National Medal of Arts

The National Medal of Arts is the most prestigious award conferred by the Congress of the United States to artists and patrons of the arts. The winners will be nominated annually by the American Academy National Endowment for the Arts (NEA ), and ceremoniously honored by the President of the United States. The award was first awarded in 1984 and the artist Robert Graham was commissioned to design the coin.

As early as 1983, before the official award of this medal, artists and art patrons were awarded a medal at the instigation and proposals of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities by Ronald Reagan.

The medal was awarded in the first 25 years of existence, more than 250 times.

  • 3.1 Prize winners of 1990
  • 3.2 Prize winners of 1991
  • 3.3 Prize winners of 1992
  • 3.4 Prize winners of 1993
  • 3.5 Prize winners of 1994
  • 3.6 Prize winners of 1995
  • 3.7 Prize winners of 1996
  • 3.8 Prize winners of 1997
  • 3.9 Prize winners of 1998
  • 3:10 winners of 1999
  • 4.1 Prize winners of 2000
  • 4.2 Prize winners of 2001
  • 4.3 Prize winners of 2002
  • 4.4 Prize winners of 2003
  • 4.5 Prize winners of 2004
  • 4.6 Prize winners of 2005
  • 4.7 Prize winners of 2006
  • 4.8 Prize winners of 2007
  • 4.9 Prize winners of 2008
  • 4:10 winners of 2009
  • 4:11 winners of 2010
  • 4:12 winners of 2011
  • 4:13 winners of 2012

Controversy

In 1997, Adrienne Rich refused the National Medal for the Arts to accept and said:

"I can not price of President Clinton or the White House to accept, because that what art is, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration. "

Winners in the 1980s

Prize winners of 1985

Prize winners of 1986

Prize winners of 1987

Prize winners of 1988

  • Saul Bellow, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize
  • Helen Hayes, actress
  • Gordon Parks, director, photographer, actor, writer and composer of film music
  • IM Pei, Architect
  • Jerome Robbins, dancer and choreographer
  • Rudolf Serkin, Pianist
  • Virgil Thomson, composer
  • Sydney J. Freedberg, an art historian and curator
  • Roger L. Stevens, theatrical producer
  • Brooke Astor, patron of the arts
  • Francis Goelet, music promoter
  • Obert C. Tanner, patron of the arts

Prize winners of 1989

Winners in the 1990s

Prize winners of 1990

  • George Abbott, screenwriter, director and actor
  • Hume Cronyn, actor and screenwriter
  • Jessica Tandy, actress
  • Merce Cunningham, dancer and choreographer
  • Jasper Johns, painter and sculptor
  • Jacob Lawrence, painter
  • BB King, blues guitarist and singer
  • David Lloyd Kreeger, patron of the arts
  • Harris & Carroll Sterling Masterson, patrons of the arts
  • Ian McHarg, Landscape Architect
  • Beverly Sills, opera singer
  • Southeastern Bell Corporation

Prize winners of 1991

Prize winners of 1992

Prize winners of 1993

  • Walter Annenberg, patron of the arts
  • Leonore Annenberg, patron of the arts
  • Cab Calloway, jazz singer and bandleader
  • Ray Charles, musician
  • Bess Lomax Hawes, folk singer
  • Stanley Kunitz, poet
  • Robert Merrill, opera singers
  • Arthur Miller, writer
  • Robert Rauschenberg, painter, graphic artist, photographer, object artist and pioneer of Pop Art in the U.S.
  • Lloyd Richards, actor and theater director
  • William Styron, writer
  • Paul Taylor, dancer and choreographer
  • Billy Wilder, screenwriter, film director and producer

Prize winners of 1994

Prize winners of 1995

Prize winners of 1996

  • Edward Albee, writer
  • Sarah Caldwell, opera conductor and opera director
  • Harry Callahan, Photographer
  • Zelda Fichandler, theater director
  • Eduardo " Lalo " Guerrero, singer, guitarist and songwriter
  • Lionel Hampton, Jazz Musicians
  • Bella Lewitzky, dancer and choreographer
  • Vera List, patron of the arts
  • Robert Redford, actor, film director and producer
  • Maurice Sendak, illustrator and children's book author.
  • Stephen Sondheim, musical composer and lyricist
  • Boys Choir of Harlem

Prize winners of 1997

  • Louise Bourgeois, sculptor
  • Betty Carter, jazz singer
  • Agnes Gund, patron of the arts
  • Daniel Urban Kiley, landscape architect
  • Angela Lansbury, actress
  • James Levine, conductor and pianist
  • Tito Puente, jazz, salsa and mambo musician
  • Jason Robards, actor
  • Edward Villella, dancer and choreographer
  • Doc Watson, lead singer of country, bluegrass, gospel and folk songs
  • MacDowell Colony

