As a tip of the hat to the 2012 Nancy Hanks Lecture lecture during which Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author Maureen Dowd introduced keynote speaker Alec Baldwin, this year the Emmy Award®-winning actor and arts advocate will provide introductory remarks for Maureen Dowd - our lecturer at Americans for the Arts' 27th Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy on March 24, 2014 at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

“I am honored to lend my voice to arts as this year’s Nancy Hanks Lecturer, and I’m thrilled that Alec will introduce me,” said Dowd. “I’ve watched Alec champion the cause of the arts throughout his career, and I’m delighted to be joining him and Americans for the Arts as we showcase the critical role the arts play in the United States.”

The Nancy Hanks Lecture is the leading national forum for arts policy, providing an opportunity for public discourse at the highest levels on the importance of arts and culture to our nation’s well-being. The annual event is aligned with Arts Advocacy Day, an event hosted by Americans for the Arts and cosponsored by 85+ national organizations that brings together grassroots arts advocates from across the country to meet with their memebrs of congress on pressing arts issues that year. The lecture is named for Nancy Hanks, former president of Americans for the Arts and chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, who devoted 15 years of her professional life to bringing the arts to prominent national consciousness. Past lecturers include Robert Redford, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Wynton Marsalis, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Ken Burns, Yo-Yo Ma, William Safire and Robert MacNeil.

“I am thrilled to welcome both Marueen and Alec back to the Kennedy Center stage,” said Robert L. Lynch.  “Their commitment to showcasing the economic and social benefits the arts bring to the nation is a crucial part of our fight to ensuring that all Americans throughout the country have access to quality arts programming.”  

The deadline to reserve tickets is March 17.

Read the full press release here.