside the UK

Funding and Bursaries

Applications to our courses are currently closed. Details of bursaries available for future application rounds will be published when our next application round opens.

Access support for your application

You can make your course application in alternative format (E.g. audio or video) in our applications portal. If you need support email [email protected] 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 residential 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

Support for those with caring responsibilities

To help support those with caring responsibilities we provide Carers Access Support which can support costs of up to £75 per day towards additional childcare or other caring related costs during residentials/workshops and during your residential.

Our venues

Our residential locations have undergone an access audit which we are able to provide should you wish. The training spaces are ground level, with accessible toilets located nearby. Accessible accommodation is available and we will ask you about your specific accommodation needs prior to the course.

Online Q&A’s

The recording and summary notes of the General Access Q&A from 29 April, 2025 can be found below.

Please click below for the summary notes.

Summary Notes

Dates and Venues

Emerging Leaders Dates

You will be expected to attend the following mandatory dates:

Option 1: Ashorne Hill, nr Leamington Spa, 10 – 14 November 2025
Option 2: Ashorne Hill, nr Leamington Spa, 2 – 6 March 2026

Our timeline for applications to the 2025 Clore Leadership course is:

Stage 1: Applications open – Thursday 24 April 2025
Stage 1: Applications Close – Noon, Thursday 22 May 2025
Stage 1: Assessment: May – June 2025
Stage 2: Applications Open – Tuesday 24 June 2025
Stage 2: Applications Close – Noon, Tuesday 15 July 2025
Course Decisions: Early August 2025

Download Application Guide Here

Applications are now closed

Applications have now closed.

Frequently asked questions

Should I apply for Emerging Leaders or Leadership Pulse?

It is important to read the course descriptions carefully when making a decision about which course you want to apply for. Course descriptions are listed on the website. here.

When selecting a course, consider your key learning priorities and needs; your years of experience in the cultural sector; the amount of time you can give to the programme; and your preferred learning style.

Emerging Leaders – 2-5 years’ experience in the cultural sector and who have some experience of initiating and/or managing projects and people.
Leadership Pulse – a minimum of 5 years’ experience who are looking to take their leadership to the next level. If you just meet the five year’s criteria, then you might wish to consider our Emerging Leaders course instead.

I am not a formal ‘line manager’, can I still apply?

Yes. You don’t need to be line managing. It is not necessary that you lead a team, we look for change makers. Our courses are for professionals who work in various capacities including freelancers, entrepreneurs, administrators, coordinators, managers and heads of established institutions who lead projects, activities and meetings in a work context. They are for formal and informal leaders alike, with a focus on the traits of leadership that are not restricted to formal managers.

Who should I choose as a nominator? Do they have to be my current employer?

While we usually advise that your nominator be the current employer, we understand that they might not be best suited to be a nominator if you don’t have a long standing relationship, etc. The best nominator will be someone who can legitimately speak to your leadership potential (and will feasibly have the time to complete the nominator form).

What’s the difference between a bursary and a subsidy?

A subsidy is when you get a discount for being in an arts organisation, whereas a bursary is how you get your entire course fee paid for. You need to check the eligibility of each bursary.

For most applicants, the fees are subsidised through ACE funding, then they are charged a subsidised fee band based on their organisation size. Bursaries is additional funding which effectively pays the remainder of the fee in full or 50% of it. Subsidised fee bands are just available for those living and working in England.

What’s the selection process?

There are Twenty-four places available on each course.
The quality of your application is of course considered in determining our final decision.
When selecting we aim to create a balanced cohort reflecting the broadest range of backgrounds, lived experiences, geography and area of work.
Applications are assessed anonymously.
We will normally only have one participant from any one organisation on a single course. However, on occasion, we may take up to two participants from the same organisation, as long as that organisation has more than 200 employees and the two participants do not work closely together.

When will find out if I have a place?

We will notify all candidates of our decision whether they are successful or not by the deadline given. Unfortunately, due to the high number of applications, we are unable to provide feedback should your application be unsuccessful.
Approval of the selected candidates is made by the Executive Director and Head of Programmes of the Clore Leadership Programme, whose decision is final.