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Updated: October 7, 2009, 9:15 am	Share    Print    Email

Artist Chuck Close congratulates Robert Redford on his Lifetime Achievement Award. Photos by Douglas Harrington

Author Salman Rushdie, recipient of the Contribution to the Arts Award.

New York City - Cipriani 42nd Street hosted the 2009 National Arts Awards on Monday, October 5 as luminaries from the worlds of art, business and politics converged to celebrate creativity in America. This black tie event is the annual celebration and fundraiser of Americans For The Arts, the country's foremost non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the arts in America. Hamptons.com spoke with several of the honorees, presenters and notables amid the cavernous and spectacular splendor of the ambiance that is pure Cipriani.

Early in the cocktail hour I caught up with author Salman Rushdie who was receiving the award for Contribution to the Arts and we spoke about the survival of the printed word, "It is dangerous, I think publishers will you tell they are worried, but we have to hope that it will hold up. I think the problem with the news media is that it is beginning to be available so readily in the electronic form, but I think books have a longer life than that."

Rushdie's personal faith in the survival of the novel as an art form is optimistic, "Actually, if you think about it, every time a new medium emerged people have said that it would be the end of the book. Radio was suppose to kill books, then television, cinema, all these things were suppose to kill books, yet here they still are. I think there is something very resilient about the intimacy of the book. You go to see a movie and the movie is up on the screen in front of you and you are there with hundreds of other people. You read a book and it is just you and the book and what is inside your head. That particular intimacy is something that I think people value, some people anyway. I hope enough people."

Filmmaker Ken Burns, Ann Finucane of Bank of America and columnist Mike Barnicle.

Filmmaker Ken Burns shared with me the long list of his latest projects, "We just finished a massive history of the national parks, it is on and finished yesterday. We are updating our baseball series, with what we are calling a "Tenth Inning," doing a history of prohibition, doing a history of the Roosevelts - Franklin, Theodore and Eleanor. We are doing a history of the Dust Bowl, Vietnam and the Central Park jogger case. We are working on six films at once."

I asked Burns to comment on the importance of organizations like Americans For The Arts, "I think it is huge. If you look at the group of people that we have assembled to be honored, what they are doing is tying in these diverse constituencies that are all critical to the survival of the arts. The presenters, the recipients, the organizations - and that is what we need to do. We need to establish a united front, particularly in tough times, when you have to re-remind people that without the arts we lose something magical about ourselves." I told him that I had in past columns frequently referred to the arts as a form of civil defense, as it defends a nation's civility, to which he commented, "That is so funny, because I wrote a line for Ann that says she understands that the arts has nothing to do with the defense of the country, they just make the country worth defending."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi chatting with attendees at the National Arts Awards.

The Ann the filmmaker was referring to is Ann Finucane who, as chief marketer for Bank of America, was accepting the Corporate Citizenship in the Arts Award that Burns would be presenting. In attendance with her husband, Boston Herald columnist and MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicale, Finucane commented on Bank of America's support for the arts, "A company like ours, Bank of America, does well when people and companies and communities do well. The arts are such a big part of the vibrancy of a city or a community and with that the ability for an individual to express themselves and to demonstrate diversity. These are the tenets of American culture and have made us such a successful society. It is critical that we are seen as a part of the success of a community and we believe the arts are integral to that."

Artist Ed Ruscha, recipient of the Artistic Excellence Award

After Burns, Barnicale and I swapped Red Sox stories, Barnicle commented, "The arts are free, that is why they are wonderful at a time like this. They put a smile on your face. You can go into a museum and look at a painting. You can look at a photograph or pay a few bucks and see a movie. You can remember what you saw and memories are free. This is a terrific night for a terrific cause."

As the cocktail hour progressed the crowd swelled and swayed to the music of a fine jazz quartet. Among the many notable attendees were Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg and her husband Ed Schlossberg, artist Chuck Close, designer Vera Wang, poet Paul Muldoon, and Congresswoman Jane Harmon, to name but a very few. Artist Ed Ruscha, who received the evening's award for artistic excellence, commented on the frenzy and energy of the evening's festivities, "It is almost like Grand Central, at least the echo of Grand Central Station which is right across the street. It puts everyone in a good feeling." I asked Ruscha if he saw the award coming, "No, not really. They announced it to me a few months ago so I was ready for it. I knew I had to dust off this thing," referring to his tuxedo.

Actor and director Dennis Hopper arrives at Cipriani 42nd Street.

The frenzy of the evening came to a crescendo with the arrival of Robert Redford, who was being honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Redford, accompanied by his wife Sibylle Szaggars-Redford and his daughter Amy was immediately greeted by a swell of photographers, friends, well wishers and Robert Lynch who is the CEO and driving force of Americans For The Arts.

Although PR firm Nadine Johnson and Associates, which did a spectacular job managing the event, noted that Redford's presenter, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, would not be commenting to the press, I did manage to get the Madame Speaker to address the vital work of Americans For the Arts, "They have been great supporters of the arts, for public support for the arts, for eliminating content restriction from the arts. Bob Lynch has been such a force; he helped us hold $50 million dollars in the recovery package for the arts."

As the crowd was ushered into the dining room for the awards ceremony, I lingered a while and was lucky enough to briefly catch late arrival Dennis Hopper on his way to his table. I asked the iconic actor/director, who last week had to cancel several appearances after being rushed to the hospital suffering from flu-like symptoms and dehydration, how he was feeling, "I am feeling much better, thank you. They put me on a drip and I am on the mend." I asked him to comment on the importance of the evening's event, "For me it is the most important thing because culture has been my life. So it is really important for me. It is a great turnout, it is wonderful."

Americans For The Arts CEO Robert Lynch addresses supporters at the National Arts Awards.

A wonderful evening indeed that can perhaps best be summed up in Redford's own comments regarding his award and the seminal work of Americans For The Arts, "I am honored to receive the National Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement. As an artist and a citizen, I have seen that the nurturing of creativity comes into play in everything - world diplomacy and economics, business and social endeavors, and everything in between. It is creativity that gives it the nuance that often makes the difference. In all its forms, art plays a critical role in finding our way as people and as a culture. Americans for the Arts does unparalleled work for the arts across the United States and I am proud of the work they do. The arts are not to be taken for granted. They are integral to our lives, our economy, our schools and our communities."

For more information on the work of Americans For The Arts go to: www.americansforthearts.org.