MacArthur Foundation

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Foundation to Increase Giving in Response to Trump 'Crisis'

'Those of us who can do more should do more,' organization's president says

(Newser) - The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will increase its giving over the next two years in response to what it calls a crisis prompted by the Trump administration's freeze on federal foreign aid and the now-suspended freeze on federal grants. "This is a major crisis for...

Here Are America's 22 New Geniuses
Here Are America's
22 New Geniuses
Oct 1, 2024 11:52 AM CDT

Here Are America's 22 New Geniuses

Children's author Jason Reynolds is among them

(Newser) - The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced Tuesday its 2024 class of fellows, often known as recipients of the "genius grant." The 22 fellows will each receive a grant of $800,000 over five years to spend however they want. They were selected from nominations in...

Here Are This Year's MacArthur Geniuses
Here Are This Year's
MacArthur Geniuses
THE RUNDOWN
Oct 5, 2023 7:31 AM CDT

Here Are This Year's MacArthur Geniuses

They include a poet laureate, hula expert

(Newser) - The MacArthur Foundation has announced its 2023 list of 20 "geniuses" who will receive grants of $800,000 over the next five years to spend any way they choose. The winners—12 women, seven men, and one nonbinary person—include writers, artists, and scientists, the Washington Post reports.
  • Among
...

Donors Pledge a Half-Billion for Local News Operations

Two newspapers per week are closing in US

(Newser) - The MacArthur Foundation is leading a group of donors that have pledged $500 million to help the struggling local news industry, hoping to seed outlets that can make up for those that have closed or been hollowed out over the past two decades. Led by $150 million donations by the...

Meet This Year's MacArthur 'Geniuses'

25 grant recipients include artists, mathematicians, and a poet-ornithologist

(Newser) - A specialist in plastic waste management, artists, musicians, computer scientists, and a poet-ornithologist who advocates for Black people in nature are among this year’s 25 winners of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s prestigious fellowships. The so-called "genius grants" honor discipline-bending and society-changing people whose...

Here Are This Year's 'Genius Grants'

25 people will get $625K

(Newser) - Writers, artists, poets, a virologist, activists, and filmmakers are among the luminaries named as this year’s MacArthur fellows. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Tuesday announced 25 people will each receive $625,000 over five years to use as they please. The Chicago-based foundation has awarded...

MacArthur Has Picked Its 'Geniuses' for 2020

Foundation is awarding 21 $625K grants

(Newser) - Writers, sociologists and scientists, a documentary filmmaker, a legal scholar, and an environmental health advocate are among the luminaries named as this year’s MacArthur fellows. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Tuesday announced 21 people will each receive $625,000 over five years to use as...

Here Are This Year's 'Genius' Grant Winners
Here Are
This Year's
'Geniuses'
Sep 25, 2019 3:31 PM CDT

Here Are This Year's 'Geniuses'

Presenting the 26 winners of the MacArthur fellowships

(Newser) - There are 26 "geniuses" this year, as in winners of the prestigious MacArthur fellowships, perhaps better known as "genius" grants. (The New York Times notes the nickname "annoys" the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which has been bestowing the fellowships since 1981.) Each 2019...

Here Are This Year's 'Genius Grant' Winners

The MacArthur Foundation will give them $625K to use as they please

(Newser) - A violinist who organizes concerts for the homeless, a professor whose research is being used to increase access to civil justice by poor communities, and an activist pastor are among this year's MacArthur fellows and recipients of so-called genius grants, the AP reports. The John D. and Catherine T....

This Man Is Now a 'Genius,' as Are 23 Others

MacArthur Foundation announces this year's 'genius' grant winners

(Newser) - A director who has taken opera from the concert hall to the streets of Los Angeles and an organizer who helped put a human face on the plight of young undocumented immigrants are among this year's MacArthur fellows and recipients of the so-called "genius" grants. The Chicago-based John...

Meet This Year's MacArthur 'Geniuses'

Ta-Nehisi Coates of the 'Atlantic' among the winners of foundation's $500K grants

(Newser) - Two dozen people just earned their genius papers and a cool $500,000 each. The MacArthur Foundation has announced its annual "genius" grants, awarded to honorees in a variety of fields, including music, photography, and the sciences, NPR reports. The winners will each receive their cash prizes over five...

