Past Recipients

From its beginning in 1956, the Creative Arts Award was bestowed upon hundreds of recipients from all fields of the arts. In 2015, the Creative Arts Award was revived, marking the university’s commitment to engaging with the arts as an opportunity for discovery, creativity and innovation across traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Year Name Field Award
1957 Hallie Flanagan Davies Theater Arts Medal
1957 Jimmy Ernst Painting Citation
1957 Katherine Hoskins Poetry Citation
1957 Robert Kurka Music Citation
1957 Stuart Davis Painting Medal
1957 William Carlos Williams Poetry Medal
1957 William Schuman Music Medal
1958 Andrew Imbrie Music Citation
1958 Barbara Howes Poetry Citation
1958 Jacques Lipchitz Sculpture Medal
1958 John Crowe Ransom Poetry Medal
1958 Paul Shyre Theater Arts Citation
1958 Richard Lippold Sculpture Citation
1958 Roger Sessions Music Medal
1958 Stark Young Theater Arts Medal
1958 The Shakespearewrights Theater Arts Citation
1959 "H.D" Hilda Doolittle Poetry Medal
1959 Edwin Dickinson Painting Medal
1959 Ernest Bloch Music Medal
1959 George Kelly Theater Arts Medal
1959 Hayden Carruth Poetry Citation
1959 Richard Hayes Theater Arts Citation
1959 Seymour Shifrin Music Citation
1959 Theodoros Stamos Painting Citation
1960 Aaron Copland Music Medal
1960 Gunther Schuller Music Citation
1960 James Rosati Sculpture Citation
1960 John Berryman Poetry Citation
1960 Naum Gabo Sculpture Medal
1960 Thornton Wilder Theater Arts Medal
1960 William Alfred Theater Arts Citation
1960 Yvor Winters Poetry Medal
1961 Allen Tate Poetry Medal
1961 Billy Jim Layton Music Citation
1961 George Mueller Painting Citation
1961 Julian Beck and Judith Malina Theater Arts Citation
1961 Karl Knaths Painting Medal
1961 Lillian Hellman Theater Arts Medal
1961 Louis D. Coxe Poetry Citation
1961 Wallingford Riegger Music Medal
1962 Alexander Calder Sculpture Medal
1962 Ben Belitt Poetry Citation
1962 David Slivka Sculpture Citation
1962 Edgar Varese Music Medal
1962 James P. Donleavy Theater Arts Citation
1962 Louise Bogan Poetry Medal
1962 Ralph Shapey Music Citation
1962 Samuel N. Behrman Theater Arts Medal
1963 Elsworth Kelly Painting Citation
1963 Georgia O'Keeffe Painting Medal
1963 Howard Nemerov Poetry Citation
1963 Jo Mielziner Theater Arts Medal
1963 Joseph Papp Theater Arts Citation
1963 Marianne Moore Poetry Medal
1963 Walter Piston Music Medal
1963 Yehudi Wyner Music Citation
1964 Carl Ruggles Music Medal
1964 Cheryl Crawford Theater Arts Medal
1964 David Smith Sculpture Medal
1964 Donald Martino Music Citation
1964 Jack Richardson Theater Arts Citation
1964 Peter Agostini Sculpture Citation
1964 Richard Yates Fiction Citation
1964 Vladimir Nabokov Fiction Medal
1964 R. Buckminster Fuller Notable Achievement Award
1965 Anthony Hecht Poetry Citation
1965 Elliott Carter Music Medal
1965 Kenneth Noland Painting Citation
1965 Mark Rothko Painting Medal
1965 Michael Smith Theater Arts Citation
1965 Salvatore Martirano Music Citation
1965 Stanley Kunitz Poetry Medal
1965 Tennessee Williams Theater Arts Medal
1965 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Notable Achievement Award
1966 Alvin Epstein Theater Arts Citation
1966 Eudora Welty Fiction Medal
1966 Eva Le Gallienne Theater Arts Medal
1966 Isamu Noguchi Sculpture Medal
1966 John Barth Fiction Citation
1966 Mario Davidovsky Music Citation
1966 Richard Stankiewicz Sculpture Citation
1966 Stefan Wolpe Music Medal
1966 Meyer Schapiro Notable Achievement Award
1967 Claudio Spies Music Citation
1967 Conrad Aiken Poetry Medal
1967 Ellen Stewart Theater Arts Citation
1967 Jerome Robbins Theater Arts Medal
1967 Kevin Roche Architecture Citation
1967 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Architecture Medal
1967 May Swenson Poetry Citation
1967 Ross Lee Finney Music Medal
