Announcing 2026 Creative Capital Awards & State of the Art Prize Artists

Friday, January 9, 2025 (New York, NY)—Creative Capital, the nonprofit organization dedicated to championing artistic freedom of expression by supporting individual artists across the United States, announced that it will award $2.9 million in grants to 109 artists residing in all 50 states and territories. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has provided $55 million in grants and services to 1,119 artists across the country.

For the first time in Creative Capital’s 25-year history, the inaugural State of the Art Prize will provide a $10,000 unrestricted grant to 53 individual artists, one in every state, as well as Guam, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. With this new grant, Creative Capital extends its democratic, national, open call to serve more artists at the grassroots level and to foster creativity and innovation in a broad range of rural, regional, and urban communities.

The 2026 Creative Capital Award, renowned for its recognition of original, ambitious project proposals for new artistic ideas, will support the creation of 49 new works in visual arts, film, dance, theater, music/jazz, and literature, as well as technology, multidisciplinary, and socially engaged forms in all disciplines. The Creative Capital Award supports the creation of risk-taking, groundbreaking new works by providing the awarded artist up to $50,000 in unrestricted project funding, plus professional development services and community-building opportunities.

“Creative Capital remains unwavering in our mission to support individual artists creating new work as a powerful catalyst for freedom of thought and freedom of expression in our democracy. In this moment of urgent and widespread need for arts funding, generous supporters have helped Creative Capital expand our open call, national grant program to serve innovative artists in all 50 states. This will be the first year Creative Capital is supporting artists in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming.”— Christine Kuan, President & Executive Director, Creative Capital 

The artists receiving the 2026 Creative Capital Award and 2026 State of the Art Prize were selected from a pool of 4,546 applications from all 50 states and regions in the United States via a democratic, national open call. Project proposals were evaluated through an external review process that included 107 industry leaders, programmers, cultural producers, and artists, and culminated in discipline-specific final panels.

“The 2026 Creative Capital Awarded projects boldly push artistic form and ideas forward, from an Arabic-language jazz opera; to a family-owned grocery store transformed into a community space in gentrifying Washington, D.C., to a film meditation on the color blue.”  Angela Mattox, Director of Artist Initiatives, Creative Capital 

These ambitious new works explore a range of topics including: state violence, democracy, poverty, the fentanyl/opioid crisis, consumerism, autism, healthcare, labor, conservation, dementia, ageism, patriarchy, the Altadena fires, gentrification, family, nightlife, deafness, sex, color theory, bull-fighting, urbanism, religion, famine, and war. The complete list of recipients of the 2026 Inaugural State of the Art Prize and 2026 Creative Capital Award are listed below.

2026 INAUGURAL STATE OF THE ART PRIZE

• Katie Baldwin Basile, Visual Arts, Bethel, AK
• Karen Brummund, Visual Arts, Tuscaloosa, AL
• Danielle Hatch, Visual Arts, Bentonville, AR
• Caroline Tracey, Literature, Tucson, AZ
• brooke smiley, Visual Arts, Ojai, CA
• Yumi Janairo Roth, Visual Arts, Boulder, CO
• Jessica Sarah Rinland, Film, Stamford, CT
• B Proud, Visual Arts, Wilmington, DE
• Gabriella García Pardo, Film, Miami, FL
• Nydia Blas, Visual Arts, Atlanta, GA
• R. Zamora Linmark, Literature, Honolulu, HI
• Lorenzo Triburgo, Visual Arts, Des Moines, IA
• Sarah Sentilles, Literature, Hailey, ID
• Ariel Stess, Performing Arts, Evanston, IL
• Brandon Meeks, Performing Arts, Indianapolis, IN
• Shannon Stewart, Performing Arts, Lawrence, KS
• Rachel Elliott, Literature, Lexington, KY
• Renee Benson, Performing Arts, New Orleans, LA
• Danielle Wood, Performing Arts, Cambridge, MA
• Madeline Maxine Roman, Performing Arts, Chevy Chase, MD
• Kate Greene, Visual Arts, Rockland, ME
• Ash Arder, Visual Arts, Detroit, MI
• Rosy Simas, Visual Arts, Minneapolis, MN
• Zachariah Ezer, Performing Arts, St. Louis, MO
• Coulter Fussell, Visual Arts, Water Valley, MS
• Maxim Loskutoff, Literature, Missoula, MT
• Jazsalyn, Visual Arts, Raleigh, NC
• Elle Billing, Visual Arts, Enderlin, ND
• Hannah Demma, Visual Arts, Lincoln, NE
• Aspen Golann, Visual Arts, Rollinsford, NH
• Dahlia Elsayed, Visual Arts, Palisades Park, NJ
• Samantha Burns, Literature, Santa Fe, NM
• JJ Peña, Literature, Las Vegas, NV
• Brydie O’Connor, Film, Brooklyn, NY
• Madeline ffitch, Literature, Millfield, OH
• Brad Rose, Visual Arts, Tulsa, OK
• Juniper Harrower, Visual Arts, Portland, OR
• BL Shirelle, Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA
• Ayumi Ishii, Visual Arts, North Kingstown, RI
• Tanya Wideman-Davis, Performing Arts, Columbia, SC
• Anna Robins, Film, Spearfish, SD
• Elisheba Israel Mrozik, Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
• Gesel Mason, Performing Arts, Austin, TX
• Russel Albert Daniels, Visual Arts, Salt Lake City, UT
• David Dominique, Performing Arts, Richmond, VA
• Emily Bate, Performing Arts, Montpelier, VT
• Futsum Tsegai, Film, Seattle, WA
• Dana McCormick, Literature, Milwaukee, WI
• Ali Printz, Visual Arts, Shepherdstown, WV
• Conor Mullen, Visual Arts, Laramie, WY
• Cara Flores, Film, Talofofo, Guam
• Javier Orfon, Visual Arts, San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico
• Njena Surae Jarvis, Visual Arts, Washington, DC

