The Utah Division of Arts & Museums (UA&M) has announced the 2026 Utah Artist Fellowship recipients. Five fellows have been selected in the program’s Literary Arts and Performing Arts (Music) disciplines, and eight fellows have been selected in the combined discipline of Visual Arts & Design. The fellows, selected from an open application process, will each receive an award of $5,000 as recognition of their exceptional creativity in their fields.

The fellowship program has been a mainstay of UA&M since 1986. UA&M administers the program to support professional artists, all from a statewide pool of applicants, as they reach pivotal moments in their artistic practices. The Utah Artist Fellowship is not an award to support a specific art project, recognition of lifetime achievement, or for artists just beginning their careers, but is awarded by out-of-state jurors to encourage career advancement.

The Visual Arts & Design fellows are:

This year’s Literary Arts fellows are:

The Performing Arts (Music) fellows are:

The fellows were chosen by jurors who are nationally renowned arts professionals. This year’s jurors were: Lia Purpura for Literary Arts; Dr. Kristin Tjornehoj for Performing Arts (Music); and Rachel Adams for Visual Arts & Design. Selections were based on evaluation of applications, as well as work samples from the past five years.

(Here’s hoping a little bit of the fellowship money makes it way to 15 Bytes for our 25-year anniversary 😉

15 Bytes

UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.