20 November 2008

White House Ceremony Honors Cultural Award Recipients

President, first lady applaud nation’s diverse roster of talent

Actress Olivia de Havilland is greeted by President Bush as he presents her with a 2008 National Medal of Arts award.

By Michael Bandler
Staff Writer

Washington — A Lincoln scholar, an actress from the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood (1930s-1950s), a pioneering comic-book illustrator and a songwriting team are among the latest recipients of America’s most prestigious cultural honors, the National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medals.

In the most recent annual White House tribute to cultural creativity and scholarship, President Bush and first lady Laura Bush saluted an expansive array of artistic imagination and beauty.  The November 17 ceremony recognized visionary efforts ranging from the Superman comics that have mesmerized young and old for nearly three-quarters of a century to the sights and sounds of radiant dance and music.

The honorees — including journalists, an author of children’s books and a radio talk-show host — “serve as custodians of our history, patrons of our culture, and authors of America’s artistic legacy,” the first lady said.

To some degree, the aura of Abraham Lincoln and his era could be seen in the roster of medal recipients.  The awards ceremony preceded, by just three months, the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of America’s 16th president.

Harold Holzer, a leading Lincoln historian as well as senior vice president of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, was awarded a National Humanities Medal, as was Gabor Boritt, professor of Civil War studies and director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania.  In addition, an arts medal was bestowed on the Ford’s Theatre Society, the nonprofit, Washington-based organization responsible for stage presentations at the theater in which Lincoln was shot in April 1865.  The working theater will reopen in February 2009 following 18 months of extensive renovations.

Arguably, the two most sentimental favorites among the arts awardees were Olivia de Havilland, 92, the screen legend and winner of two Academy Awards who starred in such classic films as Gone With the Wind and The Heiress, and Stan Lee, 85, whose dozens of comic-book creations have included Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men.

As for the songwriters — brothers Richard and Robert Sherman — their works (including the scores of such films as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the 1964 World’s Fair theme song, “It’s a Small World”) are familiar to many, even if the songwriters’ names are not.

This year, there were a number of groups — as well as individuals — among the recipients.  They include the Norman Rockwell Museum (in Stockbridge, Massachusetts), which displays the artwork of the beloved, socially conscious magazine illustrator for whom the facility is named, and the José Limon Dance Foundation of New York City, dedicated to the works and vision of the late Mexican-born modern dancer and choreographer.

Arts medal recipients included choristers from one of the United States’ pre-eminent black institutions of higher learning.  The Fisk University Jubilee Singers, of Nashville, Tennessee, have kept the tradition of African-American spirituals alive for more than half a century.

Also honored were the Presser Foundation (of Haverford, Pennsylvania), which has played an important role in support and furtherance of music and music education, and the John Templeton Foundation, whose goal is to bring scientists and theologians together and to spur research on what it describes as the “big questions” of the day.

The 2008 National Medal of Arts recipients are:

• Stan Lee, comic-book writer/illustrator

• Olivia de Havilland, film actress

• Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman, film and stage composers

Comic-book illustrator Stan Lee receives his 2008 Medal of Arts award from President Bush at the White House on November 17.

• Henry “Hank” Jones Jr., jazz pianist, bandleader and composer

• Jesus Moroles, granite sculptor

• Fisk University Jubilee Singers

• Ford’s Theatre Society

• José Limon Dance Foundation

• The Presser Foundation

The 2008 National Humanities Medal recipients are:

• Gabor Boritt, professor of Civil War studies, Gettysburg College

• Harold Holzer, historian

• John Templeton Foundation

• Myron Magnet, editor-at-large, City Journal

• Albert Marrin, author of children’s books

• Norman Rockwell Museum

• Milton Rosenberg, host, Extension 720, WGN Radio, Chicago

• Robert Smith, philanthropist

• Thomas Saunders III and Jordan Horner Saunders, philanthropists

More information about the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal is available on the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for Humanities Web sites.  Also see the transcript of the president’s and first lady’s remarks on the White House Web site.