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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JULIANNE MOORE
Tavares Strachan
Photography by Tavares Strachan

Tavares Strachan

VISUAL ARTIST

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?

Most people believe my first name is Portuguese or Spanish, but it is East African. It translates to “hermit” or “spirit of an old man.” I guess names are somewhat prophetic. I like being out and about; I love being behind the scenes.

NAME AN INFLUENCE OF YOURS THAT MIGHT SURPRISE PEOPLE.

Peter Tosh was a huge influence, not only as an artist but also as one of the foundational blueprints for how to make people move consciously with light. Now, his music, like most Black music, is dangerous with a capital D, and that is why I was attracted to it as a youth. He taught me that art is consciousness.

WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, WHAT WERE YOU KNOWN FOR?

I was a pain in the ass, asking too many questions. Was a huge back-talker. Sorry, mom. So that was me as a youngster: mouthy but shy at the same time. I grew up with 6 brothers plus 16 uncles and 10 aunts, so my confidence came from that squad. Even when I was alone, I felt like I had numbers, if you know what I mean.

“Most people believe my first name is Portuguese or Spanish, but it is East African. It translates to ‘hermit’ or ‘spirit of an old man.’ I guess names are somewhat prophetic.”

WHAT’S COMING UP FOR YOU IN 2024?

I am anticipating an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London this June. It is my grandest-scale project to date. The layers of subjects and material processes in the show have been especially exciting to develop. From multisensorial sound and light works to literally flooding parts of the gallery, I am looking to tell stories in a language that speaks to the human condition.

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ROSE BYRNE
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JULIANNE MOORE