United States Artists Awards $50K Grants to 50 Fellows
Visual artists Edra Soto and Eric-Paul Riege are among the recipients of this year’s unrestricted award.
United States Artists (USA), a Chicago-based nonprofit, has named 50 artists across disciplines to receive its annual $50,000 unrestricted financial award.
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.
This year’s awardee class marks the USA Fellowship’s 20th year. The organization considers artists with singular artistic visions who have made an impact in their respective disciplines. Among this year’s winners for the visual arts category are Chicago-based artist and curator Edra Soto, whose work contends with diasporic identity; New Mexico-based interdisciplinary weaver Eric-Paul Riege; and Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist Mercedes Dorame.
Fashion designer Xenobia Bailey, Palestinian-American writer and journalist Sarah Aziza, and tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith are also among the winners. In 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.
In an interview with Hyperallergic, USA Program Director Anne Ishii said the organization was established by a group of funders who “recognized a huge gap being left by public funding.”
Unlike funding granted by agencies like the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for specific projects, the 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.
“We 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,” Ishii told Hyperallergic in a phone call. “Too 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.”
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 at agencies like the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
While the fellowship doesn’t 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.
Many of the artistic practices in this year’s cohort, Ishii observed, emphasize legacy and the archive. “There'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,” Ishii said.
The complete list of 2026 USA Fellowship recipients is below.
Visual Art
Edra Soto — Interdisciplinary Artist — Chicago, IL
Eric-Paul Riege — Maker, Performer, and Weaver — Na'nízhoozhí or Gallup, NM
Macon Reed — Interdisciplinary Artist — New Orleans, LA
Maia Chao — Artist — Philadelphia, PA
Mercedes Dorame — Multidisciplinary Artist — Los Angeles, CA
Raheleh Filsoofi — Itinerate and Interdisciplinary Artist — Nashville, TN
Architecture & Design
Curry J. Hackett — Multimedia Artist and Educator — Brooklyn, NY
Margaret Roach Wheeler — Weaver and Textile Designer — Sulphur, OK
Rosten Woo — Civic Designer — Los Angeles, CA
Craft
Anina Major — Artist — Los Angeles, CA
Anthony Sonnenberg — Decoration Enthusiast — Fayetteville, AR
Corey Pemberton — Multidisciplinary Artist — Los Angeles, CA
Norwood Viviano — Glass and Multimedia Artist — Kalamazoo, MI
Robell Awake — Chairmaker — Atlanta, GA
Xenobia Bailey — Enchantress, Crochet Fiber Artist — Philadelphia, PA
Writing
Johanna Hedva — Writer, Artist, and Musician — Tongva, Tataviam, Serrano, Kizh, and Chumash Territories (aka: Los Angeles, CA)
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs — Interdisciplinary Poet and Relative — New York, NY
Lauren Rebecca Weinstein — Sequential Storyteller — Maplewood, NJ
Mayukh Sen — Biographer and Essayist — Brooklyn, NY
Sarah Aziza — Writer — New York, NY
Dance
Jason Samuels Smith — Tap Dancer — Jersey City, NJ
Mame Diarra Speis-Biaye — Movement Improviser, Choreographer, and Kinesthetic Storyteller — New York, NY
Parul Shah — Performer, Choreographer, and Educator — New York, NY
Shamel Pitts — Choreographer, Dancer, and Director — Brooklyn, NY
Thaddeus Davis & Tanya Wideman-Davis (Wideman Davis Dance) —Transdisciplinary Dancers and Choreographers — Columbia, SC
Film
Fawzia Mirza — Filmmaker — Los Angeles, CA
Jules Rosskam — Nonfiction Filmmaker — Brooklyn, NY
Monica Sorelle — Filmmaker and Artist — Miami, FL
Raven Jackson — Filmmaker, Poet, and Photographer — Los Angeles, CA
Set Hernandez — Filmmaker, Writer, and Community Organizer — San Fernando Valley, CA
Media
Anjali Kamat — Creative Nonfiction and Multimedia Artist — New York, NY
Chenjerai Kumanyika — Critical Audio Documentarian and Organizer — New York, NY
Mendi Obadike & Keith Obadike Interdisciplinary Artists and Composers — Ithaca, NY
Nancy Baker Cahill — Transdisciplinary Artist — Germantown, NY
Nat Decker — Artist — Los Angeles, CA
Nathan Young — Artist, Curator, Scholar, and Composer — Tahlequah, OK
Music
Ben LaMar Gay — Multi-Freshness Artist, Improviser, and Composer — Chicago, IL
Sharon Udoh — Pianist, Composer, and Hymnologist — Chicago, IL
inti figgis-vizueta — Composer-Artist — New York, NY
Layale Chaker — Composer and Performer — New York, NY
Terri Lyne Carrington — Musician, Producer, and Conceptualist — Woburn, MA
Theater & Performance
Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew — Theater Designer and Artist — New York, NY
Mei Ann Teo — Director, Theatre Maker, and Artistic Leader — New York, NY
Mina Morita — Director — Washington, DC
Tanya Orellana — Scenic Designer New York, NY
Ty Defoe — Interdisciplinary Artist — New York, NY
Traditional Arts
Aristotle Jones — Singer, Songwriter, and Storyteller — Osage, WV
Lily Hope — Cultural Continuity Artist — Juneau, AK
Sheila Kay Adams — Traditional Ballad Singer, Banjoist, and Storyteller —Marshall, NC
Willi Carlisle — Folk Singer — Kansas City, MO
