Claude M. Walker, Jr. honored with the 2025 Craft Leadership Award

PRESS RELEASE

January 20, 2026

Columbia, S.C. – The Columbia Museum of Art is proud to announce Claude M. Walker, Jr. as the recipient of the 2025 John Richard Craft Leadership Award. Named for the museum’s first director, the Craft Award is the highest honor the CMA bestows. 

Through his board service, committee participation, and generous gifts to the museum, Walker epitomizes the philanthropic leadership the CMA recognizes each year with the Craft Award. CMA board of trustees president Therese Griffin welcomed guests and 2023 Craft Award honoree Ginny Newell joined in presenting the award to Walker at an elegant appreciation reception celebrating his service on Friday, January 16. 

“Claude’s unwavering commitment to strengthening the visual arts museum — matched by his warmth, deep business knowledge, and passion for collecting — has been a gift to our entire community,” says Della Watkins, CMA executive director. 

Born and raised in Columbia, Walker first began to appreciate the arts in primary school. He graduated cum laude from Washington & Lee University with a B.A. in economics and later earned an M.B.A. from the University of South Carolina. 

His working career was spent at Standard Corporation, a family business that acted as a service provider to major industries; he was Standard’s chief executive officer in the years leading up to its sale in 2002. He served as president of the Southeastern Warehouse and Movers’ Association and on the board of the International Warehouse Logistics Association.   

Walker dedicated his next chapter to community service through nonprofit board and committee volunteerism. At one time, he was an active member of some 13 boards and committees, lending his passion and leadership skills to organizations including the YMCA, the libraries of USC, First Presbyterian Church, where he is an elder, and of course, the CMA. 

Over the years, Walker has served the museum on numerous boards and committees. A visionary member of the CMA since 1999, Walker first joined its board of trustees in 2006. Reelected in 2014, he served as board president from 2014 to 2016 and as vice president from 2016 to 2017. He joined the collections committee also in 2006 — elected committee chair from 2009 to 2011 — and is still an active member. He was on the nominations committee from 2010 to 2012 and again from 2015 to 2017. In addition to his active participation on the collections committee, Walker continues his long service on the finance committee, which he joined in 2016.  

Beyond his service roles, Walker has supported the CMA through philanthropic giving, including art gifts and loans. In 2014, he and several others gifted Robert S. Duncanson’s Landscape with Fantastic Architecture to the museum. A devoted collector for whom art is a true passion, Walker loaned works from his collection to the CMA’s 2022 exhibition In the Shadow of Monet: Giverny and American Impressionism.  

In his spare time, Walker enjoys being with family — he and his wife, Joann, are blessed with two daughters and three grandsons — collecting art and rare books, reading or listening to audiobooks, traveling, and playing golf with friends. 

The CMA is grateful to Walker for his dedication to the museum, the community, and the arts.