2017 Americans for the Arts National Arts Awards Monday, October 23, 2017
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2017 Americans for the Arts National Arts Awards Monday, October 23, 2017 Welcome from Carolyn Clark Powers Remarks by Sarah Arison Chair, National Arts Awards Co-Chair, National Arts Awards Arts Education Award Performance by YoungArts Alumni Studio in a School Association Accepted by Thomas Cahill Ted Arison Young Artist Award Presented by Darren Walker Andra Day 1 Legacy Award Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award William Lehr, Jr. Thelma Golden Presented by Marian M. Warden Presented by Raymond McGuire Philanthropy in the Arts Award Carolyn Clark Powers Lifetime Achievement Award Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson Clive Davis Presented by Lisa Phillips Presented by Dionne Warwick Remarks by Robert L. Lynch Closing Remarks President and CEO of Americans for the Arts Abel Lopez, Chair, Americans for the Arts Board of Directors Dinner and Robert L. Lynch and Carolyn Clark Powers Greetings from the Board Chair and President It is our pleasure to welcome you to the 2017 presentation of Americans for the Arts’ National Arts Awards. Our honorees tonight – three exceptional philanthropists, a groundbreaking non-profi t organization, a social change agent, and two boundary-pushing artists – truly embody the mission and goals of Americans for the Arts. They represent the depth and breadth of the arts community and the roles we all can play in promoting access to all the arts for all the people in our country. Collectively their excellence embodies that value and the success of the public-private partnership of arts support in America. This has been an extraordinary year on many fronts. Although the non-profi t arts continue their explosive growth, funding for the arts has been challenged more severely than in many years. Changing times require innovative solutions to new challenges, and the arts play a critical role in building those solutions. We had some good news earlier this year as our advocacy efforts paid off…so far… in the fi ght to save the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and our nation’s other cultural agencies. Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, who have time and again understood the vital value of the arts, voted to maintain funding for these institutions, rejecting a White House proposal to eliminate them outright. This endorsement helps us continue our work as the federal budget work is 2 still not fi nalized for this year and will be challenged anew next year. There is still much work to be done to encourage public and private support at the federal, state, and local levels. Federal funding for the arts, even if maintained, still falls short. That is why we continue to advocate for the arts to be federally supported at one dollar per capita, up from the current 46 cents, which would increase federal funding and its leveraging power to over $300 million. As the most recent iteration of our economic impact study, Arts and Economic Prosperity V, shows: non-profi t arts and cultural organizations and their audiences in the United States are a $166.3 billion industry that supports 4.6 million jobs and generates $27.5 billion in government revenue. Not only is the economic impact of the arts profound and ever growing, but our research shows the majority of Americans believe that the arts improve our communities, and are a “positive experience in a troubled world.” Through our work, Americans for the Arts, is committed to healing and empowering our nation through access to the arts. As Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation and a presenter this evening, said this year as our 2017 Nancy Hanks Lecturer on Arts and Public Policy, “Without art, there is no empathy. Without empathy, there is no justice.” We hope you enjoy an evening celebrating the accomplishments of our honorees. Thank you for joining us tonight. Abel Lopez Robert L. Lynch Chair, Board of Directors President and CEO The National Arts Awards Chair Dear Friends of Americans for the Arts, I am happy to welcome you to the National Arts Awards in my third year serving as chair. This is one of the few national events to recognize artists in all disciplines, and tonight we have transformed our space at Cipriani’s with the art of Sarah Sze, who represented our nation at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. We are thrilled that her art is on view here tonight. She is a ground-breaking artist with profound vision, whose work is as at home in a museum or private collection as it is in the public realm. I am pleased that our Lifetime Achievement award will go to Clive Davis – a legend in the music industry. Through my involvement in the Grammy Foundation, I have witnessed how his impact spans generations and musical genres. In addition to our mutual love of music, Clive shares my commitment to education: his namesake institute at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts prepares the next generation of music producers with both business and artistic training. Clive is also an advocate for countless humanitarian causes. 3 My good friends Gael Neeson and Stefan Edlis will receive our Philanthropy Award this evening. They are deeply committed to artistic innovation and public programs in their hometown of Chicago, and the city’s arts organizations have greatly benefited from their support. In 2015, they gave a transformational gift of 42 works of Pop and contemporary art to the Art Institute of Chicago – which was, and remains, the largest gift in the museum’s history. Their generosity extends well beyond Chicago to their second hometown of Aspen, Colorado - where I have known them for many years through our involvement in the Aspen Art Museum – and to other institutions throughout the country and around the world. Few organizations have had such impact in the field of arts education in New York City as the Studio in a School Association, founded by beloved arts leader and patron Agnes Gund who has devoted herself to a philanthropic life in service of arts education and social justice. We are recognizing Studio as it celebrates 40 years of powerful work in the field, and are thrilled to celebrate the expansion of their work outside New York. I look forward to watching them evolve over the next 40 years! The National Arts Awards Chair The Outstanding Contributions Award has always been given to an artist, but this year, for the first time, we are breaking that trend. Thelma Golden’s work has gone far beyond her role as Director and Chief Curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem – she is truly a cultural change agent. She has done so much within New York City, and around the country, as a member of the Obama Foundation Board and, in my neck of the woods, on the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Americans for the Arts’ treasured board member, William Lehr, is this year’s Legacy Award honoree. Bill is one of the longest-serving members of the board and has seen the organization through several pivotal mergers which helped form Americans for the Arts as it exists today. His steady vision and business acumen, gained through many years of board experience, have helped not only Americans for the Arts, but countless organizations in his home state of Pennsylvania, navigate the daily challenges facing arts non-profits. Andra Day is a stellar artist and impactful advocate for social justice. Tonight, we present her with the Ted Arison Young Artist Award. Her hit song “Rise Up,” her reinterpretation of “Strange Fruit,” as well as her recently released duet with Common, “Stand Up for Something,” are reminders of the power of song to inspire and move us. We honor Andra for her incredible artistry and powerful voice – not only 4 onstage, but off-stage as well. I am grateful to my co-chairs Sarah Arison, David and Susan Goode, Jeff and Justine Koons, Nora Orphanides, and Marian Warden, in addition to the Benefit Committee, who have all worked so hard to make tonight a success. Finally, I want to thank all of you – without your support none of this would be possible. I am heartened that, in a time of division, we – as supporters, lovers, and practitioners of the arts – can come together to share and celebrate how the arts have touched us and our communities. Carolyn Clark Powers Benefit Committee Chair Carolyn Clark Powers Co-Chairs Sarah Arison David and Susan Goode Justine and Jeff Koons Nora C. Orphanides Marian M. Warden Benefit Committee BVLGARI Dorothy Lichtenstein 5 Amy Cappellazzo Timothy J. McClimon Jany and Charles Davenport Charles Segars Lisa Dennison Nancy Stephens and Rick Rosenthal Gail and Alfred Engelberg Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gordon and Llura Gund Jamie and David Wolf Arts Education Award STUDIO IN A SCHOOL ASSOCIATION The mission of Studio in a These activities place Studio at the forefront of work to rebuild School Association is to foster and reinvigorate visual arts instruction in public schools with the the creative and intellectual goal to provide skills-based arts experiences that advance the development of children and lives and careers of students of all ages, as well as the dedicated youth through quality visual teachers who serve them. arts programs directed by arts professionals, and to collaborate with and develop the ability of Darren Walker, presenter those who provide or support arts programming and creative Darren Walker is President of the Ford Foundation, the nation’s development both in and outside of schools. The association second largest philanthropy, and for two decades has been a realizes its mission through two organizations: the New York City leader in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.