United States Artists Fellowships
- Award
- $50,000 unrestricted
- Eligible
- US-based practitioners across dance, music, theatre & performance
- Deadline
- Nomination-based, annual
Nominators change yearly; ask your network who's on the current panel.
Resources · Directory
A 2026 directory of individual grants, fellowships, and donor pathways for dancers, choreographers, playwrights, composers, singers, and interdisciplinary performance artists — with awards, eligibility, deadlines, and honest notes on what each programme rewards.
Deadlines and amounts change year to year. Always confirm on the funder's own site before you write.
Cash paid directly to the artist, no project restriction. The most competitive — and most career-changing — awards.
Nominators change yearly; ask your network who's on the current panel.
Juries reward a coherent body of work, not a single production.
Among the largest unrestricted awards to individual performing artists in the US.
Recognises risk-taking practitioners past the emerging stage.
Explicit focus on artists over 40 — one of the few age-conscious programmes.
Founded by John Cage & Jasper Johns; extremely competitive.
Grants specifically for dance practitioners, from emerging choreographers to established touring artists.
Application requires nomination by a dance company or school.
Not cash-heavy, but a major booking and press catalyst.
Explicit early-career criteria — do not apply if you're established.
Requires touring presenters attached at application.
Small operating grants plus project support.
Emphasis on artists whose practice engages civic or social issues.
Support for playwrights, directors, ensembles, and devised work — from commission to residency.
Playwrights compete alongside fiction, poetry & nonfiction.
Two tiers — emerging (Mimi) and established awards.
One of the largest playwriting awards worldwide; recipients only learn via nomination.
Multiple programmes — check current cycle for specific eligibility.
Regional focus is strict — verify eligibility.
Utah lab residency; industry-defining for early-career writers.
Grants for composers, performers, and interdisciplinary sound artists across classical, jazz, and experimental music.
Requires performing ensemble attached at application.
Explicitly for artist-led projects, not institutional commissions.
Recording programme is one of the few that funds album production.
Harvard-administered; premiere required within two years.
Multiple competitions — check the composer awards calendar.
Requires self-arranged residency host.
Career-development awards, competitions, and study grants for singers and opera artists.
The definitive US career-launch competition for classical singers.
Grants tied to specific upcoming engagements.
Competition winners tour foundation recital series.
Focus on song literature, not opera roles.
OPERA America runs several individual artist funds — check current openings.
For artists whose work crosses dance, theatre, sound, technology, and live art — including hybrid and durational forms.
Prioritises work interrogating power structures — read the current guidelines carefully.
Juries reward projects that could not exist without the grant.
The historic funder of performance art since 1985.
MacDowell residencies operate in near-total solitude — apply only if that fits your practice.
Highly selective; nomination-adjacent process.
Fast-turnaround support for injury, career pauses, and unexpected costs — plus regional and state-level programmes.
Not just for actors — dancers, musicians, and crew qualify.
Now part of the Entertainment Community Fund.
Quick-turnaround emergency grants for medical / rent / instrument loss.
Recording Academy-affiliated; medical and basic-needs support.
Check current cycle — not all performing arts disciplines run every year.
Every US state arts council runs some form of individual programme — check yours first.
UK, EU, and international awards open to individual performing artists.
Funds research and skill-building — not another production.
Must have a public-facing outcome.
Unrestricted use; extremely competitive.
Also runs Composers' Fund, Women Make Music, and Talent Development Partners.
Best used for cross-border projects with a confirmed international collaborator.
Requires multi-country consortium; not an individual grant per se — pair with an organisation.
Grants are only half the funding picture — direct patronage still moves careers. Where to look, and how to structure the ask.
Audit the boards of venues that have programmed you or artists in your lineage. Board members give personally, not just through the institution.
Development departments broker donor introductions when a piece has a co-commissioning path. Ask specifically — don't wait to be offered.
Lets individual donors give tax-deductibly to a specific project. Standard route for freelance performing artists.
Filter for small family foundations with performing arts giving history — larger foundations are already saturated with applicants.
Structured recurring-gift programmes (patron tiers, member circles) outperform one-off asks when you have a genuine audience relationship.
Two or three venues sharing a commission fee is often easier to raise than one full commission. The presenter with the strongest development team leads the ask.
Track every application, every donor, every deadline
Aurelian gives dancers, composers, playwrights, and companies one workspace for bios, work samples, budgets, donor notes, deadlines, and outcomes — the same discipline great presenters use to track patrons, applied to your own funding practice.
Related reading
Visual artist grants, residencies, and prizes worth applying to in 2026.
What juries actually reward, and how to run applications like a practice.
Inventory, projects, exhibitions, and funder relationships in one workspace.