“The Kennedy Center announced Thursday revisions to the selection process for the annual Kennedy Center Honors after a seven-month internal review of how artists are chosen for the annual awards ceremony,” writes Katherine Boyle in Thursday’s (5/16) Washington Post. “A new six-person advisory committee will make recommendations to the Kennedy Center chairman, president and the producers of the televised broadcast. The center is also allowing the public to nominate individuals via its Web site who will be considered along with the recommendations made by the Artists Committee, a group of approximately 70 people who make recommendations via ballot each year. The newly formed committee includes former honorees cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Chita Rivera, the dancer, singer and actress of Puerto Rican descent… To date, Rivera and Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo are the only Hispanic artists to be given the award. The issue gained attention last year after Felix R. Sanchez, chairman of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, pressed [Kennedy Center President Michael] Kaiser on the lack of Hispanic honorees. The ceremony in December will be the 36th anniversary of the Honors. The Honors are bestowed upon living individuals who have achieved excellence in an artistic discipline—dance, music, theater, opera, television or film. The awards event is the Kennedy Center’s biggest fundraiser.”
Posted May 17, 2013
