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The MacArthur Foundation announced its 2026 fellows on September 29, including visual artists Christine Sun Kim, Rodney McMillian, Vincent Valdez and Chip Thomas. Each of the 20 recipients will receive an unrestricted $800,000 award in quarterly installments over five years.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named visual artists Christine Sun Kim, Rodney McMillian, Vincent Valdez and Chip Thomas among 20 recipients of its 2026 MacArthur Fellowships on September 29. Each fellow will receive an unrestricted $800,000 award, paid in quarterly installments over five years, giving the artists substantial support without specified project requirements.
The four artists work across different forms and subjects. Berlin-based Christine Sun Kim, a Deaf sound artist, examines communication through multimedia works, including billboards, murals and performances. Her practice often moves between American Sign Language and American English. In the 2020 video Palm Reader, animated signs include words such as “state” and “rule.”
Los Angeles-based Rodney McMillian draws on materials including secondhand quilts, thrifted household objects and a cast-iron piggy bank. His work engages with the American South and racial and socioeconomic injustice. In 2026, he returned to his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, for the exhibition A Son of the Soil at the Columbia Museum of Art.
Vincent Valdez, who works in Houston, combines Chicano art traditions with narrative painting, often on a large scale. His 2019 painting So Long, Mary Ann depicts a tattooed man with clasped hands. Chip Thomas worked as a primary care physician for the Navajo Nation before retiring in 2023; his artistic practice has included murals and photography made in collaboration with Diné people. He also founded the Painted Desert Project, which connected public artists with local communities from 2012 to 2022.
An $800,000 Award for Each Artist
The fellowships provide five years of financial support without restricting how recipients use the funds. That structure matters to artists whose work can involve research, public projects and sustained engagement with communities, as well as making and presenting individual works. The foundation says its fellowship is intended for people who demonstrate exceptional creativity and the prospect of further achievement.
The selection also places four artists working in distinct mediums and addressing different subjects in a cohort that spans many fields. The 2026 fellows include writers, a choreographer and a musician alongside artists. The awards do not prescribe a shared theme or project; their stated purpose is to support recipients’ work through unrestricted funding.
How MacArthur Selects Its Fellows
The foundation describes the MacArthur Fellowship as a no-strings-attached award. Candidates are nominated by external parties and selected by an independent committee, according to the foundation. The report does not identify the nominators or provide details of the committee’s deliberations for this year’s recipients.
The program has awarded fellowships since 1981. The foundation says it has made 1,195 awards across fields including art history, visual culture, writing, health policy, anthropological research, musical performance and entrepreneurship. The 2026 group has 20 recipients. Alongside the four visual artists, the announced list includes poet Layli Long Soldier, fiction writer Bryan Washington, choreographer Trajal Harrell and saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins.
““who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future.””
— John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Award Details and Artist Plans
The announcement establishes the award amount and payment schedule, but the source report does not give the dates of the first or final installments. It also does not say how the four artists plan to use the funds, or whether any have announced projects connected to the fellowships. Because the award is unrestricted, no specific project commitments are described.
The report gives the foundation’s general account of nominations and selection but no further information about the process for the 2026 class. The full list of recipients is available from the foundation, though the cited report does not provide additional statements from the artists about receiving the awards.
Five Years of Fellowship Payments
The recipients are to receive the $800,000 award in quarterly installments over five years. The foundation’s announcement marks the start of the 2026 fellowship period, although a specific payment commencement date is not given in the report. Further detail about the artists’ plans may emerge if they or the foundation make separate statements.
Readers can follow the fellows’ exhibitions, public artworks, performances and other work over the award period. The fellowship itself does not set out a required body of work, so any future projects by the artists should be distinguished from formal obligations of the award.
Key Questions
Which four visual artists received 2026 MacArthur Fellowships?
Christine Sun Kim, Rodney McMillian, Vincent Valdez and Chip Thomas were among the 20 recipients named by the foundation on September 29, 2026.
How much does each MacArthur Fellow receive?
Each of the 20 fellows receives an unrestricted $800,000 award, paid in quarterly installments over five years.
What is the MacArthur Fellowship intended to support?
The foundation describes it as a no-strings-attached fellowship for people who show exceptional creativity and the prospect of further achievement. It does not specify project requirements for the award.
Who else was named in the 2026 fellowship class?
The class includes 20 recipients across fields. Other named fellows include poet Layli Long Soldier, fiction writer Bryan Washington, choreographer Trajal Harrell and saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins.
Source: rss
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