Gratitude to the museum directors, curators, conservators, and preservationists who protect the art and heritage of humanity for everyone, for good. From the great museums to the quiet studios where masterpieces are healed, celebrated from public work, cited, removable on request.
44 of 1024 · celebrated from public information, cited on every card.
Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, steward of one of the world's most encyclopedic collections.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
He guides five thousand years of human creativity with curatorial breadth and generosity, opening the Met's collections and scholarship to millions of visitors and researchers every year.
President and Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, a curator devoted to living artists and a great teaching museum.
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA
A curator at heart, he stewards a beloved civic collection and champions living artists while keeping the museum a place of learning for Chicago and the wider public.
CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of LACMA, reimagining an open museum for all of Los Angeles.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, USA
He has reimagined LACMA as an open, city-spanning museum, expanding access across neighborhoods and centering artists in how the collection is shown and shared.
Director of MoMA since 2025, a scholar of prints and drawings who rose through the museum over two decades.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA
A rigorous scholar who joined the museum in 2007, he now stewards modern and contemporary art with deep care for artists and the public conversation around their work.
Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, the essential home for artists of African descent.
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, USA
For two decades she has nurtured generations of talent through the museum's landmark residency and welcomed Harlem into a stunning new home for art by artists of African descent.
Director of the National Gallery in London, an art historian devoted to the Old Masters and free public access.
The National Gallery, London, UK
An art historian who safeguards a collection meant for everyone, he marked the Gallery's bicentenary by widening scholarship and free access for the whole nation.
Director of the British Museum, leading its most ambitious renewal in generations.
The British Museum, London, UK
He leads one of the world's great museums through a landmark redesign, committed to scholarship, careful stewardship, and sharing a global collection with the widest possible public.
Director of Tate from 2017 to 2026, who broadened who feels at home in Britain's national galleries of art.
Tate, London, UK
Across nine years leading four museums, she championed overlooked artists and worked to make Britain's national art collection feel open and welcoming to everyone.
Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries, a tireless curator and interviewer connecting artists and ideas worldwide.
Serpentine Galleries, London, UK
He has connected artists, ideas, and audiences across the globe, turning the Serpentine into a laboratory of ideas and preserving countless artists' voices for the record.
First woman to lead the Louvre (2021 to 2026) and former president of the Musee d'Orsay, now heading a G7 museums cooperation mission.
Musee du Louvre, Paris, France
She has devoted her career to public scholarship and access at France's greatest museums, and now works to deepen cooperation among the world's leading institutions.
Director of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples, a meticulous scholar reviving a great Italian collection.
Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy
He is reviving Capodimonte by bringing overlooked women artists and Neapolitan masters out of storage and reaching out to the schoolchildren of Naples and Campania.
Director of the Museo Nacional del Prado, a leading scholar of Venetian and Spanish painting.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain
He safeguards one of the world's supreme collections of European art and keeps the Prado a place of rigorous study and public delight for scholars and visitors alike.
First woman to lead Berlin's state museums as president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), Berlin, Germany
She stewards nearly five million objects across fifteen Berlin institutions with a scholar's care and a firm belief in museums as shared civic ground.
General Director of the Rijksmuseum, a curator of Dutch painting leading the Netherlands' national museum.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
A curator who has led the Rijksmuseum for nearly a decade, he unites deep scholarship with a generous, welcoming vision of the national museum for all who visit.
Director of the State Hermitage Museum for over three decades, an Orientalist scholar and lifelong steward.
State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
He has devoted his life to one of the world's greatest collections, sustaining its traditions of learning, conservation, and public access across many decades.
Director of the Mori Art Museum, a globally respected curator championing Japanese and Asian art.
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
She leads the Mori Art Museum and champions Japanese and Asian art on the world stage, building bridges of scholarship and exchange across cultures.
Director of the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City, a conservation scholar and former guardian of the Dunhuang caves.
The Palace Museum (Forbidden City), Beijing, China
A conservation scholar who protected the Dunhuang caves for decades, he now stewards the Forbidden City's imperial collection and shares Chinese heritage with the world.
Chairperson of Qatar Museums, who built a nation's public museums and art programs from the ground up.
Qatar Museums, Doha, Qatar
She has built Qatar's public museums and one of the world's largest public art programs, preserving the region's heritage and opening art, film, and design to communities across the country.
Founder, President and Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation and artistic director of major biennials.
Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
An artist and curator, she founded and leads the Sharjah Art Foundation as a home for artists from the Global South and steers major biennials while championing scholarship and exchange.
Founder of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, bringing modern and contemporary Indian art to a wide public.
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), New Delhi, India
She founded India's first private art museum to share modern and contemporary Indian art with a wide public, and is building a landmark new home to open that heritage to all.
Artistic Director of MASP and the first Latin American to curate the Venice Biennale.
Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo (MASP), Sao Paulo, Brazil
He champions Indigenous, self-taught, and long-overlooked artists at MASP and on the world stage, rethinking how a collection can hold and tell many histories.
President of the Fondation Zinsou, bringing contemporary African art to the people of Benin.
Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, Benin
She founded a museum and foundation to bring contemporary African art to the people of Benin, welcoming schoolchildren and families for free and giving the continent's art a proud public home.
Conservation scientist and incoming director safeguarding the world's shared conservation knowledge.
Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, USA
After decades unlocking the chemistry of paintings at the microscope, she now guides the Getty's global mission so that conservators everywhere, and the communities they serve, inherit the science needed to keep art alive for centuries.
Director-General leading the world's intergovernmental body for conservation training.
ICCROM, Rome, Italy
She stewards the one global institution devoted to teaching nations how to care for their own heritage, so that the skills of preservation are shared fairly across every country and passed to the next generation.
Superintendent of the historic Florentine workshop where masterpieces are healed.
Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence, Italy
She leads the storied Medici restoration institute whose conservators mend paintings, mosaics and stone with quiet devotion, keeping Florence a living school where the craft of saving art is taught to future hands.
Master paintings conservator overseeing the care of one of the world's great collections.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
His patient hands have brought Velazquez and Bruegel back to life, and as the Met's deputy director for conservation he ensures countless masterpieces are tended with care so millions can meet them face to face for generations.
CEO safeguarding irreplaceable places with the communities who call them home.
World Monuments Fund, New York, USA
She leads a worldwide effort to rescue endangered monuments hand in hand with local people, treating each saved site as a gift held in trust for the neighborhoods and children who will gather there long after us.
Film restoration pioneer rescuing world cinema frame by frame.
Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
He built one of the planet's great film laboratories and festivals, reviving fading reels from every continent so that the moving images of the past keep speaking, in their true colors, to audiences not yet born.
Head of conservation restoring Renaissance and Baroque paintings for the public.
The National Gallery, London, UK
His careful cleaning of Leonardo and Rubens lets crowds see these paintings as their makers intended, and he trains a new generation to keep the nation's pictures luminous and truthful for everyone who walks in free.
Head of conservation for one of the world's finest manuscript collections.
Chester Beatty, Dublin, Ireland
A specialist in Islamic bookbinding, she mends fragile Qurans and illuminated manuscripts and teaches conservators across the globe, keeping the handwritten wisdom of many cultures readable and cherished for centuries to come.
Executive director rescuing endangered films and world cinema.
The Film Foundation, New York, USA
She has helped save more than nine hundred films from decay, including treasures from countries whose cinema might otherwise vanish, so that the shared memory of the movies stays alive for audiences and filmmakers to come.
Conservator in charge caring for centuries of tapestries and textiles.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
With needle and endless patience she stabilizes fragile weavings and embroideries that would otherwise crumble, keeping the fabric of human artistry, thread by thread, whole enough for future eyes to wonder at.
Conservator and teacher building art conservation across India.
CSMVS Museum, Mumbai, India
He restores paintings and objects and, just as importantly, is founding training centers so India can care for its own vast heritage, gifting a whole country the skills to protect its memory for the generations ahead.
Head of conservation reviving imperial treasures in the Forbidden City.
The Palace Museum, Beijing, China
He leads the Palace Museum's relic hospital where science joins centuries-old apprenticed craft to heal lacquer, bronze and silk, ensuring China's imperial legacy is passed intact to the visitors and craftspeople of tomorrow.
Architect leading the reconstruction of war-damaged heritage in Mosul.
UNESCO Revive the Spirit of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
She helped rebuild Mosul's beloved leaning minaret and historic houses from the rubble using salvaged stones and traditional skill, giving a wounded city back its identity and its people a future rooted in their own past.
Librarian who smuggled and now preserves Timbuktu's ancient manuscripts.
SAVAMA-DCI, Timbuktu, Mali
When extremists threatened Timbuktu, he risked his life to spirit hundreds of thousands of medieval manuscripts to safety, and now conserves and digitizes them so Africa's written genius endures for scholars and children everywhere.
Pioneering photograph conservator safeguarding the world's photographic memory.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
She built the Met's photograph conservation department from nothing and mentors conservators worldwide, working so the fragile images that hold our collective memory survive light, time and decay for those who come after.
Heritage leader championing the conservation of Africa's monuments.
University of Cape Town and former ICCROM, Harare, Zimbabwe
From Great Zimbabwe to World Heritage sites across the continent, he has spent his life insisting Africa's places be cared for on African terms, training the managers who will safeguard them for the communities they belong to.
Archaeologist and elder statesman of world heritage preservation.
Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage, Manama, Bahrain
Across half a century at UNESCO and ICCROM he has led rescue campaigns for endangered sites worldwide, and still guides Arab nations in protecting their monuments so that shared human history survives for all who follow.
Restorer of Renaissance sculpture, fresco and architecture.
Independent restoration studio, Rome, Italy
His hands have returned Michelangelo's Moses and great cathedral facades to their glory, and through his study of every chisel mark he keeps the Renaissance vivid and legible for the artists and pilgrims of tomorrow.
Architect preserving historic cities and living heritage.
Harvard Graduate School of Design and RMA Architects, Cambridge, USA and Mumbai, India
He fought to protect Mumbai's historic precincts and restores landmark buildings while teaching a global generation, believing a city's old fabric is a common inheritance to be kept alive for the people who live among it.
Conservator leading global conservation programmes.
ICCROM, Rome, Italy
A conservator by training, he shapes the worldwide programs that help museums and nations, especially those with the fewest resources, learn to care for their collections, spreading the craft of preservation to communities everywhere.
Scholar-conservator recovering the techniques of Mesoamerican painting.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, USA
Blending chemistry, archaeology and art history, she has decoded the colors of ancient Mexican murals and the Florentine Codex, giving voice back to Indigenous makers and their descendants and keeping that knowledge alive for the future.
Studio restoration steward preserving a century of American film.
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Culver City, USA
He has personally guided the restoration of classics like Lawrence of Arabia and Taxi Driver and safeguards an entire studio library, so the artistry of cinema survives in its full beauty for audiences generations from now.
Toward 1024. Every champion is real, public, and cited; anyone featured can ask to be updated or removed.
A celebration of the Art Stewards & Museum Leaders community, assembled entirely from public information as an act of credit and gratitude. It is not a claim of endorsement, affiliation, sponsorship, or partnership by anyone featured. Every person is real and publicly documented, with a cited source of truth on their card; we never invent a person or a claim, and we prize accuracy over speed. Anyone featured can ask to be updated or removed at any time. Names and marks belong to their owners.