MRS. CLINTON: Thank you so much. Welcome to the White House. It's a great honor for the President and me to have all of you here. This is one of the days we look forward to, as we come together to celebrate the unique and indispensable role that the arts and humanities play in shaping our nation, and to honor those who have made such extraordinary contributions to human knowledge and expression.
MRS. CLINTON: You know, this day and this ceremony holds real significance for those of us who care deeply about promoting the arts and humanities in communities across our country, because that's where the real work is done -- in places where young dancers are trained, young artists are encouraged, young writers are critiqued -- all the work that goes on that enables us to really understand what T.S. Eliot said.
Today we pay tribute to a number of extraordinary Americans who have stretched our imaginations, tested our beliefs, celebrated our diversity, and channeled our emotions and ideas into positive forms of creativity and self-expression. We also recognize the contributions that each of you in this tent have made to enable us to be in a time when we can see that the arts and humanities are making such an impact on our lives, through your work, your philanthropy, and your public service.
I want especially to thank Bill Ivey, the Chairman of the NEH; and Bill Ferris, the Chair of the NEA; John Brademas, the Chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities; the members and staff of the National Council on the Arts, and the National Council on the Humanities; and the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. I also want to acknowledge Diane Frankel, the Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the members of her board, who I will join later today in honoring three museums for their innovative programs serving children and families in their communities.
We know and recognize how central the arts and humanities are to our lives and, particularly, to the lives of our children, like the young dancers we just saw. We know how they stimulate our imagination, but we also know how they connect us to each other and to our common humanity.
Over the past six years, many people in this administration and many of their partners in the Congress have worked tirelessly to promote the arts and humanities. We've been honored to hold and host many events honoring the arts and humanities here at the White House. And when the President and I began planning for the coming of the millennium, we knew it would come whether we planned for it or not, but we thought it would be a good idea to think of a way we could use this turning point in history to really celebrate the richness of America, and to look at ways we could think of gifts we might give to the future.
Well, we put the arts and humanities at the heart of our efforts, and developed a theme -- Honor the past, imagine the future. We have recognized and will continue to recognize our artists and musicians, our writers and historians, our poets and philosophers, our scientists and others who have always helped define us as Americans, and guided our nation forward. Here in the White House we will continue to hold millennium events that showcase the enduring contributions to our lives and to our vision of the future.
Some of you may know that we've launched a "Save America's Treasures" program. And I was privileged this past summer to get on a bus with some of you and travel through several of our states, highlighting some of the well-known treasures, like the "Star-Spangled Banner," and some of the relatively unknown treasures that really help mark our passage as Americans. And I know that we're going to be doing more of that, and we welcome your participation and advice.
This Congress also marked a turning point in the future of government support for the arts and humanities. Today we recommit ourselves that we will continue to support the NEA and the NEH so that they will thrive and grow. (Applause.) It makes such a difference to have that federal validation and support for that artist in the school, for that dance company in a small community, for that symphony orchestra -- the only one in a state -- and so many other ways that we have seen lives literally changed.
As the President said in his recent tribute to the National Arts and Humanities Month, our investment in the living cultural heritage of today will reap benefits tomorrow, strengthening our communities and uniting our nation.
Just last month I helped launch, with a number of you, a national campaign to get arts back in our nation's schools, and I hope that we again recommit ourselves to that goal. (Applause.) As I travel around our country, it is literally heartbreaking to go into schools that because of budget problems have had to cut out all of their arts and culture and after-school activities for the children. They've cut out their sports and recreation. And I think to myself that I had more opportunities 30 and 40 years ago growing up than many of our children do today.
But with a public-private partnership, we can re-ignite arts education in our schools. Every child in America should have the skills to read and comprehend a novel or history book. They should know how to research and write about ideas. And every child in America deserves the opportunity these young dancers have had to explore their abilities, create new experiences, and break their own boundaries of creative expression.
Tomorrow, as part of our ongoing effort to promote the arts and humanities here at the White House, I will be honored to unveil the seventh exhibit of American sculpture that we've held in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden here at the White House. These exhibits have been enjoyed by our millions of White House visitors. And I hope all of you will have a chance to see this current exhibition, which shows how American sculpture was, in many ways, inspired by the great French artist, Rodan.
But in all of these endeavors, we believe -- my husband and I -- that we have an opportunity to take the arts and humanities as broadly as possible throughout our country, to give all Americans a chance to see what it means to them personally and to see what it means to us as a nation.
