Los Angeles-based United States Artists has announced the recipients of USA Fellowships totaling $2.5 million.

Now in its fifth year, the fellowship program honors artists from all disciplines who demonstrate artistic excellence, unique vision, and significant contributions to their fields with unrestricted grants of $50,000. Hailing from eighteen states and Puerto Rico and ranging in age from 32 to 71, this year's fifty-two fellows (one fellowship was awarded to a three-person group) include three working in architecture and design, six in crafts and traditional arts, six in dance, seven in literature (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry), eight in media (film and video), four in music, seven in theater arts, and nine in visual arts.

As it celebrates its fifth anniversary, the organization is launching a $50 million endowment and capital campaign designed to sustain the USA Fellows program in perpetuity. To date, the organization has received gifts totaling $14 million from the Ford, Rockefeller, Rasmuson and Todd and Betiana Simon foundations.

In addition, the organization has unveiled a new online community, USA Projects, to foster connections between artists and the public, catalyze new funding for artists, and bring original creative projects to fruition. Since the site launched in beta in early May, more than seventy-five artists have posted projects and $200,000 has been pledged by more than 1,500 supporters.

"In the last five years, United States Artists has made a lasting investment in our nation's cultural heritage by putting $12.5 million directly into the hands of more than two hundred and fifty of our finest working artists," said USA executive director Katharine DeShaw. "USA is now expanding on its mission with USA Projects...fostering the creation of new and impactful work one small gift at a time."