[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 2 (Monday, January 13, 1997)]
[Pages 27-28]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Arts and Humanities Awards Dinner

January 9, 1997

    Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the White House. 
Hillary and I are delighted to have all of your here tonight. This 
afternoon we had the honor to award 16 men and women and the Harlem Boys 
Choir our country's highest recognition for achievement in the arts and 
humanities.
    Tonight we come together to salute the honorees again for their 
profound contributions to our cultural life. At a time when so many 
forces seem determined to divide us, not simply here but all round the 
world, the arts and humanities unite us as a people in all of our rich 
diversity. They give voice to our collective experience and deepen our 
understandings of ourselves and one another.
    At the dawn of a new century in a rapidly changing world, we need 
our artists, our writers, our thinkers, more than ever to help us find 
that common thread that is woven through all of our lives, to help give 
our children the imagination they need to visualize the future they must 
make and to reach across the lines that divide us.
    The people we have honored today have dedicated their lives to this 
purpose, and I join all Americans in thanking them for their life's 
work.
    I ask all of you now to please join me in a toast to our honorees, 
and to the United States of America.
    Hear! Hear!

[At this point, the President toasted the honorees.]

[[Page 28]]

    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 8:30 p.m. in the State Dining Room at the 
White House.