Biden to honor Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Ken Burns with National Medals of Arts

President Biden will present the 2022 and 2023 National Medals of Arts (NEA) on Monday to a group that includes rapper Melissa “Missy” Elliot, film directors Steven Spielberg and Spike Lee, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and musician and actor Queen Latifah.

The president awards the National Medals of Arts to those “deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support, and availability of the arts in the United States.” 

The ceremony will be a joint presentation with the 19 recipients of 2022 and 2023 National Humanities Medals, which Biden will present to poet Joy Harjo, writer Juan Felipe Herrera and cartoonist and author Roz Chast, among others.  

The National Humanities Medals honor an individual or organization whose work has “deepened the nation’s understanding of the human experience, broadened citizens’ engagement with history or literature, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to cultural resources.” 

Several of the awards will be awarded posthumously, including to artist Ruth Asawa, singer Selena Quintanilla and chef and author Anthony Bourdain.  

Recipients for the National Medal of Arts can be publicly nominated before nominees are considered by the National Council on the Arts and forwarded to the president. The honor was created by Congress in 1984 and was first awarded the following year. 

The presidential works with the National Endowment for the Humanities for the humanities medals, which were first awarded in 1997. 

Here is the full list of recipients:

2022 National Medal of Arts recipients

• Ruth Asawa (posthumous), artist  
• Randy A. Batista, photographer 
• Clyde Butcher, landscape photographer 
• Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, museum and education center 
• Melissa “Missy” Elliott, artist and producer 
• Leonardo “Flaco” Jimenez, musician 
• Eva Longoria, actress, director, and philanthropist 
• Idina Menzel, actress and singer 
• Herbert I. Ohta, musician 
• Bruce Sagan, arts leader 
• Carrie Mae Weems, visual artist   

2023 National Medal of Arts recipients

• Mark Bradford, artist 
• Ken Burns, documentary filmmaker 
• Bruce Cohen, producer 
• Alex Katz, artist 
• Jo Carole Lauder, arts leader 
• Spike Lee, filmmaker 
• Queen Latifah, artist and actress 
• Selena Quintanilla (posthumous), singer  
• Steven Spielberg, filmmaker

2022 National Humanities Medalists

• Wallis Annenberg, philanthropist 
• Appalshop, community arts and programming center
• Joy Harjo (Muscogee Nation), poet
• Robin Harris, principal and educator  
• Juan Felipe Herrera, writer
• Robert Martin (Cherokee Nation), administrator in Indigenous higher education 
• Jon Meacham, writer and historian 
• Ruth J. Simmons, academic administrator in higher education 
• Pauline Yu, scholar of Chinese literature

2023 National Humanities Medalists

• LeVar Burton, actor and literacy advocate
• Roz Chast, cartoonist and author 
• Nicolás Kanellos, scholar and publisher of Hispanic literature 
• Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi Nation), scholar and author 
• Mellon Foundation, philanthropic organization
• Dawn Porter, filmmaker 
• Aaron Sorkin, playwright, screenwriter, and director 
• Darren Walker, social justice philanthropist
• Rosita Worl (Tlingit), anthropologist and cultural leader 
• Anthony Bourdain (posthumous), chef and author