National Heritage Fellowship

National Heritage Fellowship
Awarded forLifetime achievement in folk or traditional arts
LocationWashington, D.C.
CountryUnited States
Presented byNational Endowment for the Arts
Reward(s)$25,000
First awarded1982
Last awardedpresent
Websitehttps://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage Edit this on Wikidata

The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award,[1] the Fellowship is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[2][3] It is a one-time only award and fellows must be living citizens or permanent residents of the United States. Each year, fellowships are presented to between nine and fifteen artists or groups at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The Fellows are nominated by individual citizens, with an average of over 200 nominations per year. From that pool of candidates, recommendations are made by a rotating panel of specialists, including one layperson, as well as folklorists and others with a variety of forms of cultural expertise. The recommendations are then reviewed by the National Council on the Arts, with the final decisions made by the chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts.[4] As of 2024, 487 artists in a wide variety of fields have received Fellowships.[5]

  1. ^ Siporin, Steve (1992). "Introduction". American Folk Masters: The National Heritage Fellows. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in association with The Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico. pp. 14–21. ISBN 0810919176. OCLC 24699109.
  2. ^ "National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2013 NEA National Heritage Fellowship Recipients". US Fed News Service. Washington, DC. June 6, 2013. Archived from the original on December 14, 2017. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  3. ^ Lane, Sarah (September 24, 2015). "Daniel Sheehy Named National Heritage Fellow". The Washington Post. Washington, DC. p. Metro section, T23. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  4. ^ "National Heritage Fellowships 30th Anniversary" (PDF). arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2024honorees was invoked but never defined (see the help page).