MacArthur Genius Spends Her $500K on Others

Heather McHugh creates nonprofit for people who need a break

(Newser) - What would you do with $500,000? For Seattle poet Heather McHugh, it took some figuring out. "Nobody deserves that kind of money, and I think something in me was chastened by being awarded such a big amount of money," McHugh tells KPLU . After receiving the money with...

Meet This Year's 21 MacArthur 'Geniuses'

MacArthur Foundation picks new batch of fellows for $625K award

(Newser) - A 71-year-old historian, a 32-year-old physicist, poets, musicians, lawyers: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has selected this year's crop of "geniuses"—recipients of a coveted fellowship that includes a $625,000 stipend over five years. Among the winners:
  • Physicist Danielle Bassett, the youngest recipient
...

Meet This Year's 'Genius' Grant Winners
 Meet This Year's 
 'Genius' Grant 
 Winners 
2013 fellows
Sep 25, 2013 6:38 AM CDT

Meet This Year's 'Genius' Grant Winners

2013 MacArthur fellows include author Karen Russell, dancer Kyle Abraham

(Newser) - The MacArthur Foundation "genius" grants have risen from $500,000 to $625,000 this year, but for recipient Karen Russell, the real prize is time. The author wrote her Pulitzer-nominated debut novel, Swamplandia!, while working part time at a vet clinic, reports the AP , and has been traveling from...

MacArthur Genius Winner: I Thought it Was a Robocall
MacArthur Genius Winner:
I Thought it Was a Robocall
2012 fellows
Oct 2, 2012 7:23 AM CDT

MacArthur Genius Winner: I Thought it Was a Robocall

2012 fellows announced

(Newser) - Mandolin player Chris Thile kept getting phone calls from the 312 area code, refusing to answer them because he assumed they were political robocalls. Finally, after listening to one of the mysterious messages—"Don't tell anyone about this call"—he had his tour manager look up the...

Meet the 2011 MacArthur 'Genius Grant' Winners
MacArthur Genius Winner:
I Thought it Was Spam
2011 fellows
Sep 20, 2011 6:25 AM CDT

MacArthur Genius Winner: I Thought it Was Spam

Meet the 2011 fellows

(Newser) - When silversmith Ubaldo Vitali got the phone call, he thought it was a joke. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein nearly wrote off her email as spam. But it was neither a joke or spam: Vitali and Weilerstein are among this year’s 22 recipients of the MacArthur Foundation’s $500,000 “...

Wire Creator Among MacArthur Genius Grant Winners

22 others get $500K to follow their passions

(Newser) - The creator of the HBO hit series The Wire and now Treme is among 23 winners of the "genius" grants announced today by the MacArthur Foundation. The awards, granting $100,000 annually for 5 years with absolutely no strings attached, left David Simon with a "vague sense of...

Meet This Year's MacArthur 'Geniuses'

Journalists, scientists, artists among 24 awarded $500K grants

(Newser) - A newspaper reporter who refuses to forget decades-old murders is among 24 recipients of this year's $500,000 MacArthur Foundation "genius grants." As in previous years, a wide variety of fields are represented on the list of recipients: There is a novelist and an applied physicist, a photojournalist...

Scientists, Artists Dominate MacArthur 'Genius' Grants

25 innovators receive this year's $500 prizes

(Newser) - Of the 25 recipients of this year's MacArthur Foundation "genius award," 13 are scientists and eight are artists, the New York Times reports. This year, they are “people working on the very edge of discovery and people at the edge of a new synthesis,” says the...

MacArthur Picks New $500K 'Geniuses'

Twenty-four creative high-achievers handed $500K

(Newser) - "Master vocalist" Dawn Upshaw is among 24 "geniuses"  awarded half a million bucks by the MacArthur Foundation today. Back from a break to treat her breast cancer, Upshaw says she hopes that "a lot of amazing music comes from it. Maybe new pieces with young singers....

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