Americans for the Arts is thrilled to welcome Carolyn Clark Powers as its incoming National Arts Awards Chair and as the namesake of its Lifetime Achievement Award. Powers is a consummate supporter of the arts and brings her unbridled energy and enthusiasm to the Awards, where she has formerly served as a co-chair.  

 

Raised in a family immersed in American music history, Powers’ ancestral home, Dockery Farms, is known as the “birthplace of the Delta Blues.”  Musicians who once lived on the farm include Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, and Howlin' Wolf. The farm was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006 and remains a vibrant place of pilgrimage for musicians and enthusiasts. 

 

From this musical foundation, Powers grew to embrace all of the arts, and her involvement spans many organizations and arts centers, including the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Music Center of Los Angeles, where she sponsored the Creative Chair of Jazz for a decade; the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, and Jazz Aspen Snowmass. She is also deeply involved in the visual arts and is currently on the board of the Aspen Art Museum and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, among many other cultural institutions.  

 

Powers is also a stalwart champion of arts education and serves on the boards of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management, the GRAMMY Museum, and P.S. ARTS. As a board member of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, she initiated a music education program that provides musical instruments and master classes to schools in rural areas. 

 

Among Powers' numerous personal accomplishments, she is a marathon runner and scaled the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2010. 

 

We look forward to celebrating with her on October 19, 2015, and hope that you will join us too!  Information about past National Arts Awards honorees can be found here.