NFAA Honors Desmond Richardson & Liv Ullmann with Arison Award, 1/16

YoungArts, the core program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts (NFAA), is set to honor two internationally-acclaimed artists, dancer and choreographer Desmond Richardson and actress and director Liv Ullmann. Richardson will accept the YoungArts Alumni Award and Ullmann will accept the Arison Award at YoungArts' An Affair of the Arts Performance and Gala, January 16 at the Gusman Center and the Alfred I. DuPont Building. SunTrust Bank is Title Presenting Sponsor.

This highly anticipated gala wraps up the annual YoungArts Week, where up to 150 of the most artistically talented high school seniors from across the country converge in Miami for a week of enrichment activities including master classes, performances and exhibitions. This year's YoungArts Week will be January 11-16, with performances and exhibitions open to the public, every night.

A highlight of Miami's social season, An Affair of the Arts is a blockbuster performance and gala held to benefit programming for national YoungArts winners. More than 400 notable attendees will gather in Miami to celebrate the achievements of the 2010 YoungArts finalists. Desmond Richardson, a 1986 YoungArts alumnus in modern dance and Presidential Scholar in the Arts, hailed among the greatest dancers of our time, will honor the crowd with a pre-dinner performance at the Gusman Center and accept the YoungArts Alumni Award. This award honors a former student who has achieved significant professional success in his or her chosen art form, and carries a $5,000 stipend to a charity chosen by the recipient.

Liv Ullmann, who just wrapped directing the theater adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire to much critical-acclaim, will accept the Arison Award. This award is given annually to an individual who has had a significant influence on the development of young American artists. The honor carries a $10,000 donation to an arts organization or charity chosen by the recipient. The award, established in 2001, is named for the late visionary entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Arison, founder of YoungArts and of Carnival Cruise Lines, who sought an all-encompassing method to nurture young artists in America.

Both Richardson and Ullmann will conduct master classes during YoungArts Week. Dates and times of their workshops will be announced shortly.

YoungArts is the signature national organization that recognizes and supports America's most talented 17-18 year olds in the visual, literary and performing arts. YoungArts is the sole nominating agency for Presidential Scholars in the Arts. The foundation provides emerging artists with financial support and life changing experiences with internationally- renowned artists. YoungArts alumni go on to become leading professionals in their fields. Alumni include Emmy nominated actress Vanessa Williams, three-time Tony Award nominee Raúl Esparza, star of HBO's Entourage Adrian Grenier and Warner Brothers Recording Artist Josh Groban.

Desmond Richardson is a dancer and choreographer and co-founder/Artistic Director of Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Hailed by the New York Times as "one of the great modern dancers of his time" Richardson is a multi-talented artist who has mastered a wide range of dance forms including classical, Hip Hop, modern, and contemporary. Richardson's immense talent was first recognized as a student at New York High School for the Performing Arts during which time he received a merit scholarship from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (1983-1986) and the International Academie des Tanz in Koln, Germany (1984-1985). He was a YoungArts winner and recipient of a Presidential Scholar Award for the Arts (1986). In 1987, Richardson joined the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater where he was a principal dancer for seven years. After leaving the Ailey Company, he performed extensively in Europe. In 1997, he joined the American Ballet Theatre as a principal dancer. Among many roles he performed the lead in the company's world premiere production of Othello. In its description of Richardson's performance in that role, the New York Times described him as "one of the most majestic dancers ever to tread the MET Stage." In 1998, Richardson joined the premiere cast of the Broadway Musical Fosse for which he received a 1999 Tony Award Nomination. He has performed extensively on Broadway. Richardson has also received a Bessie award, and was recently awarded the prestigious Dance Magazine award. He has worked in television, film, and video in the United States and abroad.

Liv Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and director. She was an established actress when Ingmar Bergman wrote the film Persona for Bibi Anderson and herself. She continued to work with him for the rest of her life. Ullmann has appeared on the stage and in movies all over the world. Throughout her career she has received numerous awards and honorable doctorates, and she has been nominated twice for an Academy Award. Five years in a row the National Board of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Circle named her the best film actress in the world. Ullmann made her Broadway debut as Nora in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House in 1975 and has since starred on Broadway four times as well as on London's West End, in Scandinavia, in Los Angeles and in Sydney in 1979 with Cocteau's The Human Voice. Her first film as director was the Danish move Sophie, for which she also wrote the screenplay. Since then, she has directed three feature movies and one short film, two of which were written by Ingmar Bergman. Ullmann is Vice Chairperson International for IRC, a refugee organization started by Albert Einstein during the Second World War. She has travelled for many years to the poorest parts of the world and thus became the co-founder of Women's Refugee Commission 20 years ago-established to create laws to protect the human rights of homeless women and children. Ullmann has written two autobiographical books, which have been translated into more than 25 languages. In 1997, she published Letters to my Grandchild, a book asking artists to write a letter to their grandchild of how they wished the world would be for their generation. It has since been translated into many languages. A feature documentary was made about Ullmann called Scenes from a Life, narrated by Woody Allen. Ullmann is currently directing actress Cate Blanchett in the theater adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Sydney Theatre Company in Australia. The play premiered in September 2009 to much critical acclaim. The production will move to the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. on Oct 29 - Nov 21 and then to the Brooklyn Academy Of Music (BAM) in New York November 27- December 20.

Photos (from top left): Desmond Richardson, Dancer and Choreographer. Photo by James Houston.                                  Liv Ullmann, Actress and Director. Photo by Kjerand Nesvik

 

 

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