February 13th, 2012
President Obama awarded one of the nation’s highest honors for artists and scholars to an eclectic group of Americans who he said have left an “indelible mark on American culture” with their achievements. Obama presented the National Medal of Arts to poet Rita Dove and seven others including actor Al Pacino, painter/printmaker Will Barnet and artist Martin Puryear, in an East Room ceremony. He bestowed the National Humanities Medal to poet John Ashbery and eight others.
In other political/art news, President Obama’s proposed 2013 budget calls for a 5% increase in spending for three cultural grantmaking agencies (NEA, NEH & IMLS) and three Washington, D.C. arts institutions (the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Gallery of Art). Obama aims to boost outlays from $1.501 billion to $1.576 billion.
