Aki Sasamoto, Lex Brown, and Rafa Esparza. Photos: Takehiro likawa, Nicholas Calcott,provided by artist.

The Chicago-based arts nonprofit United States Artists (USA) has named the 60 recipients of its 2021 fellowships, marking the largest fellowship in its 15 years history. Each of the selected artists, working across ten creative disciplines—Architecture & Design, Craft, Dance, Film, Media, Music, Theater & Performance, Traditional Arts, Visual Art, and Writing—will receive an unrestricted $50,000 cash award. 

Among the awardees in the visual arts, craft, and traditional arts categories are performance artist rafa esparza; quilt portraitist Bisa Butler; photocollage artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby; video and installation artist Carolyn Lazard, and painter and assemblage sculptor Daniel Lind-Ramos.

The program, founded in 2006, aims to honor recipients for their past contributions to the arts, and to support their ongoing artistic and professional development. To that end, the organization stipulates that the cash award may be used for anything from creating new work to paying rent or obtaining health care. Despite the continuing Covid-19 crisis, USA in 2020 was able to distribute $20 million in direct funding to nearly 4,000 artists in need.

“We are grateful for every artist whose artmaking, music, writing, and more is helping us to navigate and cope through this harrowing time in our country,” United States Artists president and CEO Deana Haggag said in a statement. “The 2021 USA Fellows are a testament to the power of art in shaping the world around us and navigating its complexities.”

Support like that provided by United States Artists is critical to creatives as 2020 USA Writing Fellow Edwidge Danticat pointed out in the announcement of this year’s fellows. “Now more than ever,” said Danticat, “artists need this kind of support, not just for continuity, but for safety and survival.”

THE 2021 USA FELLOWS ARE:

ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN

Jennifer Bonner / MALL

Walter Hood

Olalekan Jeyifous

CRAFT

Diedrick Brackens

Bisa Butler

Amber Cowan

Salvador Jiménez-Flores

Cannupa Hanska Luger

Tiff Massey

Erin M. Riley

DANCE

Ishmael Houston-Jones

JanpiStar

Emily Johnson

Cynthia Oliver

Ni’Ja Whitson

FILM

Faren Humes

Macha Colón

Stephen Maing

Darius Clark Monroe

Naima Ramos-Chapman

Jennifer Reeder

MEDIA

Morehshin Allahyari

Stephanie Dinkins

Lauren Lee McCarthy

Mother Cyborg

MUSIC

Martha Gonzalez

Edward “Kidd” Jordan

Tomeka Reid

Wadada Leo Smith

Mazz Swift

THEATER & PERFORMANCE

Jibz Cameron

Carmelita Tropicana

Christopher Chen

Sandra Delgado

Idris Goodwin

Mia Katigbak

Karen Zacarías

TRADITIONAL ARTS

Ofelia Esparza

Nathan P. Jackson

Basil Kincaid

Kawika Lum-Nelmida

Carolyn L. Mazloomi

Geo Soctomah Neptune

Delina White

VISUAL ART

Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Lex Brown

rafa esparza

Maria Gaspar

Sharon Hayes

Carolyn Lazard

Daniel Lind-Ramos

Aki Sasamoto

WRITING

Alexander Chee

Eve L. Ewing

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

Dunya Mikhail

Elizabeth McCracken

Natalie Y. Moore

Danez Smith

Ocean Vuong