Frank Stella, Sarah Jessica Parker, et al. Set to Attend 2011 National Arts Awards

Americans for the Arts, the nation's leading organization for advancing the arts and arts education, today announced the recipients of the 2011 National Arts Awards, which recognize those artists and arts leaders who exhibit exemplary national leadership and whose work demonstrates extraordinary artistic achievement. This year's awardees are:

• Frank Stella- Isabella & Theodor Dalenson Lifetime Achievement Award
• Beverley Taylor Sorenson - Eli & Edythe Broad Award for Philanthropy in the Arts
• Jenny Holzer - Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award
• President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities - Arts Education Award
• Gabourey Sidibe - Bell Family Foundation Young Artist Award
• Wells Fargo & Company- Corporate Citizenship in the Arts Award

The awards will be presented on October 17 at a gala dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City. Other notable attendees at this year's event include, Brooke Barzun and Ambassador Matthew Barzun, Christo, Chuck Close, Will Cotton and Rose Dergan, Todd Eberle, Pierre Dulaine, Jeff Koons, Raymond Learsy, Tina Lutz, Sarah Morris, Yvonne Marceau, Josephine Meckseper and Richard Phillips, Sarah Morris, Sarah Jessica Parker, Anne Pasternak, Ellen Phelan and Joel Shapiro, George Stevens Jr., Victoria Rowell, Jennifer and David Stockman, Mike Starn, Heather Watts and Damian Woetzel and Kulapat Yantrasast.Americans for the Arts is the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With more than 50 years of service, it is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts.

Frank Stella
Throughout his prolific career as a painter, sculptor, printmaker and architect, Frank Stella has been known for helping to launch the Minimalism movement and then for breaking away from it. First impacting the art world by endowing non-representational artwork with new significance, Stella's instantly acclaimed 1958 Minimalist paintings contrasted Abstract Expressionism's emotional canvases. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, his work was included in a number of significant exhibitions that proved to define the art of the time. In 1970, at the age of 34, he became the youngest artist to receive a full-scale retrospective at MoMA, and just 17 years later, he was given an unprecedented second retrospective exhibition for a living artist at MoMA. Throughout his career, Stella has received many honors and awards, including first prize in Tokyo's International Biennial Exhibition of Paintings, the Claude M. Fuess Distinguished Service Award from Phillips Academy, the Skowhegan Award for Painting, the Mayor's Award for Arts and Culture and the Award of American Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1989 he received the Ordre des Arts et des Letters from the French government. In 1992 he was awarded the Barnard Medal of Distinction. He was presented with the Gold Medal for Graphic Art award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1998. In 2000 he became the only American artist to have been given a solo show at London's Royal Academy of which he is a member. He was presented with the Gold Medal for Graphic Art award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1998. Stella won the Gold Medal of the National Arts Club in New York (2001). In 2009 Stella was the recipient of the Julio Gonzalez Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Arts in Valencia, Spain and in the same year was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama.

Beverely Taylor Sorenson
Beverley Taylor Sorenson has developed a rich legacy of love and support for arts education in Utah. Her work to launch and sustain Art Works for Kids-a grassroots initiative created to ensure that Utah's school children receive the benefits of high-quality, integrated arts instruction-has helped develop a renewed effort to ensure Utah children have a complete education that includes sequential K-6 arts education. In addition, Beverley for years has lobbied lawmakers to put the arts back in elementary school classrooms. And her efforts have paid off. In 2002, she secured public funds to help expand the number of schools Art Works for Kids could serve. In 2008, arts education in Utah received a significant boost when the Utah State Legislature funded the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program, which brings the Art Works for Kids integrated teaching model to classrooms across the state. In addition to providing instruction in elementary schools, the program funds teacher training programs at colleges and universities, pays for arts supplies, equipment and materials and supports ongoing research to ensure quality implementation and results. Today, Beverley continues to work with public and private entities, parents, educators and business and community leaders to realize her dream of bringing arts education to every single elementary child in Utah.

More Articles by This Author...