Photo Flash: Lansbury, Ingram, et al. Honored with National Arts Awards

Americans for the Arts, the leading organization for advancing the arts in America, announces its annual National Arts Awards honorees. The awards recognize those artists and arts leaders who exhibit exemplary national leadership and whose work demonstrates extraordinary artistic achievement. They are individuals-artists, business leaders and patrons-who understand the arts enrich people and communities alike. The National Arts Awards were presented on October 18^th  in New York City as part of National Arts and Humanities Month.

 

Following are this year's National Arts Awards honorees:

Angela Lansbury, Lifetime Achievement Award

One of the most respected and versatile actresses of the 20th century, Angela Lansbury's career has spanned seven decades.  Her film career began with an Oscar nomination for Gaslight and encompassed everything from thrillers like The Manchurian Candidate to the voice of Mrs. Potts in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. On television, she was a veteran of live broadcasts in the 1950s and enjoyed a 12-year run as sleuth Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote." On Broadway, she garnered even further acclaim for her work in musicals, including Mame and Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Respected for her versatility, she had received 5 Tony Awards and accolades, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild, the National Medal of the Arts from President Clinton, a Kennedy Center Honor and a BAFTA/LA Britannia Award for Lifetime Achievement in Television and Film. She was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1982, and in 1996, the Television Hall of Fame.  In 1997, she, and in 2010 she was named the first ever Honorary Chairman of the American Theatre Wing.

Martha Rivers Ingram, Eli & Edythe Broad Award for Philanthropy in the Arts

Martha 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. Upon moving to Nashville with her husband, the late E. Bronson Ingram, she devoted herself to the local arts scene. In 1972, Ingram began to work to develop a local performing arts facility. Her eight-year fight gave rise to the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, a three-theatre facility located in downtown Nashville. She also helped develop the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which opened in 2005 and houses the Nashville Symphony.  She serves on the boards of Spoleto Festival USA, in her hometown of Charleston, SC,  Ingram Micro, Regions Financial Corporation and Weyerhaeuser. Her other philanthropic commitments include work on the boards of the Nashville Ballet, the Nashville Opera Association, and the Tennessee Repertory Theatre.

Herb Alpert, Outstanding Contributions to the Arts AwardOne of the most successful music business moguls of his era, Herb Alpert began playing the trumpet when he was eight years old. After some initial success as a songwriter and producer, in 1962 he teamed up with promoter/producer Jerry Moss. Together they founded A&M Records, which grew to be the largest independently-owned record company in the world, garnering over 200 gold and nearly 100 platinum and multiplatinum records.  With the Tijuana Brass or as a soloist, Herb Alpert yielded five #1 hits, eight Grammy Awards, 14 platinum and 15 gold albums-plus 72 million albums sold worldwide. Among his many honors, in 1997, Herb Alpert received the Grammy Trustees Award with Jerry Moss for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2007 he and Jerry Moss were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the President's Merit Award from The Recording Academy.Along with his wife, singer Lani Hall, Alpert oversees the Herb Alpert Foundation, which is dedicated to funding the arts and arts education programs, as well as programs that promote compassion and well-being. 

Kate & Laura Mulleavy, Rodarte - Maria and Bill Bell Young Artist Award

Kate and Laura Mulleavy are the first fashion designers to be honored with a National Arts Award.  They are the founders of celebrated clothing and accessories brand Rodarte. Their first collection, composed of 10 hand-finished pieces, appeared on the February 3, 2005, cover of Women's Wear Daily within days of the designers' first trip to New York. Shortly thereafter, Rodarte presented its first complete runway collection to accolades during New York Fashion Week. The Mulleavy sisters have received a number of industry award, including the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award , Council of Fashion Designers of America Womenswear Designer Award, The Swiss Textiles Award. Rodarte has been named in the Top 10 by Style.com, The New York Times, and Women's Wear Daily, and Kate and Laura Mulleavy were together named as one of the 50 recipients of the 2009 United States Artists Fellowships. Rodarte had its first solo-exhibition, Quicktake: Rodarte at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum earlier this year and recently received the museum's National Design Award for Fashion Design. Rodarte is the first fashion designer to be reviewed in Artforum, and its designs are in the Permanent Collections of both the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Fashion Institute of Technology Museum in New York.

Presenters include: , Musician Kim Gordon, Celebrated Journalist Bill Moyers, Producer & Director Harold Prince, and Director of the Lincoln Center Festival, Nigel Redden.. In addition, Emmy Award-winning actor, Alec Baldwin will read Congress' proclamation congratulating Americans for the Arts on its 50^th anniversary.

The honorees will receive their awards at a gala dinner at Cipriani 42^nd Street chaired by Maria Bell, member of the Americans for the Arts Board of Directors. Co-chairing the event alongside Bell are Edythe and Eli Broad, Isabella and Theodor Dalenson, Susan and David Goode, Mr. and Mrs. Warren B. Kanders, Julie and Edward Minskoff, and Sheila C. Johnson and the Honorable William T. Newman, Jr. Nicola Vaselli is this year's Junior Benefit Committee Chair.

The evening will feature an installation of works by world renowned photographer Todd Eberle and a special dance performance by Ida Saki, Robbie Moore and Austin Goodwin, accompanied by Rebecca Anderson and Alice Gi-Young Hwang, all  Presidential Scholars in the Arts.

The National Arts Awards has garnered the support of individuals, foundations and corporations across the country. Americans for the Arts extends special gratitude to: Maria and Bill Bell, The Broad Art Foundation, Julie and Edward J. Minskoff, The Herb Alpert Foundation and Ted and Isabella Dalenson.

The National Arts Awards have been presented by Americans for the Arts since 1996. Past honorees have included, among others: Edward Albee, Dame Julie Andrews, Wallis Annenberg, Alec Baldwin, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Leonard Bernstein, Chuck Close, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Pierre Dulaine, Aretha Franklin, Frank Gehry, Martha Graham, Agnes Gund, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joan W. Harris, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Helen Hayes, Sheila C. Johnson, Ellsworth Kelly, Jeff Koons, Jacob Lawrence, John Legend, Gerald M. Levin, Wynton Marsalis, Natalie Portman, Phil Ramone, Cindy Sherman, Beverly Sills, Anna Deavere Smith, David Rockefeller, Isaac Stern, Paul Taylor, Uma Thurman, Kerry Washington, Sanford I. Weill, and Kehinde Wiley.

Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, it has a record of 49 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.

Test and expand your Broadway knowledge with our new game - The Broadway Match-Up! How well do you know your Broadway casting trivia?	Play the Daily Game, explore current shows, and delve into past decades like the 2000s, 80s, and the Golden Age. Challenge your friends and see where you rank!
How well do you know your Tony Awards history? Take our never-ending quiz of nominations and winner history and challenge your friends.	Can you beat your friends? Play today’s daily Broadway word game, featuring a new theatrically inspired word or phrase every day!