Paris-based international cultural network AFIELD has officially announced the recipients of its 2026 Fellowships, naming six outstanding practitioners from around the globe. In a significant departure from previous years, the organization has doubled its annual cohort from three to six recipients, a strategic decision driven by the intensifying resource pressures currently facing grassroots cultural organizations worldwide.
The expansion has been made possible through the generous backing of individual benefactors alongside a dynamic new partnership with New York’s esteemed Storefront for Art and Architecture. Under the terms of the fellowship, each selected visionary will receive a USD 10,000 unrestricted grant, providing crucial financial breathing room to sustain their operations. Beyond immediate financial support, the fellows also gain permanent membership in AFIELD’s extensive global peer-support network, facilitating long-term collaboration, mentorship, and international solidarity among cultural agents of change.
This year’s diverse and accomplished roster reflects AFIELD’s commitment to supporting socially engaged art and community-led infrastructure across various continents. Notably, half of the 2026 cohort hails from the Asia-Pacific region, highlighting the vibrant and urgent nature of grassroots cultural work taking place across the region.
Among these Asia-Pacific practitioners is Chinese contemporary artist Hu Yinping, who was recognized for Xiaofang, an ambitious and deeply personal social initiative she launched in 2015. The project originated from a clever conceptual and practical intervention: Hu established a fabricated French knitwear label specifically designed to purchase her mother’s hand-crocheted hats at fair market prices in rural Sichuan. What began as a localized effort to honor and properly compensate her mother’s labor has since evolved into a sprawling network of cooperatives. Today, Xiaofang provides equitable income streams, fosters a renewed sense of dignity, and builds vibrant creative communities for older rural women who might otherwise be economically marginalized.
Joining her from Indonesia is cultural activist and producer Eka Putra Nggalu, selected for his pioneering work with Komunitas KAHE. Nggalu spearheaded the interdisciplinary collective in 2015 in Maumere, a coastal town on the island of Flores. Operating in a region frequently overlooked by mainstream metropolitan cultural centers, the group utilizes community-based research, participatory workshops, and experimental programming to build shared platforms. These initiatives are designed to preserve and elevate local knowledge, advance decolonial methodologies, and articulate regional narratives originating from eastern Indonesia.
The third Asia-Pacific recipient is multidisciplinary artist Dakota Camacho, who was selected for Gi Matan Guma’. Camacho co-founded this vital platform in 2020 alongside CHamoru educator Jeremy Cepeda. Operating across the islands of Guam and the wider Mariana archipelago, the initiative activates ancestral lineages as a form of cultural resistance and community healing. This includes the practice of kantan CHamurita call-and-response verse and traditional Micronesian voyaging techniques, known as Etåŋki or Etak. Through these deeply rooted cultural expressions, Gi Matan Guma’ asserts Indigenous sovereignty in the face of expanding United States militarization and ongoing cultural displacement across the region.
Expanding beyond the Asia-Pacific, the remaining three fellows hail from impactful cultural initiatives across Africa and Latin America, demonstrating the truly global scope of AFIELD’s mission. Zimbabwean sculptor Moffat Takadiwa earned recognition for Mbare Art Space, an imaginative and transformative project that successfully repurposed a colonial-era municipal beer hall in Harare into a thriving contemporary cultural hub. By reclaiming a space historically tied to colonial administration, Takadiwa has created a vital sanctuary for artistic production and community gathering in the Zimbabwean capital.
In Rwanda, writer and director Dorcy Rugamba was honored for his leadership with the Kigali-based Rwanda Arts Initiative. Rugamba has played a pivotal role in rebuilding and revitalizing the country’s cultural landscape through professional training, international exchanges, and the production of innovative theatrical and artistic works, helping to foster a new generation of Rwandan artists.
Rounding out the 2026 cohort are Argentinian artist Claudia Alarcón and curator Andrei Fernández, who were selected for their work with Siláët, an Indigenous Wichí women’s weaving guild. Based in Argentina, the collective serves as a powerful vehicle for cultural preservation, economic empowerment, and artistic excellence among Wichí women, ensuring that traditional weaving techniques and narratives continue to thrive and gain recognition on contemporary platforms.
Through the induction of these six visionary leaders, AFIELD continues to reinforce the essential infrastructure of grassroots cultural production worldwide, offering both tangible financial relief and enduring international solidarity during a period of unprecedented global challenge for the arts.
