United States Artists (USA) is a national arts funding organization based in Chicago. USA is dedicated to supporting living artists and cultural practitioners across the United States by granting unrestricted awards.
Mission
The organization's stated mission is "Believe in Artists". 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."
Awards
Berresford Prize
Established in 2019, The Berresford Prize is an unrestricted $25,000 award given annually to a cultural practitioner who has contributed significantly to the advancement, well-being, and care of artists in society.
USA Fellowships
USA Fellowships are annual $50,000 unrestricted awards recognizing the most compelling artists working and living in the United States at every stage of their career. Grants are awarded annually to artists working in ten disciplines:
*
Architecture & Design
*
Craft
A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...
*
Dance
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
*
Film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
*
Media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...
*
Music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
*
Theater & Performance
*
Traditional Arts
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative
Beauty is commonly described as a fe ...
*
Visual Art
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts ...
*
Writing
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically Epigraphy, inscribed, Printing press, mechanically transferred, or Word processor, digitally represented Symbols (semiot ...
Selection process
Every year, a geographically diverse group of nominators consist of scholars, critics, arts administrators, producers, curators, artists, field experts, and other cultural professionals are asked to nominate those they think deserve the USA fellowship. Then, the nominees are invited to submit applications with work samples, which are reviewed by a selected groups of discipline-specific panels composed of artists, curators, historians, experts, academics, and producers. After the panels select the finalists, the Board of Trustees go over the finalists together and approve.
Programs
Assembly
Every year, USA invites each year's class of awardees to connect them with their donors, stakeholders and community partners. This is a three-day retreat that includes presentations by USA fellows, a keynote by the Berresford Prize recipient, and various workshops designed to provide artists care for themselves and their practices.
Anthology
Anthology is an annual publication produced by interns at USA. Each edition highlights different themes working with each year's class of USA Fellows and provides deeper connections and understandings of them through the glimpse of their daily life. The first edition,
A Slow Unfolding' (2019), covers a theme of "Nourishment" and the second edition,
Grazing: A Nationwide Study of Artists and Their Snacks' (2020), explores the relationship between artists and their snacks.
Artist Relief
In order to support the life of artists during COVID-19 crisis, USA and a group of national arts grant makers have created an emergency fund to offer financial aid and useful informational resources for artist across the country. The fund will run through September 2020 in 5 rounds.
References
{{reflist
External links
United States Artists websiteNicholas 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
The Urban Institute is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank that carries out economic and social policy research to "open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions". The institute receives funding from government contracts, foundations and pr ...
, May 2, 2006.
Fellowships
Non-profit organizations based in Chicago
Arts organizations established in 2005
2005 establishments in Illinois