Laurie Olin Receives National Medal of Art

Since 1985 the President of the United States has annually awarded a dozen people the National Medal of the Arts, considered one of the the highest award given to artists and arts patrons. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the Arts as individuals or groups "deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States." Included in the 2012 group is landscape architect Laurie Olin (back in March he received the Thomas Jefferson Medal), the fourth such landscape architect; he follows Ian McHarg (1990), Dan Kiley (1997), and Lawrence Halprin (2002).A

• Herb Alpert - Musician and Producer
• Lin Arison - Arts Patron
• Joan Myers Brown - Dance Instructor
• Renée Fleming - Soprano
• Ernest Gaines - Author
• Ellsworth Kelly - Visual Artist
• Tony Kushner - Playwright
• George Lucas - Director and Producer
• Elaine May - Writer, Director, and Performer
• Laurie Olin - Landscape Architect
• Allen Toussaint - Musician and Producer