Awards Categories

• Arts Advocacy Award is presented to a noted artist or arts advocate with a track record of advocating for the arts.

• Arts Education Award is presented to a noted artist or arts advocate with a track record of contributing to the advancement of arts education.

• Corporate Citizenship in the Arts Award is presented to a high-profile, major corporate leader with a record of contributing to arts and cultural institutions or initiatives.

• Eli and Edythe Broad Award for Philanthropy in the Arts is presented to an individual with a demonstrable history of philanthropic giving to one or more major arts institutions.

• Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to a nationally recognized, established artist with a lifetime of exemplary artistic accomplishment in his or her field.

• The Bell Family Foundation Young Artist Award is presented to an individual who has achieved incredible accomplishments and exemplary leadership while still early in their careers.

• Outstanding Contributions to the Arts celebrates the artistic excellence of an established artist or arts advocate.

Past National Arts Awards Recipients

• Frank Stella
  Frank Stella
  Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
  
  , Isabella and Theodor Dalenson Lifetime Achievement Award
• Jenny Holzer
  Jenny Holzer
  Jenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist. Holzer lives and works in Hoosick Falls, New York.-Education:...
  
  , Outstanding Contributions to the Arts
• President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities
  President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities
  The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities was established in Washington, DC in 1982 by an Executive Order from President Ronald Reagan and works with each Administration to incorporate the arts and the humanities into White House objectives....
  
  , Arts Education Award
• Gabourey Sidibe
  Gabourey Sidibe
  Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe is an American actress who made her acting debut in the 2009 film Precious, a role that brought her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.-Early life:...
  
  , Bell Family Foundation Young Artist Award
• Beverley Taylor Sorenson, Eli and Edythe Broad Award for Philanthropy in the Arts
• Wells Fargo & Company, Corporate Citizenship in the Arts Award

• Martha Rivers Ingram
  Martha Rivers Ingram
  Martha Robinson Rivers Ingram is the chairman of Ingram Industries, chairman of the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust, and a noted philanthropist and patron of the arts. She was married to the late E. Bronson Ingram, who inherited his father's petroleum and barge empire in 1963...
  
  , Eli and Edythe Broad Award for Philanthropy in the Arts
• Angela Lansbury
  Angela Lansbury
  Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...
  
  , Lifetime Achievement Award
• Kate and Laura Mulleavy, Rodarte
  Rodarte
  Rodarte is a brand of clothing and accessories founded by Kate and Laura Mulleavy. The Mulleavy sisters are U.C. Berkeley graduates from Aptos, California, and have received a number of industry awards since the line's inception in 2005...
  
  , Maria and Bill Bell Young Artist Award
• Herb Alpert
  Herb Alpert
  Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...
  
  , Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award

• Ed Ruscha, Artistic Excellence Award
• Anne Finucane, Bank of America
  Bank of America
  Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
  
  , Corporate Citizenship in the Arts Award
• Sidney Harman
  Sidney Harman
  Sidney Harman was an American businessman active in education, government, industry, and publishing. He was the Chairman Emeritus of Harman International Industries, Inc. Harman served as the U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce in 1977 and 1978. As of August 2010 Harman was also the publisher of...
  
  , Frederick R. Weisman Award for Philanthropy in the Arts
• Salman Rushdie, Kitty Carlisle Hart Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts
• Robert Redford
  Robert Redford
  Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
  
  , Lifetime Achievement Award

• Phil Ramone
  Phil Ramone
  Phil Ramone is a South-African violinist, composer, recording engineer, and record producer.-Biography:As a young child in South Africa, Ramone was a musical prodigy, beginning to play the violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II at age ten...
  
  , Arts Advocacy Award
• The Principal Financial Group
  Principal Financial Group
  Principal Financial Group is a publicly traded corporation based in Des Moines, Iowa, USA.The Principal Financial Group is a global financial services provider which offers a wide range of financial products and services, and is a U.S. leader in 401 plans. Headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, the...
  
