February 16, 2021
Lauren Lee McCarthy, associate professor of design media arts at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, has been named a 2021 United States Artists Fellow. She is one of 60 recipients of the fellowships, which are given to artists across 10 creative disciplines, including architecture and design, media and visual art. Each artist will receive an unrestricted $50,000 award.
United States Artists, a Chicago-based arts nonprofit, founded its program in 2006. It aims to honor recipients for their past contributions to the arts and to support their ongoing artistic and professional development. To that end, the organization stipulates that the cash award may be used for anything from creating new work to paying rent or obtaining health care. In 2020, United States Artists was able to distribute $20 million in direct funding to nearly 4,000 artists in need.