Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee and Ken Burns Among Recipients of National Medals of Arts

Filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee and Ken Burns and singers Missy Elliott and Queen Latifah are amongst 20 recipients of National Medals of Arts, which will likely be formally offered by President Joe Biden at a White Home ceremony Monday. Biden additionally will honor 19 recipients of National Humanities Medals, together with playwright-screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and historian Jon Meacham.

Three of the medals will likely be awarded posthumously: The late singer Selena Quintanilla and artist Ruth Asawa are arts medal winners and the late chef-author Anthony Bourdain was among the many humanities medal winners. The humanities medals are managed by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the humanities medals by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Actors Idina Menzel and Eva Longoria, producer Bruce Cohen and musicians Leonardo “Flaco” Jimenez and Herbert I. Ohta additionally will obtain arts medals, together with photographers Randy A. Batista and Clyde Butcher, artists Carrie Mae Weems, Alex Katz and Mark Bradford, arts leaders Jo Carole Lauder and Bruce Sagan and the Nation Music Corridor of Fame and Museum.

The humanities medals are given “to individuals or groups who are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support, and availability of the arts in the United States.”

Different humanities winners embrace former U.S. poet laureate Pleasure Harjo, actor-literacy advocate LeVar Burton, cartoonist Roz Chast and philanthropists Wallis Annenberg and Darren Walker. The humanities medals honor “an individual or organization whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience, broadened citizens’ engagement with history or literature, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to cultural resources.”

Humanities medalists vary from such cultural establishments because the Mellon Basis and Appalshop to educators Robin Harris, Robert Martin and Ruth J. Simmons to the students Pauline Yu, Nicolás Kanellos and Robin Wall Kimmerer. Author Juan Felipe Herrera, filmmaker Daybreak Porter and anthropologist Rosita Worl additionally will likely be honored Monday.