Fifteen artists working across the United States will each receive an unrestricted grant of $50,000 from Anonymous Was A Woman, the nonprofit that has supported women, trans and non-binary artists over the age of 40 since 1996. The 2026 recipients were announced on 11 November, and the list spans painting, video, installation and sculpture.

The age range tells the story of the award. At one end is Kay WalkingStick, a Cherokee Nation painter, who at 91 is the eldest recipient this year. At the other is Trisha Baga, a New York video and installation artist who, at 41, only just clears the programme's age threshold. Between them sit artists including Laylah Ali, Marsha Pels, Beatriz Cortez and Katherine Sherwood, all recognised for practices that have developed over decades with too little institutional attention.

The programme was founded by artist and photographer Susan Unterberg in response to the National Endowment for the Arts' decision to end grants for individual artists. She named it after a line in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, in which Woolf suggests that the anonymous author of so many unsigned poems was often a woman. The idea was to direct money, without strings attached, to artists whose work had gone unattributed or undervalued because of their gender.

Thirty years on, the award remains one of the few in the American art world aimed specifically at artists past the usual age for emerging-artist prizes. Because the grants are unrestricted, recipients can spend them however they choose, whether on studio rent, materials, travel or simply time to work. For artists who have spent careers outside the spotlight, the recognition can matter as much as the money.