Director Mel Brooks and restaurateur Jose Andres are among the 24 people who will receive the 2015 National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal from President Obama and the the first lady next week.
The ceremony will be held Sept. 22 in the White House’s East Room and feature a plethora of artists and creative individuals who have furthered the arts through their mediums.
The Medal of Arts winners are Brooks, author Sandra Cisneros, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, actor Morgan Freeman, composer Philip Glass, record producer Berry Gordy, musician Santiago Jimenez, director Moises Kaufman, dancer Ralph Lemon, actress Audra McDonald, playwright Luis Valdez and painter Jack Whitten.
Humanities Medal winners include Andres, author Rudolfo Anaya, author Ron Chernow, poet Louise Gluck, radio host Terry Gross, composer Wynton Marsalis, author James McBride, author Louis Menand, historian Elaine Pagels, the Prison University Project, physician Abraham Verghese and journalist Isabel Wilkerson.
Five decades ago, Congress established the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since then, the organizations have awarded more than $5 billion each to individuals and communities for the advancement of the arts.
