awards for arts achievement

Kitty Carlisle Hart, chair emeritus of the New York State Council on the Arts, is an accomplished actress and singer with a long record of achievement in both the arts and public service. She was appointed vice chair of the New York State Council on the Arts by Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1971, and chair of the Council by Governor Hugh Carey in 1976; she was later reappointed to this position by Governor Mario Cuomo. Her 20-year tenure at the council made an indelible imprint on the arts for all of New York and contributed significantly to our country’s growing state arts agency movement. She received the National Medal of Arts in 1991 from President George Bush and the New York State Governor’s Award in 1997 from Governor George Pataki.

Mrs. Hart’s remarkable performing career began in 1933 with a role on Broadway in Champagne Sec. Her many Broadway credits over the years include the 1984 revival of On Your Toes. She made her opera debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1967 as Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and later created the role of Lucretia in the American premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Rape of Lucretia. As a film actress, Mrs. Hart is best known for her starring role in the classic Marx Brothers comedy A Night at the Opera. On television, she appeared for 15 years as a regular panelist on To Tell the Truth.

She is an honorary trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, and received an honorary doctoral degree from the Curtis School of Music. She has also received appointments to the Visiting Committee of the Board of Overseers of Harvard’s Music School and to the Visiting Committee for the Arts at MIT.

Mrs. Hart is the author of Kitty: An Autobiography and continues her performing career with her current show, My Life on the Wicked Stage, which she performs throughout the country.