Clinton Honors 24 in Arts, Humanities

President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton saluted this year’s winners of prestigious awards for the arts and humanities Wednesday, recognizing such luminaries as poet Maya Angelou, singer Barbra Streisand, dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, jazz master Benny Carter and novelist Toni Morrison.

“Every nation should elevate the kind of people we honor today,” the president said at a White House awards ceremony for the recipients of the National Medal of the Arts and the National Humanities Medal for 2000.

There were 12 honorees for the National Medal of Arts, established by Congress in 1984 to honor promoters of the arts in the United States.

“The arts and humanities bring us together,” Clinton said.

Angelou read poetry at Clinton’s inauguration and, he said, has “shown our world the redemptive healing power of art.”

Also honored were Russian ballet legend Baryshnikov and Streisand, a Clinton friend and fund-raiser who the president said was one of a small group of artists who can be “recognized by her first name only.”

Other reward recipients were country music singer Eddy Arnold, popularly known as the “ambassador of country music,” and violinist Itzhak Perlman, a classical music soloist and conductor.

The National Humanities Medal--also awarded to 12 recipients--honors those whose efforts enhance Americans’ exposure to the humanities.

Included among the medal winners were minister Will Campbell, a civil rights activist in the 1957 integration of public schools in Little Rock, Ark.; Judy Crichton, who is the executive producer of PBS’ historical series “The American Experience,” and musician-composer Quincy Jones, who has dedicated his career to promoting African American arts.

The first lady, who will take up her new role as senator from New York next month, joked the event had been postponed from October because “both of us were otherwise occupied”--a reference to her husband’s travels abroad and her own campaign.

The National Medal of Arts was established in 1984. The National Humanities Award--originally known as the Charles Frankel Prize--was established in 1989.