The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced the winners of its 85th annual fellowship competition this week. From a pool of nearly 3,000 applicants, 180 artists, scientists, and scholars were selected.

Winners in the fine arts and photography are: Michael Ashkin, Dike Blair, Tom Burckhardt, Nancy Chunn, Margaret Cogswell, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Heidi Kumao, Paul Laffoley, Thomas Lawson, Paul Etienne Lincoln, Medrie MacPhee, Lenore Malen, Joanna Malinowska, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Osamu James Nakagawa, Suzanne Opton, W. G. Raad, Anna Shteynshleyger, Stephanie Snider, Jered Sprecher, Cheryle St. Onge, David Thorne, Shirley Tse, Brian Ulrich, Faith Wilding, Pamela Wilson-Ryckman, Byron Glen Wolfe, and Alexi Worth.

Last year, the foundation awarded a total of $8.2 million to 190 recipients, at an average of roughly $43,150 per grant, according to Artnet. No total was announced this year.

"In a time of decreased funding for individuals in the arts, humanities, and sciences, the Guggenheim Fellowship program is all the more important," says the Guggenheim press release.

"... Continued and ever more generous donations... have ensured that the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation will be able to continue the mission Senator and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim set for it: to 'add to the educational, literary, artistic, and scientific power of this country, and also to provide for the cause of better international understanding.'"