{"id":408273,"date":"2026-01-15T07:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T07:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/408273\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T07:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T07:07:13","slug":"united-states-artists-awards-50k-grants-to-50-fellows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/408273\/","title":{"rendered":"United States Artists Awards $50K Grants to 50 Fellows"},"content":{"rendered":"

News<\/a><\/p>\n

Visual artists Edra Soto and Eric-Paul Riege are among the recipients of this year\u2019s unrestricted award.<\/p>\n


\n \"Isa
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\"United
\n Edra Soto’s 2025 “place of dwelling” (image courtesy Edra Soto)<\/p>\n

United States Artists (USA), a Chicago-based nonprofit, has named 50 artists across disciplines to receive its annual $50,000 unrestricted cash award.<\/p>\n

After a year-long selection process, which includes nominations, the organization awarded USA Fellowships to artists across the country in 10 discipline categories: visual art, architecture and design, craft, writing, dance, film, music, theater and performance, and traditional arts and media. A full list of awardees is included at the end of this article.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s awardee class marks the USA Fellowship\u2019s 20th year. The organization considers artists with singular artistic visions who have made an impact in their respective disciplines. Among this year\u2019s winners for the visual arts category are Chicago-based artist and curator Edra Soto, whose work contends with diasporic identity<\/a>; New Mexico-based interdisciplinary weaver Eric-Paul Riege; and Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist Mercedes Dorame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fashion designer Xenobia Bailey, Palestinian-American writer and journalist Sarah Aziza, and tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith are also among the winners.\u00a0In addition to the 50-artist cohort, USA gave a $50,000 award to Lori Lea Pourier (Oglala Lakota) as part of the Berresford Prize for impactful cultural leaders.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fellowship recipient Mercedes Dorame’s “Woshaa’axre Yaang’aro” (2024), a commission for the Getty Rotunda (photo courtesy the artist)<\/p>\n

In an interview with Hyperallergic, USA Program Director Anne Ishii said the organization was established by a group of funders who \u201crecognized a huge gap being left by public funding.\u201d <\/p>\n

Unlike funding granted by agencies like the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for specific projects,\u00a0the USA Fellowship is an unrestricted award, allowing artists to spend their prize however they like. These stipulations allow awardees to direct their awards toward living costs, such as healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the artists to feel like they’re in a sustainable work environment, and we’re supplementing our artists as people, so that they can make the decisions around how they can support themselves,\u201d Ishii told Hyperallergic in a phone call. \u201cToo often, I think what happens is, when it’s project-based, there’s now the pressure to deliver something that’s beholden to the criteria of yet another overseer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The unrestricted fellowship turns 20 as artists and cultural organizations across the country face a complicated new public funding landscape, one defined by Trump-ordered mass grant terminations<\/a> at agencies like the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities. <\/p>\n

While the fellowship doesn\u2019t control how artists spend their award, USA does survey its artists about what they intend to do with the funds. Increasingly, over the past 20 years, artists have shifted from stating that they will fund their practice to addressing housing, healthcare, and livability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of the artistic practices in this year\u2019s cohort, Ishii observed, emphasize legacy and the archive. \u201cThere’s a lot being said about holding that information, and I do suspect that it is somewhat in response to a concern that we’re going to lose it,\u201d Ishii said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The complete list of 2026 USA Fellowship recipients is below. <\/p>\n

