[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[December 20, 2000]
[Pages 2744-2750]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
[[Page 2744]]
Remarks on Presenting the Arts and Humanities Awards
December 20, 2000
The President. Thank you very much, Senator. [Laughter] I'm trying to get in the habit here, you
know? [Laughter]
If I might, I'd just like to say a word of appreciation to all those
Hillary has mentioned, to the young
people who entertained us at the beginning, who I thought were
wonderful, to the Members of Congress who have supported these
endeavors.
But I'd also like to thank Hillary for what she has done. She has been the Honorary Chair
of the President's Committee on Arts and Humanities, a strong advocate
for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for
the Humanities, the driving force behind our Millennial Evenings and our
campaign to Save America's Treasures, which is the largest single
historic preservation movement in the history of the United States. So I
thank her for what she has done.
It is true, as Hillary said, that this has been for 8 years now a
labor of love for me, because of my own personal history with the arts
and humanities. But each passing year has convinced me more strongly of
the importance of every nation elevating the kind of people we honor
today and of the fundamental lessons of the human spirit being imparted
in the broadest possible manner.
I think it is quite interesting that we live in a time where there
is more personal freedom than at any time in human history, where, in
the last few years for the very first time, more than half the people on
the globe live under governments of their own choosing. But in the
aftermath of the cold war, it's almost as if an artificial lid had been
lifted off the darker spirits of people around the world when we see
this remarkable upsurge of racial and religious and ethnic and tribal
warfare, sometimes leading to breathtaking numbers of casualties and so
often leading to hatred and misunderstanding.
Mostly, if not always, the arts and humanities bring us together. By
making us more self-aware and more human, they make us more likely to
understand our neighbors and to be better neighbors ourselves. And so I
hope that in the years ahead, when we literally have an opportunity
never before seen in my lifetime to build a world of unprecedented peace
and harmony and shared prosperity and interdependence, the work we honor
today will become more important to every single American citizen.
That's one of the reasons that I strongly support the idea of a
National Arts and Humanities Day, which the President's Committee on
Arts and Humanities has recommended. And if I might, I would also like
to recognize as a group the recipients of the Presidential Awards for
Design Excellence, given every 4 years by the National Government's
General Services Administration, to celebrate excellence in Federal
design--the things your Government builds with your tax money.
They remind us that with a little vision, we need not settle for the
mundane when it comes to the objects, arteries, and architecture that
the Government places in the world around us. I'd like to especially
thank Bob Peck, the Commissioner of the
Public Buildings Service, for his role in our doing better with the
Federal Government's construction. And I'd like to just mention the
award winning projects. Most of you will probably have seen at least one
of them, but you might want to look for more as you move around America.
The new U.S. Census Bureau National Data Processing Center in Bowie,
Maryland; the innovative U.S. Port of Entry in Calexico, California; the
wonderful refurbished Grand Central Terminal in New York City; the
soaring sweep of Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon, Colorado; the
Mars Pathfinder Mission; the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, here in
Washington; the National Park Service's Park Cultural Landscapes
Program; the Westside MAX light-rail system in Portland, Oregon; and the
Mayor's Institute on City Design, here in Washington.
I would like to ask the representatives of each of these projects to
stand and be honored by us. Please stand. [Applause]
Now, the honorees for the National Medal of Arts.
Maya Angelou once wrote, ``History, despite
its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived and, if faced with courage, need
not be lived again.'' Offering us always the raw truth and the eloquence
of hope, Maya has shown our world
[[Page 2745]]
the redemptive healing power of art. Author, actor, poet, professor,
and, incidentally, San Francisco's first female streetcar conductor--
[laughter]--she has literally and figuratively navigated life's ups and
downs. [Laughter]
She has had a great impression on my life
and, as all of you know, wrote a magnificent inaugural poem for our
first Inauguration in January of 1993 called ``On The Pulse of
Morning.'' I reread it again this morning, and it still thrilled me.
America owes Maya Angelou a great debt for keeping us looking toward the
morning.
[Comdr. Michael M. Gilday, USN, Navy Aide
to the President, read the citation, and the President presented the
medal.]