1967 Kenneth Burke Notable Achievement Award
1968 Easley Blackwood Music Citation
1968 Elizabeth M. Thomas Nonfiction Citation
1968 Frank Stella Painting Citation
1968 Joseph Cornell Sculpture Medal
1968 Lionel Trilling Nonfiction Medal
1968 Richard Rodgers Theater Arts Medal
1968 Tom O'Horgan Theater Arts Citation
1968 Virgil Thomson Music Medal
1968 Martha Graham Notable Achievement Award
1969 Boris Aronson Theater Arts Medal
1969 Ernst Krenek Music Medal
1969 Galway Kinnel Poetry Citation
1969 Henry Weinberg Music Citation
1969 Jose de Rivera Sculpture Medal
1969 Leonie Adams Poetry Medal
1969 Mark di Suvero Sculpture Citation
1969 The Negro Ensemble Co. Theater Arts Citation
1969 Lewis Mumford Notable Achievement Award
1970 Arthur Miller Theater Arts Medal
1970 Barnett Newman Painting Medal
1970 Charles Wuorinen Music Citation
1970 Isaac B. Singer Fiction Medal
1970 Jasper Johns Painting Citation
1970 Milton Babbitt Music Medal
1970 Robert Coover Fiction Citation
1970 The Open Theater Theater Arts Citation
1970 Lloyd Goodrich Notable Achievement Award
1971 Charles Chaplin Film Medal
1971 Claes Oldenberg Sculpture Citation
1971 Richard Wilbur Poetry Medal
1971 George Balanchine Notable Achievement Award
1972 Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne Theater Arts Medal
1972 Edward Hoagland Fiction Citation
1972 Ian L. McHarg Architecture Citation
1972 Katherine Ann Porter Fiction Medal
1972 Louis I. Kahn Architecture Medal
1972 Merce Cunningham Dance Medal
1972 The New Dramatists Theater Arts Citation
1972 Twyla Tharp Dance Citation
1972 I. A. Richards Notable Achievement Award
1973 Alfred Kazin Nonfiction Medal
1973 David del Tredici Music Citation
1973 Joan Mitchell Painting Citation
1973 John Ford Film Medal
1973 Roy Harris Music Medal
1973 Stanley Brakhage Film Citation
1973 Theodore Solotaroff Nonfiction Citation
1973 Willem de Kooning Painting Medal
1973 Leonard Bernstein Notable Achievement Award
1974 Anna Sokolow Dance Medal
1974 Arena Stage Theater Theater Arts Citation
1974 Helen Hayes Theater Arts Medal
1974 John Frederick Nims Poetry Citation
1974 Meredith Monk Dance Citation
1974 Robert Francis Poetry Medal
1974 Robert Morris Sculpture Citation
1974 Tony Smith Sculpture Medal
1974 William Dunas Dance Citation
1974 Jacques Barzun (not awarded) Notable Achievement Award
1975 Christopher Isherwood Fiction Medal
1975 Clyfford Still (declined) Painting Medal
1975 Harold Brodkey Fiction Citation
1975 Isabel Bishop Painting Medal
1975 Jacob Druckman Music Citation
1975 Jordan Belson Film Citation
1975 King Wallis Vidor Film Medal
1975 Robert Whitman Visual Arts Citation
1975 Vincent Persichetti Music Medal
1975 Aaron Copland Notable Achievement Award
1976 Anthony Tudor Dance Medal
1976 Eliot Feld Dance Citation
1976 Harold Clurman Theater Arts Medal
1976 Irving Howe Nonfiction Medal
1976 Philip Johnson Architecture Medal
1976 Robert Venturi Architecture Citation
1976 Sam Shepard Theater Arts Citation
1976 Susan Sontag Nonfiction Citation
1976 Isaac Stern Notable Achievement Award
1977 Earle Brown Music Citation
1977 Howard Hawks Theater Arts Medal
1977 John Hancock Theater Arts Citation
1977 Leon Kirchner Music Medal
1977 Mary Frank Sculpture Citation
1977 Reuben Nakian Sculpture Medal
1977 Robert Lowell Poetry Medal
1977 Theodore Weiss Poetry Citation
1977 Alfred A. Knopf Notable Achievement Award
1978 Grace Paley Fiction Citation
1978 Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn Theater Arts Medal
1978 Lester Johnson Painting Citation
1978 Long Wharf Theatre Theater Arts Citation
1978 Paul Taylor Dance Medal
1978 Pilobolus Dance Theatre Dance Citation
1978 Robert Rauschenberg Painting Medal
1978 Saul Bellow Fiction Medal
1979 Bruce Conner Film Citation
1979 George Crumb Music Medal
1979 George Cukor Film Medal
1979 George Rickey Sculpture Medal
