Academy Alumnae Sonya Clark, Sheida Soleimani, Anne Wilson Named 2026 Guggenheim Fellows
Cranbrook Academy of Art is proud to celebrate alumnae Sonya Clark (MFA Fiber 1995), Sheida Soleimani (MFA Photography 2015), and Anne Wilson (BFA Fiber 1972) on being named 2026 Guggenheim Fellows, joining the 101st class of distinguished artists, scholars, and thinkers recognized by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. They are among 223 fellows this year, selected from nearly 5,000 candidates across fields including art, science, and scholarship.
The fellowship recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or creative ability in the arts. Fellows receive a monetary stipend to support independent work “under the freest possible conditions.”
Sonya Clark is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores history, identity, and material culture through textiles, hair, and found objects. Her practice has been widely exhibited internationally, including a recent mid-career retrospective focused on her community-centered and participatory projects, Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other, co-organized by Cranbrook Art Museum, the High Museum of Art, and the Museum of Arts and Design.
Sheida Soleimani is an artist, educator, and activist whose staged photographic works address geopolitics, displacement, and human rights, often drawing from her family’s history of political exile. She is also the founder of Congress of the Birds, a nonprofit organization supporting asylum seekers.
Anne Wilson is a Chicago-based artist who creates sculpture, drawings, performances, and video animations that explore themes of time, loss, and private and social rituals. Her artwork embraces conceptual strategies and handwork using everyday materials — table linen, bed sheets, human hair, lace, thread, glass, and wire.
You can see the work of Clark, Soleimani, and Wilson at Cranbrook Art Museum this summer across two exhibitions in the upper galleries.
Clark and Soleimani are included in Labyrinth/Laboratory: Selections from the Cranbrook Collection, an ongoing presentation of contemporary Academy alumni and Artists-in-Residence across disciplines. The museum holds the largest collection of Academy artists’ work, with more than 8,500 total objects, and offers year-round access to the public through its behind-the-scenes Collection Wing Tours.
Wilson will be featured in a two-person exhibition with fellow Cranbrook Fiber alumna and past Guggenheim Fellow, Olga de Amaral, Drawing in Thread: Olga de Amaral and Anne Wilson, opening to the public on June 20, 2026.
Twelve Cranbrook Academy of Art alumni and former Artists-in-Residence have previously been awarded a Guggenheim fellowship: Kathleen McShane (2025), Anders Herwald Ruhwald (2024), Liz Cohen (2020), Annabeth Rosen (2018), Blane De St. Croiz (2010), Karyn Olivier (2007), Beverly Fishman (2005), Donald Lipski (1988), Lennart Anderson (1983), Olga de Amaral (1973), Michael David Hall (1973), David Fredenthal (1938, 1939).
Learn more:
The 2026 Class of Guggenheim Fellows Has Been Announced – Forbes
These are the winners of the 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship – Hyperallergic
2026 Guggenheim Fellowships Go to Sonya Clark, John Miller, and American Artist – ARTnews
American Artist, Penny Arcade Among 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship Cohort – Artforum
Announcing the 2026 Guggenheim Fellows – Guggenheim Fellowship
Award-Winning Alumni and Artists-in-Residence – Cranbrook Academy of Art
MFA and MArch Programs at Cranbrook Academy of Art