As a boy growing up on a Tennessee farm, Eddy Arnold learned to plow fields with teams of mules and to play
country music on the guitar. Fortunately for us, when it came time to
pick a career, he made the same decision that a lot of us young
southerners made: He did not want to work that hard with the mules.
[Laughter] He chose the guitar, and country music has never been the
same.
In his career, he's made records that broke
all records. His ``Bouquet of Roses'' stayed on the charts longer than
any country song in history, even down to today. And he's had more hits
than any other country artist. He brought music into millions of homes
across America. I told him this morning when I met him, I could still
remember when I was a very young boy listening to him sing on the radio
before my family even had a television.
He has earned the title, the ``Ambassador of
Country Music,'' and we are honored to honor him today. Mr. Eddy Arnold.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Now we honor the greatest male classical dancer of
our time, and one of the greatest forces in American modern dance,
Mikhail Baryshnikov.
From his 1974 flight to freedom to his reinterpretation of the
classics, from his soaring leaps to his bold forays into new forms,
Mikhail Baryshnikov has taken risk after
risk. And they have paid off, not only for him but for all the rest of
us, as well.
His audiences have grown bigger and
broader, and he continues still to inspire us again and again with a
renewed sense of wonder.
Thank you, Mikhail Baryshnikov.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Since I never had in my whole life more than about a
6-inch vertical jump--[laughter]--it was a great thrill for me to give
that award. [Laughter]
And because of my musical life, it is a great thrill for me now to
honor Benny Carter, a force in the jazz world
for over 75 years now. He liked to say, ``My good old days are here and
now.'' This attitude, his enduring focus on the future and the present,
and his enduring, extraordinary talents help to explain how he has
marvelously, miraculously continued to compose, arrange, teach, and
perform music that speaks to the human soul.
From the day he picked up his first alto
sax, the jazz world has never been the same. Benny Carter, your entire
life has been a great riff to the human spirit. We honor you today,
still young, at 93.
[Commander Gilday, read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. As a young painter just out of art school, Chuck
Close decided to spend an entire year painting a
single portrait. His goal was nothing less than a new form of realism
that would honor people without embellishment, in all their so-called
imperfection.
That early artistic gamble would pay off, not just for
Chuck's career but for all of us who have had
the provocative, often astounding pleasure of seeing his art. Like many
people, I am always torn between stepping in for a closer look and
stepping back for a broader perspective. That ambiguity is part of what
makes his art so powerful, so interesting, so clearly a reflection of
life itself.
I want to thank you, Chuck, for your
friendship to Hillary and me and for helping us see in new ways.
Mr. Chuck Close.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Believe it or not, the great writer Horton
Foote got his education at Wharton--
[laughter]--but not at the business school. He grew up in the small town
of Wharton,
[[Page 2746]]
Texas. His work is rooted in the tales, the troubles, the heartbreak,
and the hopes of all he heard and saw there.
As a young man, he left Wharton to become
an actor and soon discovered the easiest way to get good parts: Write
the plays yourself. [Laughter] And he hasn't stopped since.
Among other things, he did a magnificent
job of adapting Harper Lee's classic, ``To Kill A Mockingbird'' for the
silver screen and writing his wonderful ``A Trip To Bountiful'' and so
many other tales of family, community, and the triumph of the human
spirit.
Along the way, he's won Academy Awards, the
Pulitzer Prize, and countless other honors. Today we add this honor for
his lifetime of artistic achievement and excellence.
Mr. Horton Foote.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. In Chicago, there's a booming art and theater scene
that rests, to a remarkable extent, on the shoulders of one man, Lew
Manilow. A founder and past president of the
city's renowned Museum of Contemporary Art, Lew has personally donated
some of the finest pieces of contemporary art ever shown at the Art
Institute of Chicago. For 20 years, he has pursued his vision of
reestablishing a vibrant theater district in Chicago's North Loop. That
vision, too, is now becoming a reality.
President Roosevelt once said, ``The conditions for art and
democracy are one.'' Lewis Manilow,
philanthropist, collector, patron, has spent his entire life creating
those conditions and sparking Chicago's theater renaissance. I can also
tell you, he is a remarkable person and a good friend.
