United States Artists

Infobox Non-profit
Non-profit_name = United States Artists
Non-profit_
Non-profit_type = Philanthropic arts organization
founded_date = 2005
founder =
location = Los Angeles, California, USA
origins =
key_people = Katharine DeShaw, Executive Director [ United States Artists Official Website. About [http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public/AboutUnitedStatesArtists/Staff/index.cfm] ]
area_served = United States
product =
focus = American artists
method = Awards unrestricted grants of $50,000 to 50 artists per annum [ Stephanie Strom, "New Charity to Start Plan for $50,000 Artists' Grants," "The New York Times", Sep. 5. 2006 [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/arts/design/05unit.html] ]
revenue =
endowment = Initial seed funding of (US) $22.6M [ Stephanie Strom, "An Artist's Grant that Even Pays For Glasses," "The New York Times," Oct. 7, 2007 [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/arts/design/10gran.html] ] provided by Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Prudential Foundation, and Rasmuson Foundation [ United States Artists Official Website. Common Questions [http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public/CommonQuestions/index/cfm] ]
Non-profit_slogan =
homepage = [http://unitedstatesartists.org]

United States Artists (USA) is an independent nonprofit and nongovernmental philanthropic organization based in Los Angeles, California and dedicated to supporting the work of living American artists by the granting of cash awards, called USA Fellowships. [ Editorial, "Art for our sake," "The Boston Globe", Sept. 25, 2006 [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/09/25/art_for_our_sake/] ] It was founded in 2005 with initial funding from The Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Prudential Foundation, and The Rasmuson Foundation. The organization is governed by a Board of Directors and receives additional funding from several major American foundations, corporate partners, and private citizens.

Mission

The organization's stated mission is "to invest in America’s finest artists and illuminate the value of artists to society." [ United States Artists Official Website. Mission, Vision, Values [http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public/AboutUnitedStatesArtists/MissionVisionValues/index.cfm] ] In addition, the organization asserts that "USA Fellowships honor and award an artist’s unique vision as a whole rather than funding a particular project. Artists at different career levels, from emerging to established, are eligible." [ United States Artists Official Website. Common Questions [http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public/CommonQuestions/index.cfm] ]

Selection Process

Prerequisites for consideration include that the artist be 21 or older, a US citizen or legal resident. In addition, nominees must be accomplished artists, must have acquired art training, formal or informal, must have tried to derive income from those skills, and must have been "actively engaged in creating artwork and presenting it to the public." To be considered for a grant, an artist must first be nominated by at least one of a group of "nominators" chosen by the organization. This is an anonymous group of arts scholars, critics, and artists from various disciplines; they operate independently of one another. The nominators submit names of artists they believe should be considered for an award. [ Becoming a Fellow [http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public/GrantsProgram/BecomingaFellow/index.cfm] ]

Once nominated artists have been notified of their nomination, they are then directed to apply for the grant in order to be considered. The awards are announced once a year.

The Grants

Grants are awarded yearly to artists working in any one of seven categories:
*Architecture and Design
*Crafts and Traditional Arts
*Dance
*Literature (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry)
*Media (film, media, and radio)
*Music
*Theatre Arts
*Visual Arts

Grant Recipients

2006 USA Fellows were:

Architecture and Design: Sigi Moeslinger and Masamichi Udagawa

Crafts and Traditional Arts: furniture designer Tanya Aguiniga, textile and clothing designer Liz Collins, master Chilkat blanket weaver Anna Brown Ehlers, [ "2006 Cultural Capital Fellows," First Peoples Fund [http://www.firstpeoplesfund.org/Grant%20Programs/CCG/CCG2006.htm] ] jeweler Arline Fisch, ceramist Sarah Jaeger [ Featured Artist, "Craft in America: A Journey to the Artists, Origins, and Techniques of American Craft," May 2007. Public Broadcasting Service [http://www.pbs.org/craftinamerica/artists_community.html] ] and Tlingit weaver Teri Rofkar.