So we had our own special tour of the Rothko exhibit, and got to spend a long time with Henry Moore's sculptures in the sculpture garden. And I realized at that moment that he was an effective advocate for the arts and humanities.
Let me join Hillary in thanking the representatives of the NEA, the NEH, the Museum and Library Services for all they have done. I thank Senator Baucus, Senator Durbin Congressman and Mrs. Engel, Congresswoman Morella for being here and for their support for the arts and humanities.
Paul Klee once said, "Art does not reproduce the visible, rather it makes it visible." Today, we honor an extraordinary group of Americans whose daring vision and indelible contributions to arts and humanities have opened all our eyes to the richness, diversity, and miracles of the human experience.
We are blessed to live in an era of breathtaking change and unlimited possibility -- an economy that is the strongest in a generation; hopeful reductions in many of our social problems; around the world, a surging tide of democracy in lands where creativity and freedom once were viciously suppressed; an emerging global community united increasingly by the technological revolution, commercial ties, and greater interaction.
But we know that change also, always, brings new challenges and, perhaps, even as important, can obstruct old, unresolved difficulties. Now, more than ever, therefore, we need our artists and patrons, our historians and educators to help us make sense of the world in which we live, to remind us about what really matters in life, to embody the values we Americans hold most dear --freedom of expression, and tolerance and respect for diversity.
For more than 200 years, through dance and songs, in paint or on paper, Americans have expressed their individuality and their common humanity. This tradition of our shared culture is one we must nurture and take with us into the new millennium.
Today, we proudly honor 19 men and women, a theatre troupe and one organization, all of whom have laid the foundation for a new century of greater American creativity.
First, the National Medal of the Arts. More than 50 years ago a New York City mother, looking for a way to keep her seven-year-old son off the streets, decided to send him with his sister to her ballet class. From there, Jacques D'Amboise leapt to the pinnacle of the dance, thrilling audiences as principal dancers for the New York City Ballet, landing roles in Hollywood musicals, creating timeless ballets of his own. With his National Dance Institute, he has given thousands of children, like those we saw today, the same opportunity he had, to strive for excellence and expression through dance.
Those who know him know he would walk a thousand miles for his kids. And this spring he will be doing just that, hiking the length of the Appalachian Trail to raise money for his institute.
THE PRESIDENT: When the movie "Urban Cowboy" came out, Ramblin' Jack Elliot must have laughed, because even though he sings like he was raised on the range, he was actually born, as he puts it, on a 45,000-acre ranch in the middle of Flatbush. (Laughter.) He left home at 15 to join the rodeo, where he learned to sing cowboy songs. But it was hearing his first Woody Guthrie record that transformed him into the man Sam Shepard called a "wandering, true American minstrel."
THE PRESIDENT: From the industrial skyscrapers of Louis Sullivan to the prairie houses of Frank Lloyd Wright, to the elegant geometry of I.M Pei, Americans have defined the field of architecture in the 20th century. No architect better expresses the American spirit of our time than Frank Gehry. From concert halls to shopping malls, he has given the world buildings that are fearless and flamboyant, that trample the boundaries of convention. There are few architects whose works so stirs the imagination that people will cross oceans just to see it built. But his Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, has attracted architecture pilgrims for years.
THE PRESIDENT: President Franklin Roosevelt once said that the conditions for art and democracy are one. Citizen-activist and arts patron Barbara Handman has dedicated her entire life to ensure that those conditions are met. Her sustained support for the arts, fighting to keep some of New York's historic theaters from going dark, serving on the city's theater advisory board, and many other activities have enriched our nation's cultural life. Her passionate advocacy of the First Amendment has enlarged our vital freedoms.
When we celebrate the arts today we also celebrate the commitment of Americans like Bobbie, whose activism and generosity are essential, and just as essential as our artists, to the flourishing of our arts and the preservation of our ideals.
THE PRESIDENT: The revered and visionary painter, Agnes Martin, once told a reporter that, "everyone sees beauty, and art is a way to respond." Throughout a lifetime she has responded to the beauty of her world with luminous graphite lines, fields of white or bands of subtle color on canvas. For more than 40 years, her quiet, spare paintings have conveyed happiness and innocence to viewers and have earned the Saskatchewan native and naturalized American a place among America's foremost abstract artists. Her work is featured in the permanent collections of our finest galleries.
