Recipients of the 2025 United States Artists fellowship have been announced. The fellowship honors artists who demonstrate unique or groundbreaking vision and perspective within their fields. Among the theater artists acknowledged is the Tony Award-nominated design collective dots, as well as Rudi Goblen, Geoff Sobelle, Rhiana Yazzie and Pulitzer Prize finalist Shayok Misha Chowdhury.
United States Artists is a national funding organization which annually awards $50,000 to practicing artists. Recipients are named in 10 disciplines: architecture and design, craft, dance, theater and performance, film, media, traditional arts, visual arts, music and writing.
Unlike other arts fellowships, grants and scholarships, the $50,000 award does not come earmarked for specific project-related funding. The artists may use the funds how they see fit, be it to further their art, pay off debt, support family or invest in their communities.
Comprised of Andrew Moerdyk, Kimie Nishikawa and Santiago Orjuela-Laverde, dots leads with the philosophy that the value of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. As such, the collective is hired as a single design entity and the three artists each contribute a variable amount for each project, creating a final product that would not have been achievable with a lone designer.
dots made its Broadway debut as scenic designer for the 2023 revival of “The Sign in the Brustein’s Window,” and then received two 2024 Tony Award nominations for its efforts on the revivals of “Appropriate” and “An Enemy of the People.” dots is represented in the 2024-2025 Broadway season by “Oh, Mary!,” “Romeo + Juliet” and “Floyd Collins.” Off-Broadway credits include “Public Obscenities” at Soho Rep and “Dark Disabled Stories” at the Public Theater.
Chowdhury, whose works often focus on queer South Asian narratives, was named a 2024 Pulitzer finalist for “Public Obscenities” (which was, as aforementioned, designed by dots). Playwright, performer and educator Goblen is known for his solo works rooted in devised theater. Sobelle is an absurdist performer and director, known for combining illusion, installation and poetry in his work. Navajo Nation citizen Yazzie is a playwright and director whose work focuses on dismantling white supremacy; she is the founder and artistic director of New Native Theatre.
While there are approximately five theater artists recognized each year, dots is one of the rare Broadway-employed artists to be cited by United States Artists. Past recipients with Broadway ties include 2022 fellow DeLanna Studi, who appeared in the 2009 national tour of “August: Osage County,” and 2008 fellow Dianne Walker, a tap dancer known as “Lady Di,” who appeared on the Main Stem in the 1989 musical “Black and Blue.”
Since 2006, United States Artists has awarded over $41 million in grants.
