2025 YoungArts Award Winners Announced

YoungArts has announced the 2025 YoungArts award winners— more than 800 of the most accomplished young visual, literary and performing artists from across the country, heralding the next generation of artists to watch. YoungArts award winners are selected through a highly competitive application, which is reviewed by panels of esteemed, discipline-specific artists in a rigorous adjudication process.

2025 YoungArts award winners join a distinguished community of artists who are offered creative and professional development support throughout their careers. A complete list of the 2025 winners, all 15–18 years old or in grades 10–12, is available online at youngarts.org/winners.

“We're thrilled to award our largest-ever cohort of artists, selected from a record-breaking number of applications this year,” said YoungArts President & CEO Clive Chang. “We hope this recognition provides these young people with the encouragement to keep pursuing their artistry, and the assurance that YoungArts will be there as a source of support and community for the rest of their lives.”

All YoungArts award winners have demonstrated exceptional technique, a strong sense of artistry, and an extraordinary commitment to developing their craft. This year, winners were selected from nearly 11,000 applications across 10 artistic disciplines – classical music, dance, design, film, jazz, photography, theater, visual arts, voice and writing. Each award winner will receive a monetary award of $250. 

For the duration of their careers, YoungArts award winners are eligible for exclusive creative and professional development support, microgrants and financial awards, and presentation opportunities in collaboration with major venues and cultural partners nationwide; and become part of an intergenerational network of more than 22,000 past award winners. 2025 YoungArts winners also have the opportunity to participate in YoungArts Labs, all-expenses-paid learning intensives with field-defining artists in Los Angeles, New York and Nashville.

During adjudication, panelists identify 169 YoungArts award winners with distinction. These artists are invited to participate in National YoungArts Week, held January 5-12, 2025, in Miami. During the week, participants have opportunities to share their own work, which is further evaluated for cash awards of up to $10,000; experience interdisciplinary classes and workshops; and receive mentorship from leading artists in their fields. 2025 winners with distinction will have the chance to learn from notable artists such as ballerina Misty Copeland, dance artists Rashaun Mitchell and Silas Reiner, actress Lorna Courtney, multidisciplinary artist Brian Ellison, and National Bestselling Author and Filmmaker Abigail Hing Wen.

Winners with distinction are also eligible to be nominated to become U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts, one of the highest honors given to high school seniors by the President of the United States. YoungArts, the sole nominating agency, nominates 60 artists to the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, from which the 20 U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts are selected.  

YoungArts award winners join a distinguished group of accomplished artists including Daniel Arsham, Jon Batiste, Terence Blanchard, Camille A. Brown, Timothée Chalamet, Viola Davis, Amanda Gorman, Denyce Graves, Judith Hill, Jennifer Koh, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Andrew Rannells, Desmond Richardson, Jean Shin, Hunter Schafer and Shaina Taub.

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