East Hampton - Guild Hall presents their Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Bob Balaban to be honored with Lifetime Achievement Award.

Monday, March 8
Guild Hall 25th Anniversary Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards & Dinner gala benefit will be held at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City, with 6:30 p.m. Cocktails and 7:30 p.m Dinner. Honoring Bob Balaban for Performing Arts; Richard Prince for Visual Arts; Marsha Norman for Literary Arts; and Susan and Alan Patricof for Leadership and Philanthropic Endeavors, with comedienne Angela LaGreca as Master of Ceremonies. The lead sponsor is Gagosian Gallery and the co-sponsor is 1stdibs.

"The Awards annually celebrate the creativity of an outstanding group of artists and visionaries on the East End whose work has consistently delighted and inspired us," said Roy Furman, president of Guild Hall's Academy of the Arts. "The election of these honorees by their peers, our 257 Academy members, speaks volumes for the depth of creative talent in our midst."

"What began as an idea in 1985, to recognize the talent of those with ties to Eastern Long Island, has evolved into a long standing relationship yielding support and acknowledgement of our world-class, local artistic community," adds Ruth Appelhof, executive director, Guild Hall.

Throughout the past 25 years the Academy has honored both summer and year-round East End residents who have demonstrated excellence in the visual, literary, and performing arts. Some past recipients include Steven Spielberg, Billy Joel, Elaine Stritch, Mel Brooks and Alec Baldwin for Performing Arts; Julian Schnabel, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, April Gornik and Chuck Close for Visual Arts; Kurt Vonnegut, E. L. Doctorow, Edward Albee, Joseph Heller and Joe Pintauro for Literary Arts; and Special Awards to Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, and Peter Jennings, to name a few.

Tickets to the 25th Anniversary Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards start at $300 for young patrons (21-40 years old) and can be purchased by calling the Special Events Department at 631-324-0806. Funds raised from the Award's dinner benefit Guild Hall's mission of celebrating the artistic spirit on the East End by educating, inspiring, and enriching diverse audiences with excellent and engaging year-round programming. This event is the first of three to financially support these goals. A Season Opener will be held on Friday, June 25 to support the newly renovated John Drew Theater. Located in the historic district of East Hampton, the theater boasts state-of-the art technology pristinely integrated so as to not compromise the design and architecture of the building. The Guild Hall Summer Gala scheduled for Friday, August 13 will feature a preview of the opening of the Barbara Kruger exhibition in the Museum's galleries.

Bob Balaban
Balaban recently directed Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons in "Georgia O'Keeffe" (Lifetime). He received three 2008 Emmy Award nominations, two for directing and producing the HBO film "Bernard and Doris," starring Susan Sarandon and Ralph Fiennes, the third for his performance in "Recount." Other directing credits include "The Last Good Time" (starring Armin Mueller Stahl and Maureen Stapleton) and "Parents" (with Randy Quaid and Sandy Dennis. He produced and co-starred in the award-winning film "Gosford Park." His acting career spans nearly 100 films including "Capote," "A Mighty Wind," "Ghost World," "Best in Show," "Cradle Will Rock," "Waiting for Guffman," "For Your Consideration," "Absence of Malice," "Prince of the City," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Catch-22," "Midnight Cowboy," and the upcoming "Howl," starring James Franco. His theatre appearances include "Plaza Suite," "The Inspector General" (Tony Award nomination), "Speed the Plow," "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown," "Marie and Bruce," and "Some Americans Abroad." He directed and produced the original hit off-Broadway production of "The Exonerated" (Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, New York Times #1 Play, Fringe First Award at Edinburgh Fringe Festival), as well as the television version starring Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover. He is the author "McGrowl," a best-selling series of children's books.

Richard Prince
Prince was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1949, and first drew the art world's attention in the early 1980s, presenting rephotographed magazine ads. With these works, he sought to challenge and redefine the ideas of authorship, ownership, and the aura of a work of art. His unique oeuvre has since expanded to all mediums, encompassing painting, sculpture, printed matter, and fashion, in addition to photography. His work is filled with the echoes of other artists' signatures, yet it is always, unquestionably, his own.

Marsha Norman
Norman is the winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize, Blackburn Prize, Hull-Warriner, and Drama Desk Awards for her play "'Night, Mother." In l992 she won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for her book for the Broadway musical, "The Secret Garden." She also wrote the book for the Broadway musical, "The Color Purple," for which she also received a Tony nomination. "The Color Purple" is currently in the third year of its national first-class tour. She has Grammy and Emmy nominations, as well as grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She has won the Margo Jones Award, and the Sidney Kingsley Award. Norman is a member of The Fellowship of Southern Writers, and Co-Chair, with Christopher Durang, of the Playwriting Department of The Juilliard School. She teaches the Master's Thesis in Playwriting class at NYU. She writes and lectures frequently on the theatre and has 18 honorary degrees from American colleges and Universities. She is Chair of the Academic Affairs committee of the Board of Trustees of Agnes Scott College, and a former Vice-President of the Dramatists Guild of America. She is a native of Kentucky and currently lives in New York.

Susan and Alan Patricof
Alan Patricof is a Board member of Techno Serve; NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship); Trickle Up; Global Advisory Board of Endeavor [all dealing with entrepreneurship in the developing world]. He is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the Corporate Advisory Board and the African Policy Board of this organization. He is on the Board of Overseers of Columbia University Graduate School of Business, and a Board Member of the Millennium Challenge Corporation - a development organization of the U.S. Government. He is a member of the Leadership Council of Initiative for Global Development (IGD) and an Advisor to Grass Roots Business Initiative.

Susan Patricof has been a member of several domestic and international non-profit organizations. She is on the board of the International Rescue Committee, and is a co-founder of the Leadership Council on Children Affected by Armed Conflict, and Co-Chair of the Children's Unit. Susan travels in Africa for the IRC for children and health programs. She also works with refugees resettling throughout the U.S. Patricof serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Overseers of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. The Mailman School works to transform, and improve public health worldwide. She was a founding member of the Advisory Committee for Film Aid International, a joint project of the IRC and United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). She has been a member of the board at Northside Center for Child Development for 30 years, the last 20 of which she has served as its Chair. Northside Center is a Harlem-based organization that provides ongoing mental health, education, evaluation and referral services to 2,500 children and families and in 2005 opened Head Starts for over 200 children. Patricof received her B.S. from Cornell University.

Angela LaGreca
For nine years LaGreca was with ABC-TV's "The View," first as the audience warm-up personality and then as the head writer, working with Meredith Vieira on the show's popular 'Hot Topics'. When Vieira left to co-anchor the "Today" show, she brought LaGreca over as her producer. LaGreca is the winner of six MAC Awards (New York's 'Oscar") for outstanding live performance. Her own show - a unique blend of standup, impressions, and musical comedy - has played to rave reviews and sold-out shows across the country. She has performed everywhere from Carolines to Carnegie Hall. In the Hamptons, she has performed at Guild Hall, Bay Street, and the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, and hosted her own interview series on Plum TV called "Laugh Out Loud with Angela LaGreca." LaGreca is a graduate of Smith College and a member of SAG, WGA, AFTRA, ASCAP, and the NY Friars Club. She lives in NYC but holds regular 'Salon Nites' at her home in East Hampton. Find her on: Facebook, Twitter, www.AngelaLaGreca.com.

For more information go to 631-324-0806 or www.GuildHall.org.