Art

Guggenheim’s 100th Class Honors 198 Visionaries

The Guggenheim Fellowship 2025 awards 198 trailblazers across 53 disciplines, marking a century of creative and academic excellence.

Por: Angela Leon Cervera April 18, 2025

A centennial isn’t just a milestone—it’s a statement. And for the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the statement is bold: creativity still matters, scholarship still shapes us, and now more than ever, visionary thinkers must be given space to explore the unknown.

On April 15, 2025, the Foundation unveiled its 100th class of Guggenheim Fellows—a powerful group of 198 artists, scholars, and scientists spanning 53 disciplines and representing 83 academic institutions, 32 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces.

This is more than a list. It’s a mirror of our time—and a forecast of what’s to come.

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What Makes the 2025 Class Stand Out?

For starters, this isn’t your typical academic club. The 2025 Fellows range in age from 32 to 79, and over a third are unaffiliated with academic institutions, underscoring the Foundation’s commitment to independent thinkers.

Among this year’s class:

Visual artists like Theaster Gates, Julie Tolentino, Maryam Safajoo, and Raul Guerrero bring bold perspectives across media and identity.
In Fiction, we find Miranda July, Nicole Krauss, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Nell Zink, and Jonathan Lethem—a dream team of literary innovators.
The Poetry category includes Cynthia Cruz, Richie Hofmann, and Brandon D. Som, each weaving language into emotional cartographies.
Other fields include Climate Studies, Choreography, Constitutional Studies, Music Composition, Photography, and Indigenous Studies, where voices like Larissa FastHorse lead necessary conversations.

Each recipient receives a monetary stipend to pursue projects freely—aligned with the Foundation’s founding ideal: to support work “under the freest possible conditions”

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Guggenheim Fellowship 2025 Essentials

How many fellowships were awarded in 2025? 198 Fellows across 53 fields, selected from nearly 3,500 applicants.
What makes the Guggenheim Fellowship unique? It provides unrestricted funding to empower recipients to pursue work under the freest possible conditions.
Who are some notable 2025 recipients? Artists like Theaster Gates, writers like Miranda July, and scholars such as Carolyn Rouse and Hannah Ginsborg.
Is the Guggenheim Fellowship only for artists? No—fellows include scientists, academics, writers, composers, choreographers, and more.
Where can I see the full list? Visit www.gf.org for a complete breakdown of Fellows by discipline.

How Does the Guggenheim Celebrate 100 Years of Cultural Impact?

The 2025 Fellowship season is symbolically rich. Alongside the announcement, the Foundation has:

Launched a refreshed brand identity and website, designed by Pentagram’s Matt Willey, Michael Bierut, and Jonny Sikov.
Announced a special exhibition with The New York Historical Society, opening August 29 – November 30, 2025, showcasing archival treasures and a century of Fellow-driven transformation.

And yes—there were notable honorary gifts too:

Robert De Niro funded a Fellowship in Fine Arts honoring his father, awarded to Maryam Safajoo.
Stacy Schiff and Marc de la Bruyère supported a Fiction Fellowship for Nell Zink.
A Climate Studies Fellowship went to Park Williams, supported by Jerold S. Kayden.

These gestures amplify a central message: the Fellowship isn’t just prestigious—it’s deeply personal, collaborative, and generational.

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As the Guggenheim Foundation enters its second century, its mission remains urgent: to protect the sacred space of intellectual and creative pursuit. In an age of distraction and division, this year’s Fellows offer clarity, complexity, and the promise of new pathways.

Here’s to the ones who still dare to think differently—and to a fellowship that believes in them.

Explore more groundbreaking announcements in our Culture section, where history and creativity converge every week.