Obama Presents Humanities Award To Filmmaker Stanley Nelson And Others; Medal Of Arts Also Handed

Filmmaker Stanley Nelson

In the White House East Room, President Barack Obama presented the 2013 National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal to 22 recipients.

POTUS, in a dark gray suit, entered with  the First Lady, in a white dress with red, grey and blue accents. The moments you provide "are not incidental to American life, they are essential," POTUS told the recipients.

"The arts and humanities aren't just there to be consumed when we have a moment ... We need them."

Among those in the front row: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who hugged recipient Linda Ronstadt on her entrance.

The recipients:

2013 National Medal of Arts

Julia Alvarez, Novelist, Poet, and Essayist, Weybridge, VT

Brooklyn Academy of Music, Presenter, Brooklyn, NY

Joan Harris, Arts Patron, Chicago, IL

Bill T. Jones, Dancer and Choreographer, Valley Cottage, NY

John Kander, Musical Theater Composer, New York, NY

Jeffrey Katzenberg, Director and CEO of DreamWorks, Beverly Hills, CA

Maxine Hong Kingston, Writer, Oakland, CA

Albert Maysles, Documentary Filmmaker, New York, NY

Linda Ronstadt, Musician, San Francisco, CA

Billie Tsien and Tod Williams (receiving individual medals), Architects, New York, NY

James Turrell, Visual Artist, Flagstaff, AZ

2013 National Humanities Medal

M.H. Abrams, Literary Critic, Ithaca, NY

David Brion Davis, Historian, Orange, CT

Darlene Clark Hine, Historian, Chicago, IL

Anne Firor Scott, Historian, Chapel Hill, NC

William Theodore De Bary, East Asian studies scholar, Tappan, NY

Johnpaul Jones, Architect, Bainbridge, WA

Stanley Nelson, Filmmaker, New York, NY

Diane Rehm, Radio Host, Washington, D.C.

Krista Tippett, Radio Host, St. Paul, MN

American Antiquarian Society, Historical Organization, Worcester, MA