FIRST OFF . . .

Ella Fitzgerald and Armand Hammer are among 11 people named Wednesday by the White House as this year’s National Medal of Arts winners. Others named include arts patrons J. W. Fisher and Sydney and Frances Lewis; painter Romare Bearden; writer and scholar Howard Nemerov; New York choreographer Alwin Nikolais; sculptor Isamu Noguchi; composer and musician William Schuman; and poet-writer Robert Penn Warren. The medal was created by Congress in 1985 to honor individuals and groups who have made outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States. Recipients will be honored at a White House luncheon on July 18.