Politics. On Point.

On Wednesday, July 10, 2013 President Obama will award the 2012 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal in the East Room.  The First Lady will also attend.    The National Endowment for the Arts was established by the Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the Federal Government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with State arts agencies, local leaders, other Federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. The National Endowment for the Humanities was created in 1965 as an independent Federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the Nation. The Endowment brings high-quality historical and cultural experiences to ...

President Obama awarded twenty honorees in the East Room of the White House today, in a ceremony that saw two honorees missing in action.    Ella Boff accepts the honor for Jacobs Pillow Dance Fest. Photo/CD Brown.  While actress Meryl Streep, and author of To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee did not attend, those honorees in attendance had no problem proudly strutting on stage to receive their coveted honor. Among the 2010 National Medal of Arts honorees: Quincy Jones (musician, composer, record producer, and arranger, lauded as music's master inventor); Robert Brustein (critic, producer, playwright, educator, and founder of the Yale Repertory Theatre);  Van Cliburn , pianist and winner of  the1958 victory at the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow; Mark di Suvero (sculptor and abstract expressionist); influential jazz musician, Sonny Rollins (post-bebop jazz musician influencing generations of musicians for over 50 years); P...