In ways big and small, we look to our community of artists to shed light on the issues they face. With a fresh start to 2024 and a brand new cohort of fellows, we are now making space for our annual moment of reflection on the previous year and all the work that brought us to this moment.
Over the past year, we engaged in deep listening with creative practitioners and embarked on new strategies to meet their needs. We continued to explore USA’s role as a connector, bringing together artists, funders, and other members of our community — and we had a lot of fun doing it! In our publications, we cultivated playful spaces for deep analysis of artist practices and found exciting new ways to meet on common ground, turning convenings into opportunities for creative intervention and making.
It’s the moments of one-to-one connection with artists that truly makes USA a unique place. It’s impossible to work with artists in the way that we do without a deep appreciation for the individual USA staff who facilitate these relationships! In this spirit, we also wanted to highlight new additions to our team. Scattered throughout this year in review are personal highlights from our staff members, so you can hear from them directly about why they do what they do, and gain insight into the day-to-day processes and exchanges that make possible the seamless rollout of awards, publishing projects, and events.
We celebrated forty-five fellowships to creative disruptors, social justice architects, and ingenious knowledge bearers who reimagine the purpose and use of the arts to push the social envelope. We also awarded the Berresford Prize to Maori Karmael Holmes, curator, filmmaker, and cultural worker. As a leader within arts, culture, and media spaces in the US, Maori’s approach is defined by passion, rigor, and a deep commitment to equitable social transformation.
Roquin-Jon Quichocho Siongco weaving. Photo by Taiche Guahan.
[ID: A person sits in dense, shady foliage weaving coconut fronds, which are arranged like rays of the sun in their lap. They sit on a woven mat contemplating the frond held between their fingertips.]
Bukola Koiki leads a class. Photo by Colleen Kinsella.
[ID: A group of students wearing aprons and blue latex gloves stand around a woman painting at a table. She is speaking to the group, but does not look up from her painting. She has dark-brown skin and wears a headscarf, a blue button-down shirt, and a black apron.]
Krystal prepares quails to cook over the fire. Photo courtesy of the artist.
[ID: A brown-skinned Black woman crouches in front of a wood fire. She’s wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, a sage-colored apron, and a chambray headwrap that covers her hair. The woman is preparing quail to cook over the fire by hanging them on S-hooks. A barn surrounded by woods is in the background.]
Alex plays guitar. Photo by Sands Fish.
[ID: A black-and-white photograph of a thin woman with messy light-colored hair. She smiles while looking over her shoulder and holds an electric guitar in front of a microphone stand.]
Portrait of Maori Karmael Holmes. Photo by Adachi Pimentel.
[ID: A Black woman with a braided updo stands smiling at the camera outdoors against a dark background. She wears a black cotton blouse, an embroidered flower necklace, and large brass hoop earrings.]
The 2023 USA Fellowships were generously made possible by: Sarah Arison, Barr Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Doris Duke Foundation, Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, Ford Foundation, David Horvitz and Francie Bishop Good, Good Chaos, Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Miranda Family Fund, Poetry Foundation, The Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Fred and Eve Simon Charitable Foundation, The Todd and Betiana Simon Foundation, Paul and Annette Smith, Walder Foundation, Katie Weitz, PhD, Windgate Foundation
[ID: Luz smiles warmly at the camera. They are wearing a light blue turtle neck under a navy-blue collared shirt.]
Luz Orozco
Program Assistant
They // Them // Theirs
As our Program team has expanded in the past year, we’ve amped up the personalized support and resources for USA Fellowship applicants. During the busiest times, when our inbox is flooded with hundreds of questions, our team of four steps in by taking personalized calls, working closely with artists who have access needs, and providing feedback to applicants. This year, we had the highest turnout for our informative webinar in which over a 120 applicants attended to learn more and ask questions about the application process.
The Knight Arts + Tech Fellowship, a partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, awarded five artists funding for their practices which span across augmented reality, virtual reality, immersive installation, performance, artificial intelligence, and more. The Rainin Arts Fellowship, a partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, awarded four Bay Area artists working in dance, film, theater, and public space who are anchors in their communities.
Finally, The Maxwell/Hanrahan Awards in Craft in partnership with the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, awarded five artists. The award, now in its second year, recognizes artists and craftspeople committed to material mastery and exploration. Their practices encompass the stewardship of living cultural traditions, unique insight in material study, and/or the advancement of craft at the intersection of other fields including technology and science.
Aspenn Golann in their studio. Photo by Loam Marketing.
[ID: The artist poses in their studio space with a chair in process on the table beside them. Tools line the wall behind them.]
Joanna Haigood, Departure and Arrival, 2007. Performance at the San Francisco International Airport. Pictured (clockwise): Ramon Ramos Alayo, Joanna Haigood, Robert Henry Johnson, and Maurya Kerr. Photo by Stephen Phillips.