Mr. Lew Manilow, thank you very much.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. For 30 years, National Public Radio's cultural
programming division has turned a small slice of the Nation's airwaves
into a stage big enough to hold the world. From the mechanics on ``Car
Talk''--[laughter]--to the music of ``Carmen,'' NPR covers it all,
enlightening and entertaining us around the clock.
I don't know how many years our family has gotten up every morning
to NPR blaring away on Hillary's radio. NPR plays a unique role in
America's cultural and intellectual life, examining with wit and wisdom
the myriad facets of the human condition, our national life, and the
state of the world. We are a better, more humane Nation for the efforts
of NPR.
NPR President Kevin Klose will accept this
medal, on behalf of his colleagues. And we thank them all.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. The art of Claes Oldenburg has a deceptively simple purpose. He once said his aim
is to ``face the facts and learn their beauty.'' For nearly a half
century, this pop art pioneer has done exactly that. His sculptures and
happenings begin in commercial culture but quickly blur the lines
between painting and performance, art and actual experience.
With his partner in art and in life, Coosje van Bruggen, Oldenburg has
made monuments to the mundane: a towering clothespin in a Philadelphia
plaza; a massive matchbook on a hill in Barcelona; a buried bicycle in a
Paris park. Together, they have transformed everyday objects into
enduring art and added, I might add, a welcome sense of whimsy to our
public places. He's touched us all in that way, and we are grateful.
Thank you.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. When Itzhak Perlman plays
his violin, he takes us to places we have never been, where melodies
linger in our hearts long after the music has stopped. From his concerts
behind the Iron Curtain to his classical recordings to his
collaborations with jazz and pop performers, Itzhak Perlman makes music
for the sheer joy of it, reminding us that pure beauty can help us all
to transcend ourselves and our differences.
I must say, in all the times I've ever seen him perform in person or on television, I am always struck
by the sheer energy, courage, and happiness with which he has embraced
life, without pity or regret. He is an astonishing musician, and we
thank him for sharing his gifts with us.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. As a boy in New York City, Harold Prince went to Broadway shows with
[[Page 2747]]
his family every weekend. It wasn't long before the plays his family
came to see were his. [Laughter] By the age of 30, he had already
produced four hit shows. Over a lifetime, he brought to the stage
musical plays and operas that have earned him a record 20 Tony Awards.
From ``West Side Story'' to ``Fiddler on the Roof'' to ``Phantom of the
Opera,'' Hal Prince's work has made America and the world sing. Today we
give our regards to Broadway's Prince.
Thank you, Hal Prince.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Few performing artists are instantly recognized by
only their first name. But when you mention Barbra, the whole world knows her voice, her face, her
capacity to touch the deepest chords of our being.
From the moment she won her first vocal
competition at a Manhattan club when she was still a teenager, Barbra
Streisand has been without peer. Whether on stage, screen, or in the
director's chair, whether in musicals, comedies, or drama, she has been
a singular presence. She won the Oscar, the Grammy, the Emmy, the
Peabody, because she has a great mind, an enormous creative capacity, a
huge heart, and the voice of a generation. I'm glad we have this one
honor left to give her, and I thank her for all she has given us.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. And now, the winners of the National Humanities
Medal.
If there is a common critique of the social sciences, it is that
their leading voices talk often to each other but rarely to the rest of
us. This has never been the case with Robert Bellah. For decades now, he has been raising issues at the
very heart of our national identity and rejecting the easy answers. Like
Alexis de Tocqueville, whose legacy he has studied, Robert Bellah
understands the tension between two of America's core values,
individuality and community.
His studies on the moral and religious
underpinnings of American civic life have helped us to know better who
we are as a people and where we are headed as a nation. And through some
very difficult periods in our Nation's life, he has reminded us that for
all our enshrinement of individuality, we can never make the most of our
individual lives unless we first are devoted to our shared community.