  , Corporate Citizenship in the Arts Award
• Joan W. Harris, Frederick R. Weisman Award for Philanthropy
• Yoko Ono
  Yoko Ono
  is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
  
  , Kitty Carlisle Hart Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts
• Dame Julie Andrews
  Julie Andrews
  Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
  
  , Lifetime Achievement Award
• Kehinde Wiley
  Kehinde Wiley
  Kehinde Wiley is a New York-based portrait painter, who is known for his highly naturalistic paintings of contemporary urban African, African-American, Afro-Brazilian, Indian and Ethiopian-Jewish men in heroic poses.-Early life:...
  
  , Young Artist Award for Artistic Excellence

• Music Industry and NAMM, Corporate Citizenship in the Arts Award
• Wallis Annenberg
  Wallis Annenberg
  Wallis Huberta Annenberg is an American socialite. She is the daughter of the late American Billionaire, Ambassador Walter Hubert Annenberg...
  
  , Frederick R. Weisman Award for Philanthropy in the Arts
• Anna Deavere Smith
  Anna Deavere Smith
  Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is currently the artist in residence at the Center for American Progress.-Early life:...
  
  , Kitty Carlisle Hart Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts
• Ellsworth Kelly
  Ellsworth Kelly
  Ellsworth Kelly is an American painter and sculptor associated with Hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and the Minimalist school. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing the simplicity of form found similar to the work of John McLaughlin. Kelly often employs bright colors to...
  
  , Lifetime Achievement Award
• The United States Conference of Mayors
  United States Conference of Mayors
  United States Conference of Mayors, sometimes referred to as the United States Council of Mayors, is the official non-partisan organization for cities with populations of 30,000 or more. The cities are each represented by their mayor or other chief elected official...
  
  , Special Recognition in Honor of Its 75th Anniversary
• John Legend
  John Legend
  John Roger Stephens , better known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer, musician, and actor. He is the recipient of nine Grammy Awards, and in 2007, he received the special Starlight award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.Prior to the release of his debut album, Stephens' career...
  
  , Young Artist Award for Artistic Excellence

• Jeff Koons
  Jeff Koons
  Jeffrey "Jeff" Koons is an American artist known for his reproductions of banal objects—such as balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces....
  
  , Artistic Achievement Award
• United Technologies Corporation
  United Technologies Corporation
  United Technologies Corporation is an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in the United Technologies Building in Hartford, Connecticut...
  
  , Corporate Citizenship in the Arts Award
• Sheila C. Johnson, Frederick R. Weisman Award for Philanthropy in the Arts
• Aretha Franklin
  Aretha Franklin
  Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
  
  , Lifetime Achievement Award
• Kitty Carlisle Hart
  Kitty Carlisle Hart
  Kitty Carlisle was an American singer, actress and spokeswoman for the arts. She is best remembered as a regular panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth. She served 20 years on the New York State Council on the Arts. In 1991, she received the National Medal of Arts from President...
  
  , Special Recognition for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts
• Jake Gyllenhaal
  Jake Gyllenhaal
  Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
  
  , Young Artist Award

• Pierre Dulaine
  Pierre Dulaine
  Pierre Dulaine is a well-known ballroom dancer and dance instructor. He invented the Dulaine method of teaching dance. He also developed Dancing Classrooms, a social development program for 5th grade children that uses ballroom dancing as a vehicle to change the lives of the children and their...
  
   and Yvonne Marceau
  Yvonne Marceau
  Yvonne Marceau is an American ballroom dancer, choreographer, and instructor. She was born in Chicago, IL, and holds a B.F.A. from the University of Utah as well as an Associate degree from the Imperial Society of Ballroom Dance. In 1984, Marceau co-founded American Ballroom Theater with her dance...
  
  , Arts Education Award
• Target Corporation
  Target Corporation
  Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
  
  , Corporate Citizenship in the Arts
• Eli Broad
  Eli Broad
  Eli Broad is an American businessman from Detroit, Michigan who resides in Los Angeles, California.-Life and career:An only child, Broad was born in the Bronx to Lithuanian Jewish immigrant parents. His father was a housepainter, his mother was a dressmaker. His family moved to Detroit when he...
  
