The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA) has announced the recipients of its 2026 Grants to Artists cycle, awarding a total of $1.08 million to twenty-four artists. Each recipient will receive $45,000 in unrestricted funds, aimed at supporting their artistic endeavors across various disciplines.
Founded in 1963 by renowned artists John Cage and Jasper Johns, the FCA established its Grants to Artists program in 1993. This initiative provides essential financial support to practitioners in dance, music, sound, performance art, theater, poetry, and visual arts. The selection process involves nominations followed by a thorough review by FCA’s board of directors and guest panelists, who collectively evaluate submissions across the five artistic fields.
A number of the awards are named in honor of influential artists associated with the organization. These include the John Cage Award and the Merce Cunningham Award, both presented biennially, along with additional honors such as the Viola Farber Award, the Helen Frankenthaler Award for Painting, the Roy Lichtenstein Award, the Alvin Lucier Award for Music, and others.
In a statement, FCA board member Jennie C. Jones, a recipient of the 2016 Robert Rauschenberg Award, expressed enthusiasm for this year’s recipients. “We are thrilled to celebrate the twenty-four artists receiving the Grants to Artists Awards this year. Through these awards, artists actively encourage each other to experiment and help to create the conditions needed for artistic freedom,” she said. “We know that helping artists create space for their work, whether slowly and methodically, or more spontaneously, can open new realms of possibility in their lives and practices.”
The following is a complete list of the winners, categorized by discipline:
Dance
– Maggie Cloud, Brooklyn, NY (The Viola Farber Award)
– Benjamin Akio Kimitch, Brooklyn, NY
– jaamil olawale kosoko, Philadelphia, PA (The Robert Rauschenberg Award)
– Ogemdi Ude, Brooklyn, NY
– Anh Vo, Brooklyn, NY
Music/Sound
– Onyx Ashanti, Detroit, MI
– Olivia Block, Chicago, IL (The Alvin Lucier Award for Music)
– Maayan Tsadka, Haifa, Israel/Palestine
Performance Art/Theater
– Lukas Avendaño, Oaxaca, Mexico
– Paul Lazar, Brooklyn, NY (The John Cage Award)
Poetry
– Brenda Coultas, New York, NY (The C.D. Wright Award for Poetry)
– Jennifer Elise Foerster, San Francisco, CA
– Edgar Garcia, Chicago, IL
– Harmony Holiday, Los Angeles, CA (The Cy Twombly Award for Poetry)
– Denise Newman, San Francisco, CA
– Timmy Straw, Brooklyn, NY
Visual Arts
– Teresa Baker, Livingston, MT (The Helen Frankenthaler Award for Painting)
– Nanette Carter, New York, NY
– Christopher Cozier, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (The Roy Lichtenstein Award)
– Kearra Amaya Gopee, Brooklyn, NY
– Janet Olivia Henry, Jamaica, NY (This award is supported by the FCA Friends)
– Nyeema Morgan, Chicago, IL
– Elle Pérez, New York, NY
– Shirley Tse, Lompoc, CA (The Dorothea Tanning Award)
With this latest round of funding, the FCA continues its mission to foster a vibrant artistic community by providing critical resources to innovative creators.
