LOS ANGELES, CA.- United States Artists (USA), a new organization dedicated to providing direct support for America’s finest artists, has appointed three cultural leaders to its board of directors. Artist and 2006 USA Fellow Mark Bradford of Los Angeles, philanthropist and arts patron Gillian Early of Las Vegas, and international arts patron Ella Fontanals-Cisneros of Miami will join the USA board in June. These appointments mark significant growth for USA as it continues to galvanize the next generation of leaders who recognize the need to support individual artists throughout the nation.

“The addition of an internationally recognized artist and two leading arts patrons to the USA board significantly broadens our collective expertise,” said USA Board Chair and President of the Ford Foundation Susan V. Berresford. “Mark, Gillian, and Ella each bring with them invaluable knowledge and a great passion for USA’s mission to broaden support for artists and their contributions to society.”

The three new board members will join a prominent group of national arts and philanthropic leaders on the USA Board of Directors under Berresford’s leadership. Additional USA Board members include: Michael Francis, executive vice president, marketing, Target Corporation (Minneapolis, MN); actor Danny Glover (Berkeley, CA); Samuel Hoi, president, Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles, CA); Diane Kaplan, president, Rasmuson Foundation (Anchorage, AK); Gabriella Morris, president, Prudential Foundation (Newark, NJ); Dr. Judith Rodin, president, Rockefeller Foundation (New York, NY); Todd Simon, senior vice president, Omaha Steaks (Omaha, NE); and Christopher V. Walker, founder, Meridian Pacific Capital Partners (Los Angeles, CA).

“USA will greatly benefit from the energy and range of experience of these three new board members,” said Katharine DeShaw, United States Artists executive director. “Ella Fontanals-Cisneros brings an international perspective and a true passion for contemporary art; Gillian Early has a deep passion for the performing arts and understands USA’s critical role in the arts funding landscape; and Mark Bradford, our first artist representative to the board, brings an invaluable insight as we continue to support and advocate for artists nationwide.”

United States Artists was established in 2006 to support individual artists working in all disciplines: architecture and design, craft and traditional arts, dance, literature, media, music, theater arts, and visual arts. As an investment in the nation’s creativity, USA annually awards 50 Fellowships of $50,000 each through a competitive nomination and review process. The second annual USA Fellowships will be announced on November 17, 2007, in a celebration at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

Mark Bradford: Recipient of an inaugural USA Fellowship, visual artist Mark Bradford is primarily a painter who also creates videos. His practice is equally informed by his childhood in South Los Angeles, his rigorous training in art theory, and his study of painting at California Institute for the Arts. Bradford’s work incorporates materials from the urban landscape into compositions that are defining new directions in abstract painting. He has received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, the Nancy Graves Foundation Grant, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award. His work has been included in Consider This… at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the São Paolo Bienal; the Busan Biennial in South Korea; inSite in San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico; and the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art. Bradford also participated in the 2006 Whitney Biennial, for which he received the prestigious Bucksbaum Award encompassing a solo show at the museum opening in September 2007.

Gillian Early: Gillian Early’s passion for the arts was sparked at an early age through the influence of her family and her participation in theater and dance. Early’s parents, Steven and Elaine Wynn, are long-time patrons of the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and leading collectors of 19th- and 20th- century paintings. After receiving a bachelor of arts in history of art from Yale University, Early moved to Los Angeles to work in the film and music industries. In 2006, she and her family relocated to Las Vegas, where she joined the board of Nevada Ballet Theater for whom she will chair the annual gala in January 2008. Early serves as a trustee of the Wynn Family Foundation and a patron of Dance at the Music Center in Los Angeles. She also co-chaired the Workshop Gala for the School of American Ballet in New York City and serves on the selection jury for the 2007 Sun Valley Arts & Crafts Festival.

Ella Fontanals-Cisneros: Ella Fontanals-Cisneros is a philanthropist and entrepreneur with an abiding passion and discerning eye for contemporary art and design. Born in Cuba and raised in Venezuela, she is a true internationalist whose generosity, vision, and dynamism have made a significant impact on the Miami cultural community and on arts organizations around the globe. Together with her family, Ms. Fontanals-Cisneros founded the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) in 2002, which fosters understanding and appreciation of contemporary artists from Latin America through grants, commissions, exhibitions, and bilingual publications. In 2003, she founded Miami Art Central (MAC), a pioneering contemporary art space that recently joined forces with the Miami Art Museum (MAM) to form MAC@MAM. In addition to serving as Chair of CIFO and MAC, Ms. Fontanals-Cisneros serves on the boards of MAM, the American Patrons of the Tate, the Cintas Foundation, the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, and the International Women’s Forum. She received the Spectrum Philanthropy Award from the American Red Cross in 2003, among other awards.