The Ohio Arts Council has approved Individual Excellence Awards for 77 Ohio artists for state fiscal year 2026, distributing $375,000 in grants to support work across literary, performing, and musical disciplines. The council received 469 applications during the funding cycle, selecting recipients across seven categories.

Of the 77 recipients, 73 individual artists will each receive $5,000 awards, while four artists working on collaborative projects will each receive $2,500. Funded disciplines include choreography, literary criticism, fiction, non-fiction, playwriting and screenwriting, poetry, and music composition. The Individual Excellence Awards program is designed to recognize and support the creative development of Ohio-based artists who demonstrate a high level of achievement in their field.

The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that administers state and federal funding to support arts programming and arts education across Ohio. The fiscal year 2026 award cycle is one of several grant programs administered by the OAC, which also funds organizational arts support, arts education initiatives, and the ArtsNEXT professional development program. A full list of fiscal year 2026 Individual Excellence Award recipients is available at oac.ohio.gov.

Source: Ohio Arts Council