  , Frederick R. Weisman Award for Philanthropy in the Arts
• Mikhail Baryshnikov
  Mikhail Baryshnikov
  Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
  
  , Kitty Carlisle Hart Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts
• John Baldessari
  John Baldessari
  John Anthony Baldessari is an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lives and works in Santa Monica and Venice, California...
  
  , Lifetime Achievement Award
• Kerry Washington
  Kerry Washington
  Kerry Washington is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Ray Charles's wife, Della Bea Robinson, in the film Ray , as Idi Amin's wife Kay in The Last King of Scotland, and as Alicia Masters, love interest of Ben Grimm, The Thing, in the live-action Fantastic Four films of 2005 and 2007...
  
  , Young Artist Award

• Chuck Close
  Chuck Close
  Charles Thomas "Chuck" Close is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits...
  
  , Artistic Leadership and Arts Advocacy
• A.G. Lafley, Procter & Gamble
  Procter & Gamble
  Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
  
  , Corporate Citizenship in the Arts
• Raymond Nasher
  Raymond Nasher
  Raymond Nasher was a Duke University alumnus who was an avid art collector. Together with his wife Patsy, he amassed a substantial number of the world's greatest sculptures and various other important pieces...
  
  , Frederick R. Weisman Award for Philanthropy in the Arts
• Paul Taylor (choreographer), Lifetime Achievement
• William Bassell, Principal, Long Island City High School, Special Arts Education Recognition Award
• Mena Suvari
  Mena Suvari
  Mena Alexandra Suvari is an American actress, fashion designer, and model. Shortly after beginning her career as a model, she appeared in guest roles on 1990's television shows such as Boy Meets World and High Incident...
  
  , Young Artist Award for Artistic Excellence

• Christo and Jeanne-Claude
  Christo and Jeanne-Claude
  Christo and Jeanne-Claude were a married couple who created environmental works of art...
  
  , Artistic Leadership
• Dr. Vance D. Coffman
  Vance D. Coffman
  Vance D. Coffman was the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation. He was elected to the Board of Directors of 3M on 12 May 2009.-Biography:...
  
  , Corporate Citizenship in the Arts
• Teresa Heinz, Frederick R. Weisman Award for Philanthropy in the Arts
• Richard Avedon
  Richard Avedon
  Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
  
  , Lifetime Achievement
• Kirk Varnedoe
  Kirk Varnedoe
  John Kirk Train Varnedoe was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia and was an American art historian and writer, a Professor of the History of Art at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and a noted curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.-Life:He studied...
  
  , Special Memorial Tribute for Extraordinary Contributions to the Arts
• Sofia Coppola
  Sofia Coppola
  Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
  
  , Young Artist Award for Artistic Excellence

• Cindy Sherman
  Cindy Sherman
  Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. Sherman currently lives and works in New York City. In 1995, she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. She is represented by Sprüth Magers Berlin London in and Metro Pictures gallery in...
  
  , Artistic Excellence
• Alberto Vilar
  Alberto Vilar
  Alberto Vilar , a.k.a., Albert Vilar, is a Cuban-American investor and philanthropist from West Orange, NJ, particularly known as a patron of opera. He was tried and convicted in November 2008 on charges of money laundering, investment advisor fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud,...
  
  , Corporate Citizenship in the Arts
• David Rockefeller
  David Rockefeller
  David Rockefeller, Sr. is the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family. He is the youngest and only surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the only surviving grandchild of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His five siblings were...
  
  , Frederick R. Weisman Award for Philanthropy in the Arts
• Pinchas Zukerman
  Pinchas Zukerman
  Pinchas Zukerman is a world-renowned violinist, violist, and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and his ongoing 45-year career has seen him perform with the world's best-known orchestras and record over 100 works...
  
  , Isaac Stern Award for Excellence in Classical Music
• Dr. Robert S. Martin
  Robert S. Martin
  Robert S. Martin, Ph.D. is an American librarian, archivist, administrator, and educator. He is the former director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services , and is currently a member of the National Council on the Humanities and of the U.S...
  
