Entertainment greats Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah, Steven Spielberg, and the late Selena Quintanilla will be honored by the White House this year. On Monday, Joe Biden‘s administration announced the cohort of stars set to receive the 2022 and 2023 National Medals of Arts and Humanities.
Elliott, Latifah, and Spielberg are among the honorees for the National Medal of Arts, along with musicians Idina Menzel, Leonardo “Flaco” Jiménez, and Herb Ohta, Jr.; actress Eva Longoria; and filmmakers Ken Burns and Spike Lee.
Quintanilla joins a group of three late honorees to be given the award posthumously, along with Anthony Bourdain and artist Ruth Asawa.
Producer Bruce Cohen, photographers Randy Batista and Clyde Butcher, and artists Carrie Mae Weems, Alex Katz, and Mark Bradford, NY MOMA’s Jo Carole Lauder and math professor Bruce Sagan will also receive the honors.
According to the White House, the Arts medal is “the highest award given to artists, arts patrons, and groups by the United States Government and honors exemplary individuals and organizations that have advanced the arts in America and offered inspiration to others through their distinguished achievement, support, or patronage.”
Meanwhile, the National Humanities Medal “honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities and broadened our citizens’ engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects.”
Other honorees in the humanities category include educators Robin Harris, Robert Martin and Ruth J. Simmons, writer Juan Felipe Herrera, filmmaker Dawn Porter, and anthropologist Rosita Worl, among others.
The 2021 cohort of honorees included the likes of Mindy Kaling, Gladys Knight, Bruce Springsteen, José Feliciano, and fashion designer Vera Wang. The National Medal of Arts bestowment is the highest honor given to artists by the United States government. Musicians such as Ricky Skaggs, Toby Keith, Linda Ronstadt, and Smokey Robinson have received the distinction in past years.
