UVa Professor Receives Prestigious Arts Award

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Updated: 6:00 PM Feb 13, 2012 UVa Professor Receives Prestigious Arts Award WASHINGTON (AP) Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and University of Virginia professor Rita Dove was honored at the White House Monday. She was of several artists, writers and organizations honored by President Obama for their contributions to the nation. Posted: 6:00 PM Feb 13, 2012 Email Address: news@newsplex.com

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February 13, 2012

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and University of Virginia professor Rita Dove was honored at the White House Monday. She was of several artists, writers and organizations honored by President Barack Obama for their contributions to the nation.

Obama bestowed eight National Medal of Arts and nine National Humanities Medals during a ceremony in the White House East Room. Among this year's recipients were actor Al Pacino, poet Rita Dove and the United Service Organization, which holds performances for American service members stationed around the world.

Before awarding the medals, Obama said the arts have the power to bring together people of different backgrounds and beliefs. And he urged the honorees to help mentor a new generation of artists and scholars, saying their role in the nation's future would be equally as important as the next generation of engineers and scientists.

"The arts and humanities do not just reflect America, they shape America," Obama said. "As long as I'm president, I look forward to making sure they are a priority for this country."

Dove recently published "The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry", a project on which she served as sole editor. Among her nine poetry collections are "Sonata Mulattica," "American Smooth," and "On the Bus with Rosa Parks." She won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for "Thomas and Beulah" in 1987.

The National Medal of Arts is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the U. S. government 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."

Others receiving arts medals:

- Will Barnet, painter, printmaker and teacher.
- Emily Rauh Pulitzer, curator, art collector and philanthropist.
- Martin Puryear, sculptor.
- Mel Tillis, singer-songwriter.
- AndrDe Watts, pianist and teacher.

Receiving medals for the humanities:

- Kwame Anthony Appiah, philosopher and novelist.
- John Ashbery, poet.
- Robert Darnton, author and librarian.
- Andrew Delbanco, social critic and professor.
- National History Day, program that celebrates history.
- Charles Rosen, pianist and author.
- Teofilo Ruiz, historian and professor.
- RamDon SaldDivar, writer and professor.
- Amartya Sen, economist.

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