The 2026 MacArthur Fellows have been announced, and this year’s class is an interesting mix. From climate scientists to fiction writers, historians to chemists and more, the list provides a window into just some of the work being done by smart, enthusiastic, and creative people today.
These Fellows have found ways to capture some of the most important issues of our time, and it’s great to see such varied examples of constructive creativity, and to think of all the other people out there doing good work. Let’s hear it for flashes of genius!
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” — Howard Thurman
“Everything depends on the individual human being, regardless of how small a number of like-minded people there is, and everything depends on each person, through action and not mere words, creatively making the meaning of life a reality in his or her own being.” — Viktor Frankl
Books are just one of the many ways to interpret and record history. The 11th-century Bayeux tapestry is going on display to the public today in the UK. The tapestry has more than 220 feet of embroidery detailing the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066. And the public is loving it.
Inside the exhibition on Thursday morning, the first visitors made their way along the tapestry, snapping photos as they went. They were all quiet until one — Cheryl Prax, 71, a retired property manager — spotted some of the nude figures in the tapestry’s borders and laughed loudly. “I love quirky historical things like that,” Prax said afterward.
One of the (many) great things about NASA is that the images it produces are public domain. What might a curious and creative person do with such imagery? Why, cut it together as a moon mission movie, of course!
“I have been completely spellbound by the images coming out of NASA’s Artemis II mission,” Boswell wrote on YouTube. “NASA / ESA deserves best cinematography at the Oscars! I dropped everything to put together a tribute to the mission, piecing together the best, highest resolution footage and mission photography with a custom eight-minute score.”
In case you could use a little space-based inspiration today. Thank you, John D. Boswell!
I see no particular merit in the fact that I was an artist at the age of eleven. I was born with an ability, with music in me, that is all. No special credit was due me. The only credit we can claim is for the use we make of the talent we are given. That is why I urge young musicians: “Don’t be vain because you happen to have talent. You are not responsible for that; it was not of your doing. What you do with your talent is what matters. You must cherish this gift. Do not demean or waste what you have been given. Work — work constantly and nourish it.” — Pablo Casals, Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor
“Your fans, the ones that exist and the ones you have yet to make, will appreciate that what they get from you is from you. That’s what people mostly want from art: Entertainment and connection. You will always be able to do that better than ‘Al.’” — John Scalzi
It’s understandable that a lot of beginners at any art want rules for how to do it. But there comes a time when one has to make one’s own choices about how one’s art is structured, how it’s executed, what you want it to do. There is no rulebook that will help you with that, you just have to step up and decide. That’s scary! But there’s no getting around it. — Ann Leckie
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