Visual Art\u00a0Edra Soto \u2014 Interdisciplinary Artist \u2014 Chicago, ILEric-Paul Riege \u2014 Maker, Performer, and Weaver \u2014 Na’n\u00edzhoozh\u00ed or Gallup, NM\u00a0Macon Reed \u2014 Interdisciplinary Artist \u2014 New Orleans, LA\u00a0Maia Chao \u2014 Artist \u2014 Philadelphia, PA\u00a0Mercedes Dorame \u2014 Multidisciplinary Artist \u2014 Los Angeles, CA\u00a0Raheleh Filsoofi \u2014 Itinerate and Interdisciplinary Artist \u2014 Nashville, TNArchitecture & DesignCurry J. Hackett \u2014 Multimedia Artist and Educator \u2014 Brooklyn, NY\u00a0Margaret Roach Wheeler \u2014 Weaver and Textile Designer \u2014 Sulphur, OKRosten Woo \u2014 Civic Designer \u2014 Los Angeles, CACraftAnina Major \u2014 Artist \u2014 Los Angeles, CA\u00a0Anthony Sonnenberg \u2014 Decoration Enthusiast \u2014 Fayetteville, ARCorey Pemberton \u2014 Multidisciplinary Artist \u2014 Los Angeles, CANorwood Viviano \u2014 Glass and Multimedia Artist \u2014 Kalamazoo, MIRobell Awake \u2014 Chairmaker \u2014 Atlanta, GAXenobia Bailey \u2014 Enchantress, Crochet Fiber Artist \u2014 Philadelphia, PAWritingJohanna Hedva \u2014 Writer, Artist, and Musician \u2014 Tongva, Tataviam, Serrano, Kizh, and Chumash Territories (aka: Los Angeles, CA)\u00a0LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs \u2014 Interdisciplinary Poet and Relative \u2014 New York, NY\u00a0Lauren Rebecca Weinstein \u2014 Sequential Storyteller \u2014 Maplewood, NJ\u00a0Mayukh Sen \u2014 Biographer and Essayist \u2014 Brooklyn, NY\u00a0Sarah Aziza \u2014 Writer \u2014 New York, NYDanceJason Samuels Smith \u2014 Tap Dancer \u2014 Jersey City, NJ\u00a0Mame Diarra Speis-Biaye \u2014 Movement Improviser, Choreographer, and Kinesthetic Storyteller \u2014 New York, NY\u00a0Parul Shah \u2014 Performer, Choreographer, and Educator \u2014 New York, NY\u00a0Shamel Pitts \u2014 Choreographer, Dancer, and Director \u2014 Brooklyn, NY\u00a0Thaddeus Davis & Tanya Wideman-Davis (Wideman Davis Dance) \u2014Transdisciplinary Dancers and Choreographers \u2014 Columbia, SCFilm\u00a0Fawzia Mirza \u2014 Filmmaker \u2014 Los Angeles, CA\u00a0Jules Rosskam \u2014 Nonfiction Filmmaker \u2014 Brooklyn, NY\u00a0Monica Sorelle \u2014 Filmmaker and Artist \u2014 Miami, FL\u00a0Raven Jackson \u2014 Filmmaker, Poet, and Photographer \u2014 Los Angeles, CASet Hernandez \u2014 Filmmaker, Writer, and Community Organizer \u2014 San Fernando Valley, CAMedia Anjali Kamat \u2014 Creative Nonfiction and Multimedia Artist \u2014 New York, NY\u00a0Chenjerai Kumanyika \u2014 Critical Audio Documentarian and Organizer \u2014 New York, NY Mendi Obadike & Keith Obadike Interdisciplinary Artists and Composers \u2014 Ithaca, NY\u00a0Nancy Baker Cahill \u2014 Transdisciplinary Artist \u2014 Germantown, NY\u00a0Nat Decker \u2014 Artist \u2014 Los Angeles, CA\u00a0Nathan Young \u2014 Artist, Curator, Scholar, and Composer \u2014 Tahlequah, OKMusic\u00a0Ben LaMar Gay \u2014 Multi-Freshness Artist, Improviser, and Composer \u2014 Chicago, ILSharon Udoh \u2014 Pianist, Composer, and Hymnologist \u2014 Chicago, ILinti figgis-vizueta \u2014 Composer-Artist \u2014 New York, NY\u00a0Layale Chaker \u2014 Composer and Performer \u2014 New York, NY\u00a0Terri Lyne Carrington \u2014 Musician, Producer, and Conceptualist \u2014 Woburn, MATheater & PerformanceJeanette Oi-Suk Yew \u2014 Theater Designer and Artist \u2014 New York, NY\u00a0Mei Ann Teo \u2014 Director, Theatre Maker, and Artistic Leader \u2014 New York, NYMina Morita \u2014 Director \u2014 Washington, DC Tanya Orellana \u2014 Scenic Designer\u00a0New York, NY Ty Defoe \u2014 Interdisciplinary Artist \u2014 New York, NYTraditional Arts\u00a0Aristotle Jones \u2014 Singer, Songwriter, and Storyteller \u2014 Osage, WV\u00a0Lily Hope \u2014 Cultural Continuity Artist \u2014 Juneau, AK\u00a0Sheila Kay Adams \u2014 Traditional Ballad Singer, Banjoist, and Storyteller \u2014Marshall, NC\u00a0Willi Carlisle \u2014 Folk Singer \u2014 Kansas City, MO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News Visual artists Edra Soto and Eric-Paul Riege are among the recipients of this year\u2019s unrestricted award. Edra…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-408273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}