Thank you, Robert Bellah, for priceless
gifts.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Scripture tells us to be ``doers of the word, not
hearers only.'' William Davis Campbell
is a doer. He has devoted his life as a preacher and writer to breaking
down racial barriers. A member of the National Council of Churches, he
was the only white minister asked by Dr. Martin Luther King to attend
the first Southern Christian Leadership Conference. From bailing
demonstrators out of a Selma jail, to escorting nine black students to
Little Rock Central High School, he was an unsung hero of the civil
rights struggle.
He has also authored 16 books,
including his remarkable memoir, ``Brother to a Dragonfly.'' Will
Campbell said to me today when I met him, he said, ``You know, I'm just
another yellow dog from Mississippi.'' [Laughter] And I said, ``Well,
there's not many of us left down there anymore.'' [Laughter] There don't
have to be many, as long as there's someone at every critical time for
our country like Will Campbell. He represents the best of what it means
to be an American, and we thank him.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Producing great television documentaries is a passion
Judy Crichton comes by honestly. As a girl in
the 1950's, her father, a pioneer network producer, taught her to
believe in the power of television to communicate the grandeur and
tragedy of history and to illuminate the great issues of the day.
In her own career as journalist, writer,
and producer, she has stayed true to that belief. Traveling from war-
torn African jungles to dusty historical archives, she has produced
documentaries that not only have won prestigious awards but very large
audiences.
And in creating and producing the PBS series ``The American
Experience,'' she set a new standard for what
television documentaries can be. With talent, passion, and purpose, Judy
Crichton has elevated a medium she loves and lifted all those who watch
it. We honor her today.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
[[Page 2748]]
The President. In a poem called ``The Dream Keeper,'' Langston
Hughes once wrote, ``Bring me all your dreams, you dreamers. Bring me
all your heart melodies that I might wrap them in a blue cloud-cloth,
away from the too-rough fingers of the world.''
David Driskell is a modern day dream
keeper. As one of the world's foremost authorities and collectors of
African-American art, he has devoted his life to keeping alive the
dreams of hundreds of artists and art lovers.
In doing so, he has helped to lift the
veil on the struggles and triumphs of a people and a nation yearning to
be free. His vision, creativity, scholarship, mentorship, and passion
have touched the core of what it means not only to be African-American
but to be human in a too-rough world.
Hillary and I thank him for helping to
bring us the first work by an African-American artist into the White
House: Henry Ossawa Tanner's ``Sand Dunes At Sunset, Atlantic City.''
For that and for more than four decades of excellence in art, we are
proud to honor him today.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Ernest Gaines was born on a
sugarcane plantation near New Roads, Louisiana, a town where, as he once
put it, ``There were places you couldn't go, things you couldn't say,
questions you couldn't ask.'' At least that was the case until he took
up writing.
It wasn't until the age of 15 that he
first stumbled on the public library and discovered Hemingway,
Steinbeck, and Faulkner. After that, he was never caught without a book
in his hand or a writing pad in his bag.
His best-selling book, ``The Autobiography
Of Miss Jane Pittman,'' made him an icon in black literature. His last
work, the remarkable ``A Lesson Before Dying,'' won him a National Book
Critics Circle Award.
His body of work has taught us all that
the human spirit cannot be contained within the boundaries of race or
class.
Mr. Ernest Gaines.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Of all those whom we honor today, none has traveled
farther to be with us than Herman Guerrero.
He flew 10,000 miles from his home in the Northern Mariana Islands. The
son of a baker, he has led the effort to preserve and promote the rich
history and culture of his beloved islands, particularly the legacy of
the Chamorro people, who were nearly wiped out by Spanish colonists in
the 17th century.
``Education and the humanities,'' he once said, ``allows the people
of the Northern Marianas to rediscover their identity.'' By honoring the
past, Herman Guerrero is moving the Northern
Mariana Islands into the future. Today we thank this baker's son for
raising the hopes and dreams of his people.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. America has been blessed with many outstanding
musicians, composers, writers, producers, arrangers, conductors, actors,
mentors, and humanitarians. But there is only one person in our lifetime
who has displayed all these talents in unparalleled excellence.
