Dylan, Eastwood received White House Arts Awards

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama President honored the actor and director Clint Eastwood and singer Bob Dylan with Arts Awards Thursday. The White House called Dylan "a symbol of youthful rebellion and poetic sensibility" and said Eastwood movies and shows are "tested individuality, hard truths and essence of what it means to be American." Clearly, her career has contributed to the landscape of American culture for decades brand, "said Obama, noting their absence in the East Room ceremony. Others who have been awarded the evening ceremony for the arts and humanities, but not less importantly, the cultural identity of the nation. soprano Jessye Norman was honored for "expanding the repertoire of contemporary opera." Maya Lin was awarded a medal for architecture, including awards from the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. Obama and composer John Williams with a medal for music films such as "featured" Star Wars "series and the soundtrack to the Olympic Games. Obama also praised the author and activist Elie Wiesel, who received an award for her work to expand the country about the Holocaust and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas for his efforts to educate the audience and the repertoire of contemporary music. "Everyone has taken a different route to get here, everyone has made a variety of gifts, but all have achieved the summit, and all cultural achievements, a testament to the breadth and depth of the human mind," said Obama. Noting that the country produced enough talent from Mark Twain to Toni Morrison, John Philip Sousa with Louis Armstrong, Obama praised the diversity of the United States. "They bring the joy they bring us understanding and insight they give us comfort in good times and perhaps especially in difficult times in our own lives and the lives of our nation," he said. The President shook hands and ears of the medal recipients whispered as she presented the awards. He helped William McNeill, author and the University of Chicago, Professor Emeritus, leave the scene. He joked: "If you think I'm responsible, falling." Others receive medals: • Rita Moreno, winner of the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. • Ted Kennedy speech Sorensen. • Milton Glaser, a designer for his "I Love New York" logo known. • Joseph P. Riley Jr., mayor of Charleston, SC, who helped build the historical and cultural resources of the city. • Frank Stella, an artist from the White House as "one of the most innovative artists in the world and sculptor." • Robert A. Caro, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, known for his biography of Robert Moses and President Lyndon B. Johnson. • Pulitzer Prize winner, Annette Gordon-Reed, whose research revealed relations of President Thomas Jefferson with slaves, including Sally Hemings. • The historian David Levering Lewis, who has won two Pulitzer Prizes for his biography of WEB Du Bois. • Philippe de Montebello, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. • philanthropists Albert H. Klein, the White House praised for his commitment to share the early manuscripts with the American cultural and educational institutions in our country. "• Ohio Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest conservatory for the continuous operation of the school. • New York, American Ballet, dance-based program co-founded by George Balanchine at Lincoln Center.