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Four Philly artists receive United States Artists Fellowship award

This year, the award recognizes sculptor Karyn Olivier, filmmaker Rea Tajiri, choreographer Nichole Canuso, and muralist/sculptor Cesar Viveros. They each win $50,000.

(Top left clockwise) Karyn Olivier, Cesar Viveros, Nichole Canuso and Rea Tajiri are four artists named in the 2025 cohort of United States Artists Fellows. Photo of Olivier by Ryan Collerd and photo of Viveros by Manuel Vasquez.
(Top left clockwise) Karyn Olivier, Cesar Viveros, Nichole Canuso and Rea Tajiri are four artists named in the 2025 cohort of United States Artists Fellows. Photo of Olivier by Ryan Collerd and photo of Viveros by Manuel Vasquez.Read moreCourtesy of The Artists

The United States Artists, a Chicago-based arts nonprofit, named four Philadelphia artists as recipients of its prestigious fellowship award, granting them each an unrestricted sum of $50,000. The fellows include two Temple University professors — sculptor Karyn Olivier and filmmaker Rea Tajiri; choreographer Nichole Canuso; and veteran muralist and sculptor Cesar Viveros.

The annual fellowship recognizes 50 artists across the United States and Puerto Rico for “their groundbreaking artistic visions, unique perspectives within their fields and evident potential for the award to make a significant impact in their practices and lives,” the organization said in a statement.

This year’s cohort features creatives across 10 disciplines from 21 states. With four artists highlighted this year, Philadelphia is particularly well-represented. Previous Pennsylvania-based fellows include Philadelphia ceramicist Roberto Lugo and Penn State architecture professor DK Osseo-Asare.

We asked the four new fellows to tell us about the projects they’re developing with this new funding, and what Philadelphia means to them.

Neighborhood: Germantown

How does Philadelphia inspire your artistry? Although I made public art before moving here 13 years ago, it has become a bigger part of my practice. That’s definitely a result of living in a city with such rich, layered history. I was thrilled to be selected for the city’s Bethel Burying Ground memorial, commemorating the unmarked graves of 5000+ African Americans buried under the Weccacoe Playground in Queen Village. Last year I completed a memorial to Dinah, the formerly enslaved woman who saved Stenton House from being burned during the Revolutionary War. And one of my favorite pieces was in my own neighborhood—in Germantown’s Vernon Park, I made an artwork called The Battle Is Joined. The idea was to provoke thought about who decides who (and what) is worth honoring. All of these works are built on the shifting sands of history, and Philadelphia has so many stories that have been buried beneath the accepted colonial surface.

Her plans: The fellowship will help me to fund an assistant and hire studio help to manage some of the time-consuming administrative work and research that are integral to an art career. It will allow me to continue bringing rigor and enthusiasm to my students, who deserve a professor who is focused and not overwhelmed by juggling two full-time jobs.

Neighborhood: West Kensington

How does Philadelphia inspire your artistry? Philadelphia is a city steeped in history and rich in cultural diversity, and that energy pulses through every neighborhood I’ve had the privilege to work in. What stands out most is the city’s true embrace of the term “Sanctuary City.” People here offer a welcome, a place to find hope and opportunity. The solidarity among neighbors, especially with immigrants, is palpable.

His plans: I am currently working on a series of projects that center on the immigrant experience and the cultural richness we bring to Philadelphia. One recent project, La Posada, Mexico Surrealista, is an immersive art installation that serves as a tapestry of immigrants. It blurs the line between performance, reality, and symbolism, transforming the everyday into something extraordinary.

For the upcoming year, I plan to bring more of this work into public spaces, inviting larger audiences to reflect on the surrealism in our lives. I’ll continue introducing new projects like La Cruceta, El Tonalpohualli, and El Nixtamal, blending English, Spanish and Nahuatl languages while engaging the broader community in meaningful conversations.

Neighborhood: Between Old City and Northern Liberties

How does Philadelphia inspire your artistry? Philadelphia has such a rich physical landscape. First, we’re on the territory of the Lenapehoking, then there are the confluences of several creeks and rivers of the Wissahickon, the Schuylkill, the Delaware, Cobbs Creek which gives it a strong energy. The art culture here is both international and hyperlocal and intimate; it’s very scrappy and resourceful. I’m very appreciative of the accessibility to have in-depth conversations with other artists here. I also appreciate the community media spaces like Blackstar, Scribe, Asian Arts Initiative, Leeway, Ars Nova, Bartrams Garden, Lightbox – spaces where we can convene and engage.

Her plans: I’m putting the funds towards a current project, Non-Alien, a new hybrid-documentary feature. It’s based off of a rediscovered photography book composed of my father Vince Tajiri’s personal work. In the mid 1940’s, he was documenting the resettlement of Japanese Americans into Chicago after the WWII U.S. concentration camps. He submitted the book for publication but it was rejected. My nephew, Vince Scheitwiler, and I are resurrecting the book, and interpreting his life and experiences based off of an archive of my father’s writing just discovered in the last year.

Neighborhood: South Philadelphia

How does Philadelphia inspire your artistry? I was born and raised here; it’s home base for my heart and my career. The trajectory of my practice has been shaped by the collaborators, audiences and residents I’ve encountered here. As a choreographer, I seek to soften the boundary between audiences and performers to invite tender exchanges and moments of reflection. Many of my projects are site-specific, allowing me to learn from and respond to buildings and their people, past and present. That collaborative, iterative process is continually expanding my own perspective on my environment. Philadelphia’s way of carrying its history, through architecture and oral traditions, informs how I engage with sites around the world.

Her plans: I’m currently embarking on an immersive performance installation called Lunar Retreat, named after the distance growing between the Earth and the Moon. It will be an interactive space that invites rest and reflection offering participants invitations to process loss and transformation.

These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.