For more than 50 years, Quincy Jones has
stood as a true renaissance man of music, defying all the labels, daring
to explore the entire musical spectrum. From bebop to hip hop, from pop
to jazz, the breadth of his musical repertoire is only matched by the
bigness of his heart. From South Central L.A. to South Africa, he has
emerged as one of the leading humanitarians of our time, especially in
his work to uplift and inspire young people. He is an American treasure,
and he is my friend. And I am honored to join all of you in saluting him
today.
Mr. Quincy Jones.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Barbara Kingsolver
writes with beauty and wisdom about the ethnic and cultural divides that
challenge humanity. She offers in novels and essay a compelling vision
of how they might be healed. From Indian reservations to inner cities to
the forests of the Congo, she writes about our limitations and our
capacity to overcome them.
Above all, she reminds us of the
value of hope, telling us not to admire it from a distance but to live
right in it, under its roof. I have rarely seen an author that I thought
had a more direct impact on people who read her works and loved them,
including the two women in
[[Page 2749]]
my home. So Barbara Kingsolver, we thank you for challenging our heart
and keeping us going.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Edmund Morgan is one of the
foremost historians of our colonial beginnings. As an author and an
educator, he has shed new light on our history, from the tyranny of
slavery to the intellectual sparks that set off the American Revolution.
Historians and general readers alike have savored his clear writing and
clear thinking and his knack for the human touch, the anecdote or detail
that brings history alive for every reader.
For more than 50 years now, he has brought
America's own history alive for millions of us. And millions of us are
grateful.
Mr. Edmund Morgan.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Toni Morrison once said,
``The best art is political, and you ought to be able to make it
unquestionably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time.''
For more than 30 years, she has been
following her own advice. And in so doing, she has blessed us with some
of the most powerful, unflinching, and beautiful stories imaginable,
while winning a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer, and a beloved following of
readers.
Hillary and I are fortunate to be among her readers and her friends. But Toni Morrison has not only
earned an honored place on Americans' bookshelves; she has entered
America's heart. She is, in so many ways, remarkable. I don't know how
many times I've heard her say something or seen something she's written
and thought, ``Gosh, I wish I had thought of that.'' [Laughter] I'm glad
we thought to honor her today.
Miss Toni Morrison.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Like many of us, Earl Shorris first encountered the works of Socrates and Plato as a
freshman in college. The only difference between him and most of us is,
he was only 13 years old at the time. [Laughter]
That kindled a lifelong passion for the humanities, a passion
he has helped to pass on to others from all
walks of life. He knows the humanities mean the most as a part of
people's daily lives, not locked away in some ivory tower or secret
closet. His Clemente program in the humanities has inspired thousands of
young people from hard-pressed communities to pursue a college
education. Earl Shorris once said, ``People who know humanities become
good citizens; they become active, not acted upon.''
Today we honor him for many things but most
especially for his work as a champion of the humanities and as a very
good citizen.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. When Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve was a young girl, she came across an old, 20-
volume encyclopedia called the ``Book of Knowledge.'' She read every one
of those tomes, cover to cover, twice.
In the years since, her love
of words and a deep pride in her Native American heritage have propelled
her to write more than 20 books of her own, including several about her
Lakota Sioux people. A gifted teacher and storyteller, she has devoted
the past three decades to educating children and others about Native
American culture, to breaking down stereotypes and replacing them with
knowledge and understanding.
Her stories have helped us
to better define the American experience, to understand the Native
Americans who were here before the rest of us had the good fortune to
have our ancestors arrive. We thank her for sharing her timeless wisdom.
[Commander Gilday read the citation, and
the President presented the medal.]
The President. Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for joining us
today to honor these remarkable people. And I want to thank them again
for their remarkable work.
For 8 years now, Hillary and I have had the honor of presiding over
this ceremony. I don't think we've ever had a more stellar group of
honorees. But in each and every one of those 8 years, I have again felt
the profound importance of preserving human freedom, so that people like
these will be free to think and speak, create, to do their work, to lift
our better selves, and lead us away from dark alleys and wrong paths. We
thank them, and we thank God that
[[Page 2750]]
our country is a place where people like them can flourish.
God bless you all, and happy holidays.
Note: The President spoke at 11:32 a.m. at Constitution Hall.