THE PRESIDENT: Sixty years ago, Gregory Peck abandoned pre-med studies for the sound stages of Hollywood. While he never practiced the healing art, his performances have helped to heal some of our countries deepest wounds. For many, he will always be Atticus Finch, the Alabama lawyer whose brave stand for justice and against racism in "To Kill a Mockingbird" stirred the conscience of a nation. He won an Oscar for that role and would star in 55 films: "Gentlemen's Agreement," "Roman Holiday," "The Guns of Navarone." He has been a tireless advocate for the arts, serving on the National Council on the Arts, as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
THE PRESIDENT: We've seen it so many times in movies and in real life -- a star falls ill only to be replaced by a promising ingenue who then catapults to stardom. Fifty years ago, that stage was the Met, the opera was Don Giovanni, and the ingenue was a 19-year-old soprano from the Bronx, Roberta Peters. She went on to achieve international acclaim, giving voice to the great heroines of opera -- Lucia, Gilda, the Queen of the Night. She is, you might say, for all of us coarser types, the Cal Ripken of opera -- (laughter) -- having performed as many as 30 times a season, achieved the longest tenure of any soprano in the Met's history and appeared on the Ed Sullivan show a record 65 times. She has sung for every President from President Eisenhower to President Bush. Now it is time for this President to honor her.
THE PRESIDENT: What Dublin was to Joyce or Yoknapatawpha County was to Faulkner, Newark is to Philip Roth. (Laughter.) Who would have thought this melting pot of immigrant aspirations -- of Jews, Italians, Irish, African Americans -- would have yielded a voice as distinct and powerfully American as Philip Roth. He and his many literary alter egos, from Nathan Zuckerman to "Philip Roth," have been among us now for four decades. He brought to the world's attention a generation of writers from what he calls "the other Europe," whose instinct for freedom matches his own. His last four books, "Patrimony," "Operation Shylock", "Sabbath's Theater," "American Pastoral," have each one a major literary award. Improbable as it may seem, this brash kid of Newark has become a grand old man of American letters.
To indulge his passion for art, something he needs, I might say, as an expatriate southerner who can never quite leave the romance of his roots, the Chairman and CEO of Sara Lee, John Bryan, now just had to show up for work, for covering the walls of the Sara Lee's downtown Chicago headquarters is a vast collection of impressionist paintings by Monet, Matisse, Pissaro.
But a few months ago, Sara Lee announced that it would donate the entire collection to museums around the country. This generosity is not unusual. Under John's leadership, Sara Lee has supported the arts all across America -- the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis are just two. From the cakes they bake to the paintings they share, Sara Lee does, indeed, nourish the world.
THE PRESIDENT: The 1974 birth of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre in a church basement has been described as "a moment when the cosmos got lucky." Through a miraculous mix of talent and vision, Steppenwolf has reconciled the contradictions of modern theater. It stages edgy, experimental productions that still manage to attract mainstream audiences. It is an ensemble company that shuns the star system, and yet it has launched its fair share of stars -- John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, Joan Allen. That those stars regularly skip movie roles to act in Steppenwolf plays speaks volumes about the magic of this theatre.
THE PRESIDENT: It's every performer's dream. In 1953 Gwen Verdon exited the stage after a brief solo in the Broadway musical "Can Can," only to hear the crowd go wild, shouting, "We want Verdon." Quite literally, she stole the show. After that first Tony Award-winning performance, she just kept dancing. Her collaboration with the great choreographer, Bob Fosse, defined the art of jazz dance. She gave brilliant performances in shows from "Damn Yankees" to "Sweet Charity" to "Chicago," winning three more Tonys and fans all over the world. In movies ranging from "The Cotton Club" to the recent, critically acclaimed film, "Marvin's Room," this famous redhead is showing us all that she is still alive and kicking.
THE PRESIDENT: Now, the National Humanities Medals.
Ever since President Eisenhower asked the then 28-year-old Stephen Ambrose to edit his papers, he has animated history with stories of great leaders and average citizens whose common denominator is their uncommon heroism. With a storyteller's ear for narrative and a scholar's eye for detail, he puts us in the shoes of our most courageous Americans -- from 19-year-old citizen soldiers storming the beaches of Normandy to Lewis and Clark as they opened the American West. His work has inspired Americans to make pilgrimages to long forgotten historic sites brought to life by his prose.
