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USA Fellowship Awards

USA Fellowships are annual, one-time $50,000 awards recognizing compelling artists and cultural practitioners working in the United States and its island jurisdictions, in all disciplines, at every stage of their career.

Meet the Fellows

Overview

The USA Fellowship is a nomination-based program supporting individual artists and collaboratives across disciplines, covering Architecture & Design, Craft, Dance, Film, Media, Music, Theater & Performance, Traditional Arts, Visual Art, and Writing. In addition to unrestricted funding, each Fellow receives access to tailored services including financial planning, career consulting, and legal advice, among others.

A digital rendering of a wooden sculpture superimposed over a wild garden of lush greens.

Christie Street African Burial Ground. Submission by Ifeoma Ebo for the Christie Street African Burial Ground Memorial call for Artists by FABNYC.

Image courtesy of the artist

Nomination and Selection

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. Our expansive network of nominators identifies a diverse cohort of artists across disciplines and communities who demonstrate strong artistic innovation and make significant contributions to our cultural ecosystem. Ten discipline-specific panels review applications and identify finalists, which are then approved by our Board of Trustees.

View Panelists
“Artists fiercely imagine our communities into the future. Supporting artists means supporting the vision and possibility of more joyous, fertile, and healthier futures.”
Two Latinx women stand with bare shoulders in a desert landscape in front of an ocotillo plant. The two figures are linked by a spiny nopal cactus on their shoulders.

Fronterizx Collective

Interdisciplinary Social Practice

2024 USA Fellow

Offering

The USA Fellowship is a multifaceted support system that centers the needs of artists and builds community.

Flexible Financial Awards

The USA Fellowship grant structure allows for awardees to have increased agency in how they allocate their funds, whether it be toward expanding their practice, paying rent, acquiring healthcare, or investing in their communities.

Tailored Services

Fellows additionally have access to a range of Artist Services such as career consulting, certified accounting services, and legal advice to support them in their practice and their daily lives.

Learn More About Artist Services

Creating Connections

Each year, USA hosts a range of events and gatherings for Fellows to meet each other and connect with arts funders and leaders.

View Past Events
  • Six performers jump up in perfect unison on an empty stage. The performers are positioned in a circular formation, facing the left with their knees tucked under their torsos and hands at their thighs, resembling the fetal position.

    Search Party by Erin Kilmurray, 2019. 60 minutes. ArtTheater dB Kobe / NPO Dance Box, Japan.

    Video courtesy of the artist.

  • Photograph of an entryway that opens into a baby-pink colored room. At the center of the room, a pink rectangular table with silver detailing. Seven ceramic structures — all of different shapes, sizes and colors — rest artfully.

    Installation view of ypoqǝɯos exhibition by Linda Nguyen Lopez, 2022. David B. Smith Gallery.

    Photo courtesy of David B. Smith Gallery.

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Impact

Our funders understand the value of supporting artists unconditionally. We believe that by investing in artists, we invest in the cultural and social fabric of our world, ensuring that artists’ voices continue to enrich our lives and broaden our horizons.

Learn More About Our Mission