National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal Awards Ceremony Dinner

Sarah Jessica Parker and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi at the National Museum of American History

NIGHT OF GLORY: The night before they were honored by President Barack Obama at the White House, recipients of the National Medal of the Arts and the National Humanities Medal were feted at a gala dinner attended by top Administration officials and non-political VIPs of every stripe. HONOR ROLE: Arts recipients included artist Frank Stella, singer Bob Dylan, actor Clint Eastwood, architect Maya Lin, and opera diva Jesse Norman. Among the humanities crowd: historian Robert Caro, writer/lawyer Ted Sorensen, museum director Philippe de Montebello, Washington philanthropist Albert Small, and author Elie Wiesel.

Mary Schmidt Campbell and Alfre Woodard

Dancer Damian Woetzel and Justice Stephen Breyer

Nina and Philip Pillsbury and Ann Stock

The National Endowment for the Arts Pays Tribute with Speeches and Song.

By Ann Geracimos

Brian Stokes Mitchell and Denyce Graves. Photo by Henry Grossman.

No shy guy, that Rocco Landesman, the top Broadway producer who has come to Washington to head up the National Endowment for the Arts. Asked at the second annual NEA Opera Honors at the Harman Center on Nov. 14 how he was adjusting to the local scene, he conceded the move was “a culture shock” since he found the capital to be all about cultivating “the power of access” in a town focused on politics.

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