US President Joe Biden recognised more than 20 artists, musicians and other creatives in a ceremony at the White House on Monday (21 October) with a National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists and art patrons by the federal government for contributions to American art.
This year's ceremony honoured recipients of both the National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medals for 2022 and 2023.
"With absolute courage, you combat racial stereotypes, confront ghosts of history and speak truth to power-as Jill Biden's husband, I know the power of women in this room," President Joe Biden said during a reception at the White House following the medal ceremony. "The artist's gift is a sixth sense, to imagine something that no one else can carve, paint, write, sing, dance or film until they set their vision free."
The 2023 recipients include painters Mark Bradford and Alex Katz, as well as arts patron Jo Carole Lauder, the wife of cosmetics billionaire and mega collector Ronald S. Lauder. The documentarian Ken Burns, the actor and musician Queen Latifah and the film-makers Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg were also honoured with awards, along with the late singer Selena Quintanilla, known as the "Queen of Tejano Music" even after her death in 1995.
