NEA National Heritage Fellowships

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) National Heritage Fellowship is the highest honor that our nation bestows upon its folk and traditional artists. Each year, nine to thirteen individuals—“national living treasures” from across the nation—are chosen to receive this one-time-only Fellowship in recognition of lifetime achievement, artistic excellence, and contributions to our nation’s cultural heritage. Bess Lomax Hawes, first director of NEA’s Folk & Traditional Arts Program, created the National Heritage Fellowships in 1982, and in 2000 the Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship was established to honor an individual who has made a significant contribution to the preservation and awareness of cultural heritage.

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Since 1983, the NCTA has organized the annual week of activities in Washington, D.C. honoring Fellowship recipients. These include a Capitol Hill award ceremony, a banquet in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress and, until 2019, a culminating gala public concert featuring the Fellowship awardees produced by the NCTA. Since 2020, we have worked with Hypothetical Films to produce short documentaries on each Fellow, visiting them in their home communities and taking viewers across the country.