1979 Jackie Winsor Sculpture Citation
1979 Jeremy Bernstein Nonfiction Medal
1979 Peter Matthiessen Nonfiction Citation
1979 Tyson Street Music Citation
1979 Edwin Denby Notable Achievement Award
1980 Edgar Bowers Poetry Medal
1980 Lanford Wilson Theater Arts Medal
1980 Philip Guston Painting Medal
1980 Suzanne Farrell Dance Medal
1980 Betty Parsons Notable Achievement Award
1981 Bernard Malamud Fiction Medal
1981 I. M. Pei and Partners Architecture Medal
1981 Otto Luening Music Medal
1981 Samuel Fuller Film Medal
1981 Tatyana Grosman Notable Achievement Award
1982 C. Vann Woodward Nonfiction Medal
1982 Jennifer Tipton Dance Medal
1982 Mary Miss Sculpture Citation
1982 Michael L. Walzer Nonfiction Citation
1982 Peter Voulkos Sculpture Medal
1982 Stephen J. Sondheim Theater Arts Medal
1982 Trisha Brown Dance Medal
1982 James Johnson Sweeney Notable Achievement Award
1983 Al Held Painting Medal
1983 Billy Wilder Film Medal
1983 Howard Moss Poetry Citation
1983 Jennifer Bartlet Painting Citation
1983 Lucas Foss Music Medal
1983 Morton Subotnick Music Citation
1983 Robert Penn Warren Poetry Medal
1983 The Film Forum Film Citation
1983 John Cage Notable Achievement Award
1984 Jerome Robbins Dance Medal
1984 Joel Shapiro Sculpture Citation
1984 John Chamberlain Sculpture Medal
1984 Mabou Mines Theater Arts Citation
1984 Paula Fox Fiction Citation
1984 Sam Shepard Theater Arts Medal
1984 School of American Ballet Dance Citation
1984 William Maxwell Fiction Medal
1985 William Shawn Notable Achievement Award
1985 Cy Twombley Painting Medal
1985 Dorothea Rockburne Painting Citation
1985 James Merrill Poetry Medal
1985 Thomas Gunn Poetry Citation
1985 George Rochberg Music Medal
1985 Ornette Coleman Music Citatio
1985 Harry Callahan Photography Medal
1985 Robert Cumming Photography Citation
1986 Lincoln Kirstein Notable Achievement Award
1986 John Huston Film Medal
1986 Shirley Clarke Film Citation
1986 Agnes DeMille Dance Medal
1986 Laura Dean Dance Citation
1986 George F. Kennan Nonfiction Medal
1986 Stephen Jay Gould Nonfiction Citation
1986 Stanley Elkin Fiction Medal
1986 William Kennedy Fiction Citation
1986 Paul Rudolph Architecture Medal
1986 Frank Gehry Architecture Citation
1987 Henry S. Commager Notable Achievement Award
1988 Rudolph Serkin Notable Achivement Award
1988 John Updike Fiction Medal
1988 Raymond Carver Fiction Citation
1988 Aaron Siskind Photography Medal
1988 Mary Ellen Mark Photography Citation
1988 Alvin Ailey Dance Medal
1988 Susan Marshall Dance Citation
1988 Jasper Johns Painting Medal
1988 Brice Marden Painting Citation
1989 Frances Stelof Notable Achievement Award
1989 John Ashbery Poetry Medal
1989 Gjertrude Schnackenberg Poetry Citation
1989 Jonas Mekas Film Medal
1989 Yvonne Rainer Film Citation
1989 Mel Powell Music Medal
1989 Stephen Jaffe Music Citation
1989 Louise Bourgeois Sculpture Medal
1989 Martin Puryear Sculpture Citation
1990 August Wilson Theater Arts Medal
1990 Julie Taymor Theater Arts Citation
1990 John Rawls Nonfiction Medal
1990 Martha Nussbaum Nonfiction Citation
1990 Berenice Abbott Photography Medal
1990 Mark Klett Photography Citation
1990 John Hejduk Architecture Medal
1990 Dan Kiley Landscape Architecture Citation
1991 Robert Wilson Alternative and Multidiscipline Creative Art Forms Medal
1991 Urban Bush Women Alternative and Multidiscipline Creative Art Forms Citation
1991 Roy Lichtenstein Painting Medal
1991 Joseph Kosuth Sculpture Citation
1991 Annabelle Gamson Dance Medal
1991 Elizabeth Streb Dance Citation
1991 Guy Davenport Fiction Medal
1991 Lorrie Moore Fiction Citation
1993 Arthur Krieger Music Medal
1993 Debora Greger Poetry Medal
1993 Todd Haynes Film (unknown)
2015 Tony Arnold Music Medal
2017 Michael Weller Theater Arts Medal
2019 Fred Wilson Fine Arts

Medal

2021 no award given

 

2023 Midori Music Medal