HIGHEST ARTS AWARD GIVEN BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK AND AMERICA'S LONGEST-RUNNING DANCE FESTIVAL
FELLOW 2010 HONOREES INCLUDE HARPER LEE, JAMES TAYLOR, AND MERYL STREEP
March 1, 2011 - (Becket, Mass.) President Barack Obama will honor Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival with a National Medal of Arts, the highest arts award given by the United States Government, on March 2 at 1:45pm. The National Medal of Arts is awarded to individuals or organizations who "are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States." Named a National Historic Landmark in 2003, Jacob's Pillow is the first dance presenting organization to receive a National Medal of Arts.
Fellow 2010 honorees include Harper Lee, James Taylor, Quincy Jones, and Meryl Streep. Since the awards were established in 1985, National Medal of Arts recipients include musicians Wynton Marsalis and Yo-Yo Ma; film icons Clint Eastwood and Gene Kelly; visual artists Georgia O'Keeffe and Jasper Johns; dancer/choreographers Twyla Tharp and Judith Jamison; writers Maya Angelou and John Updike; and more than 250 others. In the past 25 years, only 17 arts organizations have received this honor.
Click here for the full press release.
Jacob's Pillow Awarded National Medal of Arts
