And the prize for dawdling goes to ...
For decades, the United States has recognized its greatest artists — about a dozen each year — with a national medal, an award created by Congress and typically distributed annually by the president at a White House ceremony.
Since 1985, arts figures including Georgia O’keeffe, Frank Capra and Ella Fitzgerald have received the National Medal of Arts while similar cultural achievement has been recognized by the National Humanities Medal, which presidents have awarded to the likes of Steven Spielberg, Anna Deavere Smith and Louise Glück.
But neither medal has been awarded since President Donald Trump took office, the longest gap ever and one that again draws attention to the president’s often awkward relationship with the arts. The deadline for nominations for the 2016 arts medals, which have yet to be awarded, was in February 2017.
“I’m hoping that it is a delay as opposed to a policy decision, because I think it’s a good thing for these awards to happen,” said Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, an advocacy organization.
The White House responded to questions about the medals by saying that planning is underway to distribute them as in years past. “We are currently evaluating candidates and will likely issue later this year,” said Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman.
It does seem the delay may be simply a matter of an administrative backlog. The National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation have also not been awarded since 2016.
But the holdup around the arts medals is notable because of Trump’s rocky relationship with the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His first proposed federal budget would have eliminated these agencies, which, in addition to promoting cultural programs, recommend candidates for the national medals to the president.
Last year, Trump eliminated the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities after 16 members resigned in protest, citing his reaction to the white nationalist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va. The president and first lady, Melania Trump, subsequently chose not to participate in the annual Kennedy Center Honors, a program that celebrates lifetime contributions to art, music, dance, film, television and culture. The White House said the decision was designed “to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.” But several winners, critical of Trump, had already announced plans to skip the White House reception traditionally held in conjunction with the presentation. The reception was ultimately canceled.
The last White House ceremony to award the arts and humanities medals was in 2016 by President Barack Obama, who distributed the 2015 medals at that event. In recent years, the medals have been given out in the latter half of the following year. But there was no ceremony in 2017.
The agencies involved in nominating candidates for the arts, humanities, science and technology awards said they either could not discuss the timing of the next award ceremony or referred questions to the White House.
Certainly other presidents have dawdled a bit, too. Obama, for example, went almost 17 months before awarding the 2012 medals in the arts and humanities in July 2013. But it has now been almost two years (22 months) since the last time the medals were awarded.
Mary Anne Carter, acting chairwoman of the NEA, noted that Obama did not have an awards ceremony in 2009, his first year in office, as evidence that a delay in distributing the medals is not unusual for an incoming administration. She declined to speculate on when the next awards might be announced.
Rep. Leonard Lance, R-N.J., co-chairman of the congressional arts and humanities caucuses, urged the administration to confer the honors soon.
“The way that the arts and the humanities flourish in this country,” Lance said, “is to make sure that we honor those distinguished citizens who have done so much either for the arts or the humanities.”