Prize winners of 1998

  • Jacques d' Amboise, ballet dancer and choreographer
  • Antoine " Fats" Domino, rhythm and blues musicians
  • Ramblin 'Jack Elliott, folk singer
  • Frank Gehry, architect and designer
  • Barbara Handman, art activist
  • Agnes Martin, artist
  • Gregory Peck, actor
  • Roberta Peters, opera singer
  • Philip Roth, author
  • Sara Lee Corporation
  • Gwen Verdon, actress and dancer

Prize winners of 1999

  • Irene Diamond, Talent Scout
  • Aretha Franklin, soul singer and pianist
  • Michael Graves, Architect and Designer
  • Odetta Holmes, singer
  • Juilliard School
  • Norman Lear, television writer and producer
  • Rosetta LeNoire, Actress
  • Harvey Lichtenstein, dancers
  • Lydia Mendoza, singer
  • George Segal, Sculptor
  • Maria Tallchief, ballet dancer

Prize winners in the 2000s

Prize winners of 2000

  • Maya Angelou, writer and poet
  • Eddy Arnold, country singer
  • Mikhail Baryshnikov, dancer
  • Benny Carter, jazz musician
  • Chuck Close, painter
  • Horton Foote, playwright and screenwriter
  • Lewis Manilow, patron of the arts
  • National Public Radio
  • Claes Oldenburg, sculpture
  • Itzhak Perlman, violinist
  • Harold Prince, theater director and producer
  • Barbra Streisand, actress, singer, film director, producer, screenwriter, songwriter and composer

Prize winners of 2001

  • Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Modern Dance Company and School
  • Rudolfo Anaya, author
  • Johnny Cash, singer and songwriter
  • Kirk Douglas, actor and producer
  • Helen Frankenthaler, Painter
  • Judith Jamison, dancer and choreographer
  • Yo- Yo Ma, cellist
  • Mike Nichols, director, screenwriter and producer

Prize winners of 2002

  • Florence Knoll Bassett, architect
  • Trisha Brown, dancer and choreographer
  • Philippe de Montebello, director of the museum
  • Uta Hagen, Stage Actress
  • Lawrence Halprin, Landscape Architect
  • Al Hirschfeld, cartoonist
  • George Jones, country singer
  • Ming Cho Lee, designer and teacher
  • William " Smokey " Robinson, soul and R & B singer

Prize winners of 2003

  • Austin City Limits, TV station of the Public Broadcasting Service
  • Beverly Cleary, author
  • Rafe Esquith, an art teacher
  • Suzanne Farrell, dancer and choreographer
  • Buddy Guy, blues musician
  • Ron Howard, actor, director and film producer
  • Mormon Tabernacle Choir
  • Leonard Slatkin, conductor
  • George Strait, country singer and songwriter
  • Tommy Tune, dancer and choreographer

Prize winners of 2004

  • Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
  • Ray Bradbury, author
  • Carlisle Floyd, composer of operas
  • Frederick Hart, Sculptor
  • Anthony Hecht, poet
  • John Ruthven, artists
  • Vincent Scully, architectural historian
  • Twyla Tharp, choreographer and ballet mistress

Prize winners of 2005

Prize winners of 2006

  • William Bolcom, composer
  • Cyd Charisse, dancer
  • Roy DeCarava, Photographer
  • Wilhelmina Holladay, patron of the arts
  • Interlochen Center for the Arts
  • Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Jazz Ensemble
  • Gregory Rabassa, translator
  • Viktor Schreckengost, an industrial designer and sculptor
  • Ralph Stanley, blues musician

Prize winners of 2007

  • Morten Lauridsen, Composer
  • Navarre Scott Momaday, writer and painter
  • Craig Noel, Director
  • Roy Neuberger, art patron
  • Les Paul, musician
  • Heinrich Steinweg, ( posthumously ), patron of the arts
  • George Tooker, Painter
  • Andrew Wyeth, painter

Prize winners of 2008

  • Olivia de Havilland, actress
  • Fisk Jubilee Singers, Choir
  • Hank Jones, jazz musician
  • José Limón Dance Foundation, Modern Dance Institute
  • Stan Lee, comic artist, producer
  • Jesús Moroles, sculptor
  • Presser Foundation, music patron
  • Sherman Brothers, songwriter

Prize winners of 2009

Prize winners of 2010

  • Robert Brustein, theater critic and playwright
  • Van Cliburn, Pianist
  • Mark di Suvero, sculptor
  • Donald Hall, poet
  • Jacob 's Pillow Dance Festival
  • Quincy Jones, composer and music producer
  • Harper Lee, writer
  • Sonny Rollins, Saxophonist
  • Meryl Streep, Actress
  • James Taylor, singer and songwriter

Prize winners of 2011

Prize winners of 2012

The White House released again public domain photos and a video of the award ceremony as well as short explanations for the winners:

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