2026 CREATIVE CAPITAL AWARDS

• Sadie Barnette, Visual Arts, Oakland, CA
• Gina Beavers, Visual Arts, West Orange, NJ
• Kenturah Davis, Visual Arts, Altadena, CA
• Liss LaFleur, Visual Arts, Denton, TX
• Pepe Mar, Visual Arts, Miami Shores, FL
• Masud Olufani, Visual Arts, Atlanta, GA
• Jeff Ostergren, Visual Arts, New Haven, CT
• Margaret Pearce, Visual Arts, Rockland, ME
• Ronald Rael, Visual Arts, Antonito, CO
• Cara Romero, Visual Arts, Santa Fe, NM
• Yoshie Sakai, Visual Arts, Gardena, CA
• Jean Shin, Visual Arts, Hurley, NY
• Catherine Telford Keogh, Visual Arts, Brooklyn, NY
• Daniel Chein, Film, Carpinteria, CA
• Sue Ding, Sarah Garrahan, Film, Los Angeles, CA; Long Beach, CA
• Cheryl Dunye, Film, Oakland, CA
• Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan, Film, Chicago, IL
• Carl Elsaesser, Film, Brooklyn, NY
• Eva Louise Hall, Film, Kansas City, MO
• Jehane Noujaim, Film, New York, NY
• Rodrigo Olivar, Film, Brooklyn, NY
• Liz Roberts, Film, San Francisco, CA
• Liza Sylvestre, Christopher Robert Jones, Film, Urbana, IL
• Gillian Waldo, Film, Chicago, IL
• Charlotte Wells, Film, Brooklyn, NY
• Lex Brown, Samuel Beebe, Creatine Price, Danny Zelibor, Multidisciplinary, Rome, Italy; Jamaica Plain, MA; New York, NY; Staatsburg, NY
• Harmon dot aut, Multidisciplinary, Putnam Valley, NY
• Tania El Khoury, Multidisciplinary, Red Hook, NY
• Carmina Escobar, Multidisciplinary, Los Angeles, CA
• Henry Threadgill, Multidisciplinary, New York, NY
• devynn emory, Dance, Brooklyn, NY
• Dayna Hanson, Dance, Seattle, WA
• Benjamin Akio Kimitch, Dance, Brooklyn, NY
• Delbert Anderson, Music/Jazz, Kirtland, NM
• Amir ElSaffar, Music/Jazz, Brooklyn, NY
• Sharon Chohi Kim, Music, Los Angeles, CA
• Sofía Rei, Music/Jazz, Brooklyn, NY
• Avery Sharpe, Music/Jazz, Plainfield, MA
• Jocelyn Bioh, Theater, New York, NY
• Haruna Lee, Theater, Brooklyn, NY
• Roger Q. Mason, Theater, Santa Monica, CA
• Mason Rosenthal, Scott R. Sheppard, Alice Yorke, Theater, Philadelphia, PA; Queens, NY; Philadelphia, PA
• Jeana Scotti, Theater, Brooklyn, NY
• Josiah Thomas Turner, Theater, St Paul, MN
• Kayla E., Literature, NC
• Suji Kwock Kim, Literature, Princeton, NJ
• Rob Macaisa Colgate, Literature, Chicago, IL
• Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Literature, Vancouver, British Columbia
• Nadia Owusu, Literature, Brooklyn, NY

About Creative Capital Foundation

Founded in 1999, Creative Capital champions artistic freedom of expression by providing broad-based, grassroots support for individual artists through its national, open call grant program and services to help artists build sustainable practices. The Creative Capital Award provides artists with up to $50,000 in unrestricted project grant funds for the creation of innovative new work in any discipline. The new State of the Art Prize provides a $10,000 unrestricted artist grant to one artist in every state and territory. The Creative Capital Artist Lab provides online professional development courses free-of-charge for individual artists.

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