[ID: Three orange armatures resembling houses are suspended by cables in the cavernous glass lobby of the San Francisco International Airport. Two aerial dancers perform within the suspended structure while two more perform on the ground below, reaching toward another orange house planted on the floor that appears to be halfway submerged.]
Portrait of Marlena Myles. Photo courtesy of the artist.
[ID: A Native American woman with brown skin, brown eyes, and shoulder-length brown hair looks off to the right at a three-quarter profile view. Her shirt and the background share the same colorful pattern, a comic book-style print of her own design, featuring a Native American woman flexing her arm with the phrases “We can do it” and “Land back.”]
[ID: Allie, a white person with chin-length dark blonde hair, bangs, and blue eyes, smiles at the camera. They wear a dark plaid button-up, a yellow hair bow, and wire-rim glasses.]
Allie Linn
Initiatives Manager
They // Them // Theirs
As a fully remote staff spread out across the country, we collaborate almost exclusively virtually, which can feel inherently at odds with the collective building, dialoguing, and world-building essential to this work. It is a real joy, then, to find small moments to safely convene as the pandemic continues. This past summer, the Initiatives team gathered artists and creative workers in Baltimore for dinner and conversation to discuss worker protections for artists, artist resources, and other pressing needs of creative workers.
We published three more issues of New Suns, our digital commissioning platform for new work, and conversations centering unique themes and creative practices. We introduced an index page to more easily browse past issues and contributors. In 2023, New Suns featured USA Fellows and other practitioners on themes including vessels, sampling, and translation — our very first collaborative issue with Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³).
We published a new edition of Shift Space, an annual digital publication exploring new media landscapes and spotlighting the Knight Arts + Tech Fellows, edited by Claudia La Rocco.
We held gatherings in spaces across the country with the purpose of connecting members of our community through conversation, dinners, and readings, which provided time and space to fuel conversations that help us build our understanding of the context for artists’ work.
Judilee Reed and Salvador Jiménez Flores converse at a panel discussion at 21c Museum Hotel as part of Expo Chicago. Photo by Jeremy Lawson.
[ID: A man and woman sit in armchairs, each holding a microphone. The man speaks into the microphone, looking out toward the camera, while the woman listens. Artwork hangs on the white wall behind them.]
Joan Shigekawa, USA Board Member, surrounded by friends and colleagues. Photo by Christopher Briscoe.
[ID: A portrait of a woman with dark brown skin wearing a vibrant red dress against a white background. She smiles warmly.]
Jen Shyu, a 2019 USA Fellow, and Sara Serpa, Cofounders of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) introduce an evening of readings at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Jenna Boscom.
[ID: Two women stand at a podium in front of a screen displaying the artwork for New Suns, Issue 9: Found in Translation: a black line drawing of a hand holding a flower whose petals are made of ears and eyes. On the lefthand side of the image, an ASL interpreter translates their speech.]
[ID: Jessica, a young person with shoulder-length dark brown hair and tan skin, smiles broadly. She wears brown glasses and a gray blouse.]
Jessica Ferrer
Program Manager
She // Her // Hers
For our ninth issue of New Suns, we facilitated conversations with twelve artists from Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) about how they encounter translation in their creative practices and daily lives. M³ is an artist-led platform that was co-founded by Jen Shyu, 2019 USA Fellow in Music, and Sara Serpa to empower musicians from historically underrepresented identities and backgrounds. They have cultivated a community of artists from around the world who are committed to supporting each other and shaping music for the better.
Photo courtesy of Sól.
[ID: Sól is pictured wearing a jean jacket and a black beanie inside a bookstore. They are posing with a peace sign next to the anthology, Somewhere We Are Human which they are published in.]
Photo courtesy of Rachel.
[ID: A woman with black curly hair tied into a messy bun smiles for the camera against a blue wall with white spray-paint art. She is wearing a red blouse with two dainty gold necklaces.]
Photo courtesy of Isabelle.
[ID: A woman smiles for a selfie wearing a yellow sweater and a beige puffer jacket with a red backpack and standing in front of a body of water.]
Photo courtesy of Shivani.
[ID: A young Indian woman with short dark-brown hair smiles for the photo with her red-haired Shih-poo dog.]
[ID: An Asian-American woman with short black-and-white hair wears black rectangular glasses and a black shirt and smiles in front of a sunny window.]
Judilee Reed
President & CEO
She // Her // Hers
In 2023, my place at that organization felt rooted and I experienced increasing clarity about our work ahead. With almost two years of work alongside a talented and dedicated staff that helped me find my place in this work, it was hard to say good bye to Lu Zhang, Initiatives Director and Lee Heinemann, Initiatives Manager. Lu and Lee were key members of the Initiatives team and helped build our work, providing expertise and partnership to donors and philanthropies. Through their efforts United States Artists has helped leading foundations across the country achieve their goals for providing direct, unrestricted support to artists.