THE PRESIDENT: The son of a pianist and music store owner, E.L. Doctorow is perhaps the finest chronicler of the changing rhythms of American life. From "Ragtime" to "Billy Bathgate," to "The Waterworks," he has captured the cacophony of American life and turned it into melodies that resonate in readers' minds long after they turn the final page. His narratives are such compelling physic histories of a young nation, struggling with the divergent impulses of human nature, that they have earned him both critical acclaim and popular appeal. He's a true literary lion, a caring professor, a gentle soul. I am grateful that I have had the chance to learn a lot about my country from his work.
THE PRESIDENT: Ten years ago, Harvard's Diana Eck began to notice that her students weren't just choosing her class on Indian religions to learn about a foreign culture. They were enrolling to learn more about their own heritage. She was inspired to explore how America, founded by people in search of religious freedom, has changed and been changed by the religions of our recent immigrants.
She has found the religions of the world in America's own backyard: mosques in Massachusetts, Hindu temples in Houston; and even a century-old Buddhist temple in her native Montana. And through a new CD ROM, "On Common Ground: World Religions in America," she is helping us to appreciate not only the richness of our diversity, but the strength of our shared values.
THE PRESIDENT: Near the beginning of this century, W.E.B. Du Bois predicted a "black tomorrow" of African American achievement. Thanks in large measure to Henry Louis Gates, that tomorrow has turned into today. For 20 years he has revitalized African American studies. In his writing and teaching, through his leadership of the Dream Team of African American scholars he brought together at Harvard, Gates has shed brilliant light on authors and traditions kept in the shadows for too long. From "signifying monkeys" to small-town West Virginia, from ancient Africa to the new New York, Skip Gates has described the American experience with force, with dignity and, most of all, with color.
THE PRESIDENT: In high school in Beirut, Vartan Gregorian was so brilliant his teachers called him "Professor." At the Carnegie Corporation of New York, now they call him "President." But at Brown University, where he just concluded nine successful years at the helm, he's remembered simply and fondly as Vartan, the most approachable and engaging man on campus. Public education has been his faith and greatest enthusiasm. As an Armenian child in Iran, as a student in Lebanon and the United States, then as President of the New York Public Library, where he restored grandeur and purpose to one of America's great institutions.
THE PRESIDENT: Growing up in La Jolla, California, Ramon Eduardo Ruiz spent nights listening to his immigrant father's tales of the heroes and history of Mexico. After serving as a pilot in World War II, he took his passion for Mexico's past to the halls of academia, becoming one of America's premier and pioneering scholars of Latin American history.
He has dedicated his life to exploring what he calls "the saga of the Mexican people, a story of sporadic triumphs played out on a stage of tragic drama." His history of Mexico, "Triumphs and Tragedy," is taught in colleges and universities all across our country, shaping a new generation's understanding of the heritage and homeland of millions of our fellow Americans.
THE PRESIDENT: For more than 50 years, Arthur Schlesinger has been at the vital center of our public life. He has not only chronicled the American history, he has helped to define it -- as the fighting intellectual of the Americans for Democratic Action, advisor to Adlai Stevenson, special assistant to President Kennedy. A renowned historian, like his father, Schlesinger has steered Americans on a straight and sensible course through the changing tides of history, from the age of Jackson to the multicultural nation in which we live today.
As he has written of the leaders he served, Professor Schlesinger, throughout his life, has taken "the Promethean responsibility to affirm human freedom against the supposed inevitabilities of history." What a remarkable life he has lived; what wonderful books he has written.
THE PRESIDENT: I want to choose my words rather carefully now before honoring one of America's leading students of presidential rhetoric. (Laughter.) Lincoln, Garry Wills has written, knew the power of words -- to win a war, to change history, to shape a nation. Garry Wills, too, understands the power of words. And his own books and essays have given eloquent voice to our past and to our present.
In the Pulitzer-Prize-winning "Lincoln At Gettysburg," he offered new perspectives on the most important speech in American history -- the way it redefined our Constitution in the minds of our people and rededicated our nation to our revolutionary ideals. Whatever his subject, politics or popular culture, the classics or even boxing, his insight is unsurpassed. I find that difficult to acknowledge from time to time. (Laughter.) Like his students at Northwestern, Hillary and I, and indeed, all America are grateful for his brilliant and iconoclastic scholarship.
THE PRESIDENT: The late Dizzy Gillespie once said of his fellow jazz trumpeter, Louis Armstrong, who had blazed musical and professional trails before him, "No him, no me."
Today, a grateful nation says to the 21 medalists in this room, "No you, no we." Thank you for opening doors of hope. Thank you for opening doors of artistic and intellectual possibility. Thank you for opening them for all Americans and lighting the way to our common future.