Texas Medal of Arts Awards to honor state’s top creative artists and civic leaders
The Texas Medal of Arts Awards are quickly becoming a premier honor for the Lone Star
State’s most accomplished creatives. The Texas Cultural Trust will formerly recognize the 2023 class in Austin Feb. 21-22 at the
11th biennial awards ceremony.
Next year’s award recipients include Luke Wilson (film/actor), Taylor Sheridan (film/producer), Miranda Lambert (music, songwriter), Lela Rose (fashion design), Deborah Roberts (visual arts), Center for Performing Arts Medicine (arts/ health), Carole Cook (lifetime achievement/musical theater), Christopher Cross (music), Miró Rivera Architects (architecture), Benjamin Alire Saenz (literary arts) and Septime Webre (dance).
The 2023 TMAA cochairs are civic leader and artist Linda LaMantia, philanthropist Judy Robison and fashion designer Brandon Maxwell, a 2019 TMAA honoree. Festivities kick off with the Arts Alive! reception at the Commodore Perry Estate and culminate at the Long Center for Performing Arts for the awards show and gala dinner.
The Texas Cultural Trust’s core mission is to increase access and awareness for the arts throughout the state. Since 2001, TMAA has celebrated exemplary Texans, their creative talents and generosity.
The two-day event is now the trust’s signature fundraiser and supports additional programming, including Art Can, Texas Young Masters, Texas Women for the Arts, Partners in the Arts and Arts Access.
In 2019, Texas Cultural Trust’s executive director Heidi Marquez Smith reported that the state generates more than $5.5 million in annual revenue from arts industries. Art Can quantifies the impact art has. Young Masters awards $10,000 scholarships to Texas students in eighth through 11th grade toward the university or college of their choice.
Previous TMAA recipients include Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Eva Longoria, ZZ Top, Willie Nelson, Dan Rather, Neiman Marcus, Tommy Lee Jones, Debbie Allen, Lauren Anderson and Lyle Lovett.
In 2021, the Chronicle reported on Musicare, a pilot program for the Houston Methodist Center for Performing Arts Medicine, one of the 2023 TMAA honorees. The program founded by Mei Rui, assistant professor of music medicine at Methodist, invites musicians to perform private concerts for patients in the intensive care unit at Methodist. The center also treats performing artists for injuries related to their profession,
For more information visit txculturaltrust.org/what-we-do/texas-medalof-arts-awards.