Dance: Ronald K. Brown, Eiko and Koma, Alonzo King, and Ralph Lemon.

Literature: novelist Sandra Benitez, poet and novelist Beth Ann Fennelly, short story writer, journalist, and editor Amy Hempel, short story and fiction writer and essayist Victor La Valle, poet Heather McHugh, poet Wesley McNair, novelist and poet Susan Power, comics artist and novelist Joe Sacco, and novelist Matthew Stadler.

Electronic media and Media: Filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, documentary filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris, radio documentary producer David Isay, low-budget, high-camp filmmakers George Kuchar and Mike Kuchar, radio producer and dramatist Dmae Roberts [ Asian American Journalists Association, "Dmae Roberts Receives Fellowship from United States Artists," Dec. 8, 2006 [http://www.aaja.org/news/member/2006_12_08_02/] ] , and Philip Rodriguez. [ United States Artists Official Website [http://www.unitedstatesartists.org] ]

Music: John Luther Adams, Natividad Cano, Bill Frisell, Jim Woodring, Ali Akbar Khan, Lourdes Perez.

Theater Arts: Anne Bogart, Ping Chong, Anthony Garcia, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Meredith Monk, Dominique Serrand, Basil Twist.

Visual arts: Layalh Ali, Mark Bradford, Nick Cave, Sam Durant, Mark Handforth, Michael Joo, [ Carol Vogel, "Hot Artists in Alaska," "The New York Times", July 27, 2007 [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/arts/design/27voge.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22hot%20Artists%20in%20ALaska%22&st=cse&oref=slogin] ] Michael Lesy, Catherine Opie, William Pope:L, Michael Queenland, Anna Sew Hoy, Chris Ware.

2007 USA Fellows were:

Architecture and Design: Benjamin Aranda and Christopher Lasch; Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues; and Monica Ponce de Leon and Nader Tehrani.

Crafts and Traditional Arts: Alaskan Tlingit totem carver Tommy Joseph, textile artist Gwendolyn Magee, electronic textile artist Maggie Orth, ceramic artist Virgil Ortiz, and carver and sculptor Susie Silook.

Dance: Joanna Halgood, Anna Halprin, Rennie Harris, [ Rennie Harris Puremovement [http://www.rhpm.org/] ] Bill T. Jones, Benjamin Millepied, and Shen Wei.

Literature: Poet Marilyn Chin, poet Henri Cole, short story writer and essayist Charles D’Ambrosio, novelist and short story writer William Gay, poet, essayist, and memoirist John Haines, novelist and nonfiction writer Mat Johnson, poet, playwright, and essayist Cherie Moraga; playwright, writer, and film director Luis Valdez, and short story writer, poet, and editor Helena Maria Viramontes.

Media: Julie Dash, Chris Eyre, Judith Helfand, Alex Rivera, and Susan Stone.

Music: Don Byron, Michael Doucet, Leila Josefowicz, Jason Moran, John Santos, Evan Ziporyn.

Theater: Tina Landau, Elizabeth LeCompte, Michael Sommers, Robert Woodruff.

Visual Arts: Edgar Arceneaux, Uta Barth, Paul Chan, Charles Gaines, Ann Hamilton, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Marcos Ramirez, Allan Sekula, Gary Simmons, and Zoe Strauss. [ [http://www.unitedstatesartists.org Artist Grants - United States Artists ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/ United States Artists website]
* [http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/Public/EncounterUSAFellows/index.cfm United States Artists grant recipient videos]
* [http://www.interiordesign.net/index.asp?layout=preview&articleID=CA6512549/ Nicholas Tamarin, "United States Artists Awards $50,000 Grants," "Interior Design"]
*Mario Rosario Jackson, Florence Kabwasa-Green, Daniel Swenson, Joaquin Herranz, Kadija Ferryman, Caron Atlas, Eric Wallner, Carole Rosenstein: Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for U.S. Artists. The Urban Institute, May 2, 2006. [http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=411311]