United States Artists Announces 2026 Recipients of $50,000 Fellowships

United States Artists Announces 2026 Recipients of $50,000 Fellowships

Chicago-based nonprofitUnited States Artistson January 14 announced the fifty recipients of its 2026 fellowships. Each will receive an unrestricted cash award of $50,000 as well as access to professional development resources. The honorees, who represent nineteen states and Washington, DC, work across nine disciplines: architecture and design, craft, dance, media, music, theater and performance, traditional arts, visual art, and writing.

“For two decades, United States Artists has advanced a simple yet powerful conviction—that artists are essential to the imagination and health of our society,” said Judilee Reed, president and CEO of United States Artists in a statement. “Our commitment to unrestricted support, with programs such as the USA Fellowship, has enabled artists across every discipline and place to sustain their livelihoods, take creative risks, and define their own paths forward.”  Related Warhol Foundation Names Fall 2025 Grantees Ruth Foundation Names 2026 Ruth Award Recipients

This year, six fellowships went to visual artists. These were the Puerto Rico–born Chicago artist Edra Soto, whose work explores diasporic identity and colonial legacies; New Mexico–based fiber artist Eric-Paul Riege, whose work channels the weaving and ceremonial traditions of his Diné/Navajo ancestors; Macon Reed, of New Orleans, known for their immersive installations investigating structures of power through a queer and feminist lens; Philadelphia-based artist Maia Chao, whose social practice–influenced work will appear in the forthcoming Whitney Biennial; photographer Mercedes Dorame, of Los Angeles, who looks to her Tongva ancestry in works exploring notions of visibility cultural construction; and Nashville-based artist Raheleh Filsoofi, known for clay and sound works examining themes of migration. Also among the cohort in other fields were Los Angeles–based filmmaker Fawzia Mirza, a former lawyer who brings her experience growing up as a queer Muslim in Canada to bear in her work; New Jersey cartoonist Lauren Rebecca Weinstein, whose work addresses issues of motherhood, mortality, and domestic violence; and writer Johanna Hedva, of Los Angeles, who published her essay collection How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom in 2024.

The organization this year awarded its Berresford Prize, named for onetime Ford Foundation president Susan Berresford and “honoring a cultural practitioner for their significant contributions to the advancement of artists in society,” per a press release, to Lori Lea Pourier (Oglala Lakota), a veteran arts leader who has advocated for Indigenous artists for three decades, variously working at the First Nations Development Institute, the International Indigenous Women’s Network, and the First Peoples Fund, which she founded and where she is currently a senior fellow.

“Through the Berresford Prize, we recognize that there are creative administrators who create the conditions that support artists,” said Reed. “The legacy of USA relies on the vitality and enduring impact of these artists and administrators, whose work continues to reimagine and enrich our collective future. We look forward to the next twenty years and beyond.”

A full list of 2026 fellows is below.

Architecture & DesignCurry J. Hackett (he/him)Multimedia Artist and Educator Brooklyn, NY

Margaret Roach Wheeler (she/her)Weaver and Textile Designer Sulphur, OK

Rosten Woo (he/him)ArtistLos Angeles

CraftAnina Major (she/her)ArtistLos AngelesAnthony Sonnenberg (he/him)Decoration EnthusiastFayetteville, ARCorey Pemberton (he/him/they/them)Multidisciplinary ArtistLos AngelesNorwood Viviano (he/him)Glass and Multimedia ArtistKalamazoo, MI

Robell Awake (he/him)ChairmakerAtlanta 

Xenobia Bailey (she/her)Enchantress, Crochet Fiber ArtistPhiladelphia

DanceJason Samuels Smith (he/him)Tap DancerJersey City, NJ

Mame Diarra Speis-Biaye (she/her)Movement Improviser, Choreographer, and Kinesthetic StorytellerNew YorkParul Shah (she/her)Performer, Choreographer, and EducatorNew YorkShamel Pitts (he/him)Choreographer, Dancer, and DirectorBrooklyn, NYThaddeus Davis (he/him) & Tanya Wideman-Davis (she/her) (Wideman Davis Dance)Transdisciplinary Dancers and ChoreographersColumbia, SC

FilmFawzia Mirza (she/her/they/them)FilmmakerLos AngelesJules Rosskam (he/him)Nonfiction FilmmakerBrooklyn, NYMonica Sorelle (she/her)Filmmaker and ArtistMiamiRaven Jackson (she/her)Filmmaker, Poet, and PhotographerLos AngelesSet Hernandez (they/them/she/her/he/him)Filmmaker, Writer, and Community OrganizerSan Fernando Valley, CA 

MediaAnjali Kamat (she/her)Creative Nonfiction and Multimedia ArtistNew YorkChenjerai Kumanyika (he/him)Critical Audio Documentarian and OrganizerNew YorkMendi Obadike (she/her) & Keith Obadike (he/him)Interdisciplinary Artists and ComposersIthaca, NYNancy Baker Cahill (she/her)Transdisciplinary ArtistGermantown, NYNat Decker (they/them)ArtistLos AngelesNathan Young (he/him)Artist, Curator, Scholar, and ComposerTahlequah, OK

MusicBen LaMar Gay (he/him)Multi-Freshness Artist, Improviser, and ComposerChicagoSharon Udoh (she/her)Pianist, Composer, and HymnologistChicagointi figgis-vizueta (she/her)Composer-ArtistNew YorkLayale Chaker (she/her)Composer and PerformerNew YorkTerri Lyne Carrington (she/her)Musician, Producer, and ConceptualistWoburn, MA

Theater & PerformanceJeanette Oi-Suk Yew (she/her)Theater Designer and ArtistNew YorkMei Ann TeoDirector, Theatre Maker, and Artistic LeaderNew YorkMina Morita (she/her)DirectorWashington, DC

Tanya Orellana (she/her)Scenic DesignerNew YorkTy Defoe (he/him/we/our)Interdisciplinary ArtistNew York

Traditional ArtsAristotle Jones (he/him)Singer, Songwriter, and StorytellerOsage, WVLily Hope (she/her)Cultural Continuity ArtistJuneau, AKSheila Kay Adams (she/her)Traditional Ballad Singer, Banjoist, and StorytellerMarshall, NCWilli Carlisle (he/him)

Folk SingerKansas City, MO

Visual ArtEdra Soto (she/her)Interdisciplinary ArtistChicagoEric-Paul Riege (he/him)Maker, Performer, and WeaverNa’nízhoozhí or Gallup, NM

Macon Reed (they/them)Interdisciplinary ArtistNew OrleansMaia Chao (she/her)ArtistPhiladelphiaMercedes Dorame (she/her)Multidisciplinary ArtistLos AngelesRaheleh Filsoofi (she/her)Itinerate and Interdisciplinary ArtistNashville, TN

WritingJohanna Hedva (they/them)Writer, Artist, and MusicianTongva, Tataviam, Serrano, Kizh, and Chumash Territories aka Los AngelesLaTasha N. Nevada Diggs (she/her)Interdisciplinary Poet and RelativeNew York

Lauren Rebecca WeinsteinSequential StorytellerMaplewood, NJ Mayukh Sen (he/him)Biographer and Essayist Brooklyn, NYSarah Aziza (she/her/هي)WriterLocated Canarsie and Munsee Lenape Land, aka Brooklyn, NY