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2026 USA Fellowship

Marking two decades of unrestricted support that nurtures creative freedom and drives lasting impact.

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Author -USA Staff Date -01.14.2026

Announcing the 2026 USA Fellows: 50 artists working in All Stages, All Ways, Always.

Marking two decades of unrestricted support that nurtures artists’ creative freedom and drives lasting impact, United States Artists announces the 2026 Fellows: fifty artists and culture bearers across all disciplines, at all career stages, in all regions and neighborhoods of the United States and its territories. 

USA Fellows are selected based on their artistic visions, unique perspectives within their fields, and potential for the award to make a significant impact in their practices and lives. Each year’s cohort reflects the current cultural and societal moment, honoring a plurality of voices from diverse backgrounds and often-overlooked experiences, identities, and perspectives.

Each year, increasingly, the art practices of USA fellows reflect interdisciplinarity and multi-modality. They honor and build community through storytelling, explore personal archives, trace artistic lineages, and move fluidly between inheritance and invention. In doing so, they enlighten histories and surface overlooked narratives that enrich the lives of all of us. 

Meet the Fellows!
A map of the United States with states colored in light purple to indicate Fellows living there.

The fifty artists in the 2026 cohort span nineteen US states and Washington, DC.

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Storytelling and Community

Many 2026 Fellows have made names for themselves through work that is activated by audiences and interlocutors to promote understanding and civic engagement.

  • A man wearing a blue shirt, black pants, and black fedora hat holds a guitar and stands in front of a microphone on a large stage with a purple floral background.

    Aristotle Jones performing for the Arts in our Community Conference at the West Virginia Culture Center in Charleston, 2024.

    Photo by Steve Brightwell.

  • Rosten Woo is leading a seated discussion with a group of people in the lobby of Santa Monica's City Hall. On the walls of the lobby are a controversial mural. The chairs are arranged in a circle format and the discussion participants span many races, ethnicities, genders, and ages.

    Rosten Woo leads a City Hall Mural Reframe discussion in Santa Monica, 2024.

    Photo by Kenneth Lopez.

  • The backside of the heads of audience members are blurry in the foreground as Set Hernandez emerges in the background, facing the crowd and holding a microphone with their right hand. They wear a denim jacket and a Palestinian keffiyeh. Behind them is a solid black wall.

    Set Hernandez speaking at a panel titled, “Collaborative Filmmaking, Accessibility and Editing” during DOC NYC Pro 2023.

    Photo by DOC NYC.

  • A close-up shot of a South Asian woman with curly black chin-length hair and a black wool jacket looking straight at the camera, sun on her right cheek and hand, as she blows on a cup of tea she's about to sip, held just below her mouth. She's wearing a colorful scarf and a large silver ring on her middle finger. She is in focus and behind her crowds of people and buildings are out of focus.

    Anjali Kamat sipping a cup of tea in Old Delhi, in January 2022, while shooting her film The Return.

    Photo by Apal Singh.

  • A person seated at a large upright weaving loom inside a softly lit studio space. They are mid-process, weaving an intricate Chilkat-style robe, an Indigenous Northwest Coast textile distinguished by its hand-twined wool and cedar fibers. The upper section of the weaving features a striking pattern of stylized human faces, rendered in geometric blocks of yellow, blue, black, and white.

    Lily Hope working on Bone of Knowing Chilkat Dancing Blanket, a collaboration with Sydney Akagi. Juneau, Alaska, 2025. Commissioned by The de Young Museum, San Francisco.

    Photo by Sydney Akagi.

  • A person sits on a clear plastic or glass container in front of a large, unruly pile of construction debris and trash. They wear a black t-shirt, brown pants, and sneakers, with mid-length dark hair. The debris behind them consists of collapsed cardboard boxes, tangled pieces of wood, metal rods, plastic sheets, and other discarded materials. The setting appears to be an outdoor industrial site or landfill. The scene is dominated by the chaotic, messy background, which contrasts with the person’s calm seated posture.

    Maia Chao at the Recycled Artist in Residency (RAIR) in Philadelphia in 2023.

    Photo by Neal Santos.

  • Eight people wearing heavy gloves work together on shaping a large glass sculpture, which is shaped like a flying saucer lying on its side. One person stands over the sculpture with a metal shaping tool, while others stabilize it with metal rods.

    Norwood Viviano (second from right), Julian Goza, Benjamin Cobb, Sayuri Fukuda, Pablo Soto, Niko Dimitrijevic, Gabe Feenan, and Sarah Gilbert work together on a large glass sculpture at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA.

    Photo by Walter Lieberman.

  • Ty Defoe, with dark hair braided in a long strand down their back, has a neatly shaped goatee that frames their face, matching the deep brown hair and grounding their presence with quiet strength. Ty wears a blue-and-pink beaded trans bolo.

    Ty Defoe performs at the Restorative Justice Initiative Roundtable, New York, 2024.

    Photo by Neha Gautuam Photography.

Current slide :

Personal Archives and Histories

They explore personal archives or identities and histories to engage and preserve universal themes of connection and belonging.

  • A woman kneels against a wall of terra cotta colored dirt, holding a spade and digging with both hands. A bit of blue sky is visible above her.

    Raheleh Filsoofi working in her earth studio.

    Photo by Cornell Watson for the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University; Courtesy of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.

  • The artist is sitting on a platform next to a large woven white clay sculpture in a studio space. The sculpture takes up a large part of the frame, demonstrating its large scale.

    Anina Major sits next to a sculpture loaded in the kiln at EKWC in The Netherlands.

    Photo courtesy of the artist and Rene van der Hulst.

