Press Releases

Groundbreaking Initiative to Support Working Artists Announces Its First 50 Fellowships

[UPDATE] NEW YORK, 4 December 2006 -- A national organization launched by the Ford Foundation and three other major funders has announced the first 54 recipients of its $50,000 arts fellowships, awarding a diverse and dynamic group of working artists around the United States.

The organization, United States Artists, awarded the fellowships to 54 artists from 43 U.S. states, with four of the 50 fellowships going to artist collaborations.

The fellowships support artists from all career stages who work in the fields of architecture and design, crafts and traditional arts, dance, literature, media, music, theater arts, and visual arts.

"USA's goal is to fuel innovation in our culture by investing in creativity at its source: our nation's finest artists," said Susan V. Berresford, USA board chair and president of the Ford Foundation. "Our 2006 Fellows represent the full spectrum of artistic excellence and the broad array of talent that abounds in all communities. This is exactly what we had hoped to achieve when we founded this program. It is what USA, with its multidisciplinary scope and national reach, is designed to recognize."

USA was launched with $20 million in seed funding from the Ford, Rockefeller, Prudential and Rasmuson foundations. It represents an ambitious private investment in individual artists and the creative vibrancy of America. In addition to offering fellowships, USA is an advocate for artists and their contribution to the social and economic health of the nation.

Read the official United States Artists press release
See the full list of Fellows

The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has been a resource for innovative people and institutions worldwide, guided by its goals of strengthening democratic values, reducing poverty and injustice, promoting international cooperation and advancing human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Russia.