Alutiiq mask carver Perry Eaton is among 50 recipients of grants announced today by United States Artists, a national artists' advocacy organization.

Eaton will receive a $50,000 USA Fellowship grant along with the other honorees, who represent the fields of architecture and design crafts and traditional arts, dance, literature, media arts, music, theater arts, and visual arts.

This is the fourth year of the USA Fellows program, which works in coordination with works with other major philanthropic groups, including the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Alaska's Rasmuson Foundation.

Previous Alaska fellows have included carver Alvin Aningayou, filmmaker Andrew Okpeaha MacClean, sculptor Susie Silook, writer John Haines of Fairbanks, totem carver Tommy Joseph, composer John Luther Adams and Tlingit weavers Teri Rofkar and Anna Brown Ehlers.