Publishing is full of rankings, from power lists to best-dressed lists to under-40 lists. The CULT100 is different. There is just one criterion for inclusion—but it’s a high bar.

To qualify, a candidate must be actively shaping and changing our culture in real time. The people on this list represent five generations and hail from the worlds of food, publishing, art, fashion, activism, and entertainment. To put this group together, CULTURED‘s editors leveraged the full strength of our network, tapping artists, writers, and cultural leaders to tell us who they look to when they want to feel challenged, hopeful, and inspired.

Some members of the CULT100 are household names; others have been working behind the scenes to make possible the cultural encounters that stop us in our tracks. In a time of binary thinking, the creators featured in this year’s list are embracing contradiction, bouncing willfully between disciplines, and refusing to take no for an answer. They have guts, vision, and a potent cocktail of realism and optimism. None of them is shying away from the anxiety of our moment. Instead, they are thinking big, sharing generously, and embodying courage. The good news is, their work makes us all a little bit braver, too.

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Photography by MARIA PONCE

MADELEINE GRYNSZTEJN

DIRECTOR, MCA CHICAGO

The director of The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is at the forefront of a movement to make museums more welcoming, accessible, and reflective of the communities they serve—DEI backlash be damned.

WHAT IS YOUR TRADEMARK? I’m a museum leader of integrity, determination, and hope; an advocate for artists; and a friend and mentor to fellow women museum leaders.

WHAT’S ONE BOOK, WORK OF ART, OR FILM THAT GOT YOU THROUGH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE? I’m going to cheat and name two. Nick Cave’s newsletter, The Red Hand Files, got me through Covid and has since become my Monday morning hymnal. His words have a way of cutting through the noise. And always, my community of artist friends—forged throughout my curatorial career but especially when I organized the 1999/2000 Carnegie International—continues to guide me. Artists are my true north.

"Museums can no longer simply reflect the world; they must actively bring together diverse voices, foster understanding, and push against divisiveness."

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF IN YOUR INDUSTRY? More power in artists’ hands. The Artist-Museum Partnership Act, a proposed piece of legislation, would return to artists the right to take a full charitable tax deduction when donating their work to museums. This would change the entire art ecosystem—and our world—for the better. When artists drive what is seen in museums, art becomes more varied, accessible, and available in more places. I’ve advocated for this on Capitol Hill because until it changes, the public’s ability to see, be inspired by, and learn from the best artists of our time remains compromised.

IF YOU COULD ATTRIBUTE YOUR SUCCESS TO A SINGLE QUALITY, WHAT WOULD IT BE? My itinerant, multilingual background across Latin American, Europe, and the United States cultivated in me an insatiable hunger for and delight in learning something new every day. That curiosity fuels my work in museums, where the ability to listen, learn, and bridge perspectives is essential. Museums can no longer simply reflect the world; they must actively bring together diverse voices, foster understanding, and push against divisiveness.

WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT? The current state of the world and its impact on artists and communities is undeniable. However, at the MCA Chicago, we don’t flinch.

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JEN RUBIO
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SARAH ARISON