About

Vision

For 75 years, the Aspen Institute has cultivated leaders who use reflection, dialogue, and action to build understanding and address the world’s most pressing challenges. As part of the Institute’s 75th anniversary campaign, the Michael D. Eisner Arts & Culture Fellowship continues that legacy by empowering arts leaders to harness creativity as a force for good.

This pilot Fellowship strengthens the capacity of artist leaders – producers, curators, and cultural innovators – to connect across disciplines, examine their role as leaders, and drive change rooted in shared values and collective imagination.

By creating a rare, intergenerational and global community of creative leaders, the Fellowship aims to amplify the transformative power of the arts to envision and build a more just, vibrant, and open society.

Benefits of Participation

The Michael D. Eisner Arts & Culture Fellowship is designed for arts leaders who have achieved considerable success in their careers and are at an inflection point, aspiring to drive meaningful impact through their leadership. The Fellowship offers a structured space to explore how they can leverage their unique roles and abilities to drive positive change.

The experience provides a fourfold benefit to Fellows at this stage in their journey:

1) Reflection
An opportunity to pause and examine how personal values inform their work, leadership decisions, and contributions to the broader cultural landscape.

2) Connection
Deep bonds with a global, intergenerational network of arts leaders who share a commitment to ethical leadership, collaboration, and collective imagination.

3) Renewal and Action
Support from Aspen moderators, peers, and mentors to translate insights into meaningful impact that advances a more just, vibrant, and open society.

4) Lifelong Membership

Upon completion of all four seminars, Fellows become lifelong members of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN). The AGLN is a growing, worldwide community of high integrity leaders who share a commitment to using their creativity, energy, and resources to tackle the foremost societal challenges of our times. Through a rare community of support, transformative convenings, and catalytic capital, we ignite 4,000+ Fellows across 62 countries to turn moral courage into lasting change.

A Community to Catalyze Impact

The Aspen Institute has cultivated one of the most dynamic global networks of leaders dedicated to driving positive change. Building on this legacy, the Institute created the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN), a community that connects purpose-driven individuals across sectors and geographies, helping them move from reflection to action on society’s most pressing challenges.

The Michael D. Eisner Arts & Culture Fellowship is part of the AGLN, joining more than 4,000 Fellows across 62 countries who have completed one of 16+ cohort-based Fellowship programs. As members of this lifelong network, Fellows gain opportunities for continued connection across the global community, access to catalytic capital, and transformative convenings like the Resnick Aspen Action Forum to support their leadership and impact – opportunities that extend far beyond their two-year Fellowship experience.

The Fellowship is developed and led in partnership with the Aspen Institute Arts Program, which champions the role of artists and cultural leaders as critical thought leaders, futurists, and changemakers. Since the Institute’s founding, art and design have been integral to its mission – from the Aspen, Colorado campus designed by artist Herbert Bayer in 1954 to today’s Harman/Eisner Artist in Residence Program and Artist-Activist Fellowship. Through its programs, convening power, and vast network, the Arts Program connects artists and leaders across all fields to inspire meaningful dialogue and action on some of our greatest challenges.

This partnership brings together the AGLN’s proven Fellowship model with the Arts Program’s deep expertise in cultural industries, creating a unique space for arts leaders to examine their values, connect across disciplines, and amplify their impact.

Aspen Institute Team