  , Special Recognition for 25 Years of Service
• Kathleen A. Dore, Special Recognition for Excellence in Arts & Media
• Natalie Portman
  Natalie Portman
  Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
  
  , Young Artist Award

• Peter Martins
  Peter Martins
  Peter Martins is a Danish ballet dancer and choreographer. Martins was named man of the year by Danish American Society, 1980...
  
  , Artistic Leadership Award
• Michael Greene, Arts Advocacy Award
• The Honorable Schuyler Chapin
  Schuyler Chapin
  Schuyler Garrison Chapin was an Assistant General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera and Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for New York City during the administration of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani...
  
  , Arts Education Award
• Robert H. Benmosche, Corporate Citizen Award
• Richard Meier
  Richard Meier
  Richard Meier is an American architect, whose rationalist buildings make prominent use of the color white.- Biography :Meier is Jewish and was born in Newark, New Jersey...
  
  , Lifetime Achievement Award

• Wendy Wasserstein
  Wendy Wasserstein
  Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University...
  
  , Arts Advocacy Award
• Peter I. Bijur, Corporate Citizen Award
• Frank Gehry
  Frank Gehry
  Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
  
   and Thomas Krens, Lifetime Achievement Award
• Jo Carole Lauder, Philanthropy Award
• Uma Thurman
  Uma Thurman
  Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...
  
  , Young Artist Special Recognition Award

• Hillary Rodham Clinton
  Hillary Rodham Clinton
  Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
  
  , Arts Advocacy Award
• Agnes Gund
  Agnes Gund
  Agnes Gund , is an American philanthropist, art patron and collector, and advocate for arts education. She is founding trustee of the Agnes Gund Foundation and President Emerita of the Museum of Modern Art and Chairman of its International Council. She is also Chairman of MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art...
  
  , Arts Education Award
• Sanford I. Weill
  Sanford I. Weill
  Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill is an American banker, financier and philanthropist. He is a former chief executive officer and chairman of Citigroup. He served in those positions until October 1, 2003, and April 18, 2006, respectively....
  
  , Corporate Citizen Award
• Jacob Lawrence
  Jacob Lawrence
  Jacob Lawrence was an American painter; he was married to fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem.Lawrence is among the best-known twentieth...
  
  , Lifetime Achievement Award
• Brooke Astor
  Brooke Astor
  Roberta Brooke Astor was an American philanthropist and socialite who was the chairwoman of the Vincent Astor Foundation, which had been established by her third husband, Vincent Astor, son of John Jacob Astor IV and great-great grandson of America's first multi-millionaire, John Jacob...
  
  , Philanthropy Award

• Alec Baldwin
  Alec Baldwin
  Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
  
  , Arts Advocacy Award
• Midori Gotō
  Midori Goto
  is a Japanese American violinist. She made her debut at the age of 11 in a last-minute change of programming during a concert highlighting young performers by the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. When she was 21, she formed the philanthropic group Midori and Friends to help bring music to...
  
  , Arts Education Award
• Isaac Stern
  Isaac Stern
  Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...
  
  , Colleen Dewhurst
  Colleen Dewhurst
  Colleen Rose Dewhurst was a Canadian-American actress known for a while as "the Queen of Off-Broadway." In her autobiography, Dewhurst wrote: "I had moved so quickly from one Off-Broadway production to the next that I was known, at one point, as the 'Queen of Off-Broadway'...
  
   Lifetime Achievement Award
• Hugh McColl
  Hugh McColl
  Hugh L. McColl Jr. is a fourth-generation banker and the former Chairman and CEO of Bank of America. McColl was a driving force behind consolidating a series of progressively larger, mostly Southern banks, thrifts and financial institutions into a super-regional banking force, "the first...
  
  , Corporate Citizen Award
• Michael H. Jordan
  Michael H. Jordan
  Michael H. Jordan was an American businessman. He has served as the Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo Worldwide Foods , Westinghouse Electric Corporation , CBS Corporation , and Electronic Data Systems .Jordan was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to the late Mary Virginia Witt and Hugh Franklin...
  
   and CBS
  CBS
  CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
  
  , Special tribute for outstanding vision and exemplary contributions to the arts in America