press room

For Immediate Release

Washington DC — September 30, 2002 — Americans for the Arts will present the 7th annual National Arts Awards on Monday, October 7, in New York City to launch National Arts and Humanities Month. The annual awards recognize those artists and arts supporters who exhibit exemplary national leadership and whose work demonstrates extraordinary artistic achievement. They are organizations and individuals—artists, advocates, business leaders, patrons, and educators—who understand that the arts enrich people and communities alike. Segments of the awards ceremony will be recorded and incorporated into a 30-minute documentary on arts leadership in America, which will air on Bravo on January 19, 2003.

Following are this year's National Arts Awards Recipients—brief bios are attached:

• Frederick R. Weisman Award for Philanthropy — David Rockefeller
• Corporate Citizenship in the Arts — Alberto Vilar
• Isaac Stern Award for Excellence in Classical Music — Pinchas Zukerman
• Artistic Excellence — Cindy Sherman
• Young Artist Award — Natalie Portman
• Special Recognition for Excellence in Arts & Media — Bravo, The Film and Arts Network
• Special Recognition for 25 Years of Service — The Institute of Museum and Library Services

Leadership for the National Arts Awards celebration is provided by New York State First Lady Libby Pataki as Honorary Chairman and Mrs. Randolph Hearst as Chairman. Co-Chairmen are: Barry Diller, Maurice R. Greenberg, Agnes Gund, and Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder.

The National Arts Awards have been presented by Americans for the Arts since its inception in 1996. Past honorees have included: Brooke Astor, Alec Baldwin, Peter I. Bijur, John Brademas, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Frank Gehry, Agnes Gund, Jacob Lawrence, Gerald M. Levin, Wynton Marsalis, Midori, Beverly Sills, Isaac Stern, Uma Thurman, and Sanford I. Weill.

Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, Americans for the Arts has a 40-year record of objective arts industry research. It is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. For more information, visit www.AmericansForTheArts.org.

About the National Arts Award Recipients:

DAVID ROCKEFELLER
Among his many lifelong contributions to the arts, David Rockefeller is being honored for his longstanding leadership of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and for establishing the first corporate art collection at the Chase Manhattan Bank, which has benefited thousands of artists and his company's workers and customers worldwide. In 1967, he also founded the Business Committee for the Arts, a national nonprofit organization that provides programs and services to help businesses and arts organizations collaborate to enhance the quality of life in their communities.

ALBERTO VILAR
Alberto Vilar has become one of the world's foremost patrons of the classical performing arts. Beyond his significant contributions to companies like the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, the Salzburg Festival in Austria, and the Kirov Opera and Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, he is equally committed to supporting the next generation's artists and arts leadership through his establishment and sponsorship of such programs as the Alberto Vilar Operalia Worldwide Competition for Young Singers hosted by Placido Domingo and the Vilar Institute for Arts Management at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

PINCHAS ZUKERMAN
A violinist, a violist, a chamber musician, and a conductor, Pinchas Zukerman presently serves as the Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada and regularly guest conducts and performs with major symphonies throughout the world. His recordings have earned him 21 Grammy nominations and 2 Grammy Awards. As a teacher he has pioneered the use of distance-learning technology in the arts by instructing his students at the Manhattan School of Music via a videoconferencing system while fulfilling the travel demands of his concert engagements.

CINDY SHERMAN
Cindy Sherman is acknowledged as one of the first artists to catapult the art of photography to the forefront of the contemporary art scene. Her now legendary Untitled Film Stills became some of the most highly sought-after objects in the field of photographic art, and in 1996 the Museum of Modern Art purchased the only complete collection of 69 stills. Major retrospectives of her work have been shown at the Whitney Museum in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and in 1999, she was declared one of the 25 most influential artists of the 20th century by ARTnews magazine.

NATALIE PORTMAN
Natalie Portman has become one of Hollywood's most talented and sought after young actors, and has achieved worldwide recognition for her work as Queen Amidala in the first and second episodes of George Lucas's Star Wars saga, with the third episode yet to come. In addition to her film work, she has received great acclaim starring in the Broadway production of The Diary of Anne Frank in 1997, and last year's Shakespeare in the Park production of Chekhov's The Seagull opposite Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, and directed by Mike Nichols.

BRAVO, THE FILM AND ARTS NETWORK
Bravo, The Film and Arts Network, is now seen in 67 million households and its original programming like Inside the Actors Studio helps make the arts accessible to many Americans via a "behind-the-scenes" look at the artistic process. Bravo's commitment to arts education is illustrated by its "Bravo, On With the Show" initiative designed to raise awareness about the positive impact theatre participation can have on young people, and its "Bravo in the Classroom" combination of arts programming and resource materials provided free to schools through their local cable companies.

THE INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM AND LIBRARY SERVICES
The Institute of Museum and Library Services was established twenty-five years ago when the U.S. Congress determined that federal support of the nation's libraries and museums would contribute to the common good. The Institute champions the role libraries and museums play in America's community life by educating and informing its citizens.

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