Arts and Letters

NEW YORK, MARCH 29, 2024 – The American Academy of Arts and Letters announces the recipients of its highest honors for excellence in the arts. Writer Doris Kearns Goodwin will receive the Gold Medal for Biography and artist-musician Laurie Anderson will receive the Gold Medal for Music. Given each year in rotating categories of the arts, Gold Medals are awarded to those who have achieved eminence in an entire body of work. James C. Horton will then be recognized with the Distinguished Service to the Arts Award for his contributions as President of Harlem School of the Arts. The recipients were chosen by the members of Arts and Letters and their honors will be presented alongside the architecture, art, literature, and music awards at Arts and Letters’s annual Ceremonial in May.

Biographies

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s critically acclaimed biographies of America’s past presidents have appeared on multiple best-selling lists, inspired award-winning films, and brought personalities to life with astute political commentary and riveting narratives. No other presidential historian has covered quite so much territory and demonstrated a mastery of so many periods. Her book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln became the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film Lincoln. For her biography work, she has previously been awarded the inaugural Book Prize for American History and the Pulitzer Prize in History for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. She was also the first historian to receive the Lincoln Leadership Prize from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation. Currently, she is a partner at the production company Pastimes Productions Inc., where she has executive produced three historical documentary miniseries based on her book Leadership: In Turbulent Times: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and FDR. Her most recent book, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, which provides a front-row seat to the pivotal people—JFK, LBJ, RFK and MLK—and events of this momentous decade, publishes April 16, 2024.

Laurie Anderson has been a pioneer at the intersection of music, visual art, and performance for decades, and she often invents the technologies her multidisciplinary visions require. Since her first acclaimed single “O Superman,” she has recorded multiple highly-regarded records and has toured the country with performances that range from spoken word pieces to elaborate multimedia productions. Anderson has been recognized with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, a SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award, and the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. She has published six books, exhibited widely in museums across the U.S. and abroad, and has contributed award-winning compositions to film, dance, and theater. Her next record, “Amelia,” based on the pilot Amelia Earhart’s last flight, will be released by Nonesuch in August 2024. “Lifeboat,” her new multimedia show, will premiere in Manchester, England in the fall of 2024.

James C. Horton was appointed the 7th president of the Harlem School of the Arts (HSA) in October 2022. HSA was founded in 1964 by soprano Dorothy Maynor who believed in a model of art education that promotes holistic youth development, producing students who graduate not just with an artistic practice, but with a sense of how to navigate through the world with confidence. As president of HSA, Horton has been committed to maintaining the school’s legacy as a community-focused arts education center in Harlem that provides world-class training in music, dance, theater, media, and design to children ages 2 to 18. He has also expanded HSA’s connection to other art initiatives and is pursuing new partnerships to help ensure that children from all backgrounds have access and opportunities to engage with the arts. Horton has dedicated his career to the arts and education and prior to HSA worked at the Museum of the City of New York, where he led their community outreach and education programs, as well as at Carnegie Hall and the National Guild for Community Arts Education.

American Academy of Arts and Letters

The American Academy of Arts and Letters is an honor society of artists, architects, composers, and writers who foster and sustain interest in the arts. Its 300 members distribute over $1.2 million in awards annually; fund concerts and new works of musical theater; purchase and commission contemporary art for donation to museums across the country; and present exhibitions, talks, and events for the public at our historic buildings in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City.

Media Inquiries
Ashley Fedor
(212) 368-5900
afedor@artsandletters.org