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News Archives

Mayor Bloomberg Honors the Cultural Community


Mayor Bloomberg presents the Mayor's Awards for Arts & Culture. Photo courtesy of Kristen Artz.
November 1, 2011 - On Tuesday, November 1, 2011, Mayor Bloomberg and special guest Alec Baldwin honor seven members of New York City’s cultural community at the 2011 Mayor’s Awards for Arts & Culture. The awards ceremony will be held in the acclaimed Alice Tully Hall.

This year’s honorees are Mikhail Baryshnikov; arts advocate Alice Diamond; musician and educator Jimmy Heath; artist Maya Lin; public school principal Ronnie Shuster; the Theatre Development Fund; and world renowned composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, who will receive the NYC Handel Medallion, New York’s highest award for achievement in the arts.

The Mayor’s Awards for Arts and Culture were created in 1976 by the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission to honor individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the cultural life of New York City. The Awards acknowledge and celebrate the role individual artist, art educators, cultural organizations, corporations and philanthropists play in the public-private partnership that sustains our City’s creative vitality and economic well-being. The Bloomberg Administration revived the awards in 2004, and they remain a valued tradition.

The NYC Handel Medallion was established in 1959 by Mayor Robert F. Wagner to honor “outstanding achievement in the fields of art and music.” Named for the composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), the award was first given at the Handel Festival, a series of 32 concerts held in New York City in 1959 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Handel’s death. The NYC Handel Medallion is New York’s highest award for achievement in the arts.
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