Mel Brooks & Morgan Freeman Among National Medal Of Arts Recipients

The 2015 National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medals recipients were unveiled today by the White House, with the likes of Mel Brooks, Morgan Freeman, Audra McDonald, Berry Gordy and Philip Glass on the list for the National Medal of Arts, while NPR host Terry Gross and Wynton Marsalis are among the Humanties recipients.

The National Medal of Arts is the highest award given by the U.S. government to artists and arts patrons by the United States government. Both the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities are celebrating 50th anniversaries this year.

President Barack Obama will award the medals September 22 in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

Here is the full list of honorees:

National Medal of Arts

Mel Brooks, Actor, Comedian, & Writer (New York, NY)
Sandra Cisneros, Author (San Antonio, TX)
Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (Waterford, CT)
Morgan Freeman, Actor (Charleston, MS)
Philip Glass, Composer (New York, NY)
Berry Gordy, Record Producer & Songwriter (Los Angeles, CA)
Santiago Jiménez, Jr., Musician (San Antonio, TX)
Moises Kaufman, Director & Playwright (New York, NY)
Ralph Lemon, Dancer, Choreographer, Writer, & Visual Artist (Brooklyn, NY)
Audra McDonald, Actress & Singer (Croton-on-Hudson/New York, NY)
Luis Valdez, Playwright, Actor, Writer, & Director (San Juan Bautista, CA)
Jack Whitten, Painter (New York, NY)

National Humanities Medal

Rudolfo Anaya, Author (Albuquerque, NM)
José Andrés, Chef & Entrepreneur (Bethesda, MD)
Ron Chernow, Author (Brooklyn, NY)
Louise Glück, Poet (Cambridge, MA)
Terry Gross, Radio Host & Producer (Philadelphia, PA)
James McBride, Author (Lambertville, NJ)
Louis Menand, Author (Cambridge, MA)
Elaine Pagels, Historian & Author (Princeton, NJ)
Prison University Project, Higher Education Program (San Quentin, CA)
Abraham Verghese, Physician, Professor, & Author (Menlo Park, CA)
Isabel Wilkerson, Journalist & Author (Atlanta, GA)