  • An artist works in a studio space, holding a sponge and wiping off a mold. She wears safety glasses and a tan hat that reads “Carnegie Museum of Art.”

    Edra Soto working as an artist in residence at the Arts/Industry Residency, John Michael Kohler Art Center, 2024.

    Photo courtesy of JMKAC.

  • A fair-skinned woman is seated on red sand dunes with red rock cliffs rising up behind her against a blue sky. Her back is turned three-quarters to the camera. She wears green khakis and a striped white-and-black short sleeve shirt with her light brown hair in a ponytail.

    Sarah Aziza in Southern Jordan, near the border of occupied Palestine, October 2023.

    Photo courtesy of the artist.

  • A light-skinned Black woman jumps with her chest lifted and right arm reaching upward toward her three distant children; her legs form a soft V-shape in midair.

    Mame Diarra Speis-Biaye dances at the Centre Polyvalent de Thioraye, Dakar, Senegal, 2025.

    Photo by Veronica Spann.

  • A Black woman with pink hair and vibrant turquoise and pink-patterned clothing smiles widely while seated and playing a keyboard, surrounded by various types of musical and technological equipment. She is looking directly at the camera.

    Sharon Udoh in Freedom From Freedom To, a performance at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2023.

    Photo by Ricardo E. Adame.

  • The artist stands in front of a brightly colored sculpture of a bar with a glass of wine in their hand and a neon sign that says "DYKE BAR." The menu includes references to dyke culture in including “sapphic sbagliato,” “carpet muncher,” and “uhaul sunrise.”

    Macon Reed in their Eulogy for the Dyke Bar installation for 2023 World Pride at the National Art School in Sydney, Australia.

    Photo by Jaqui Manning.

  • A Latina woman looking into the camera with a background of piñata lanterns.

    Tanya Orellana at the installation of Sombremesa by Virginia Grise in Houston, Texas, 2021.

    Photo courtesy of the artist.

Current slide :

Inheritance and Invention

Many work in craft or cultural traditions, upholding these traditions while carving out space within them to create personal work.

  • Xenobia Bailey unraveling a large crochet mandala in preparation to color correct the visual energy of the crochet composition under development in an open studio at the Museum of Art and Design. The colorful work lays at her feet as she stands with the ball of yard in her hand, looking into the camera.

    Xenobia Bailey at the Museum of Art and Design in New York, 2017.

    Photo by Jenna Bascomb.

  • A woman standing by a cabinet with many cones of brightly-colored yarns that she uses in her weaving. She has short gray hair and smiles warmly.

    Margaret Roach Wheeler posing in her studio.

    Photo by Tia Healy Photography.

  • A bearded Black man with colorful jacket and hat singing into a microphone with one hand raised to the sky while stage lights shine down.

    Ben LaMar Gay performing at the Jazz and The City festival in Salzburg, Austria, 2025.

    Photo by Henry Schulz.

  • A man in a studio space looks at one of his soft sculptures which resembles a large doll of sorts. He is surrounded by lots of sculptures and weavings that are in progress. He has long hair and wears a garment with a fringe of ropes hanging down.

    Eric-Paul Riege and Hólǫ́ in his studio.

    Photo by Nate Lemuel.

  • A man covered in clay and clay soaked cloth. He looks up and to the left. The scene is colorfully lit but with deep shadows.

    Anthony Sonnenberg in My Eyes Are Starving for Beauty, a site-specific installation and performance at Big Medium Gallery, Austin, Texas, in August 2024.

    Photo by Travis Jones.

  • A brown skinned man with short black hair sits outside a wood building. He is wearing a long sleeve button up blue shirt and glasses. He is sitting at a shavehorse shaping a chair part.

    Robell Awake sits on a shavehorse in front of his home studio.

    Photo by Braylen Dion.

  • A South Asian woman in a wide-legged stance, bent with her knees just below her hips, and her hands at her eye level connecting from the fingertips. She is wearing a fitted, sleeveless grey Kurta top with deep blue harem pants. Her hair is pulled back in a bun and her gaze is towards the right.

    Parul Shah poses in a deep squat.

    Photo by Kasia Idzkowska.

  • Photographed from behind, Mina is silhouetted with two other creative team members surrounded by glowing computer monitors and technical equipment. She faces the stage bathed in golden theatrical lighting. On the earth-covered stage are members of the cast and a striking sculptural element — a large, angular piece vibrantly lit. The theater space features visible architectural elements including exposed balconies on both sides with theatrical rigging overhead.

    Mina Morita in technical rehearsal for Nia Akilah Robinson's The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar) at Woolly Mammoth, 2025.

    Photo by Adam Tolbert

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Please join us in congratulating these tremendous artists!

The 2026 USA Fellowships were generously made possible by Sarah Arison, Barr Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation, Good Chaos, David Horvitz and Francie Bishop Good, Hearthland Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, Barbara and Amos Hostetter, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Poetry Foundation, Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Rockefeller Foundation, Todd and Betiana Simon, Annette and Paul Smith, Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, Katie Weitz, PhD, Windgate Charitable Foundation.

About the Selection Process
Each year, a geographically diverse and rotating group of artists, scholars, critics, producers, curators, and other arts professionals who are active in their respective communities anonymously nominate individual artists and collaboratives to apply. Learn more about this year’s panelists and selection process. 

Each year, we offer the press release in English and Spanish and invite Fellows from each cohort to request translations in additional languages. Please contact us at info@unitedstatesartists.org if you are interested in a copy of the press release in Chinese (traditional), Dutch, French, Haitian Creole, Japanese, Korean, or Portuguese.

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