Stefani Germanotta, better known to us all as Lady Gaga, took home the Young Artist Award last night at Americans for The Arts 2015 National Arts Awards at Cipriani 42nd St. Lady Gaga was among six honorees who were recognized last night for their leadership in the arts and arts education. The Museum of Modern Art’s Klaus Biesenbach introduced the award winner, with a story about her genuine openess and generosity as an artist. 

Lady Gaga's speech thanked her parents for providing her with arts education, and thanked art itself, saying "While art can make you foolish and wild, it has also always been a warm blanket for me to admire, something I knew that would always be there for me. It was always the byproduct, the unicorn, the fantasy that arose from whatever struggle I was experiencing, whatever torment I possessed."

“I am here tonight because not only have you accepted me, but you have accepted somebody that is actually not Lady Gaga,” she added. “My name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. I am an Italian-American artist living in New York City. I was not born blonde, like my mother will have you believe. I, over time, watched so many movies, and read so many books, and made so much art, and met so many sculptors, filmmakers, prose writers, musicians, and sidewalk artists that I invented something that was much stronger than I could have been on my own.”

Other awardees from the 2015 National Arts Awards included Maria Bell, who took home the Legacy Award presented by Jeff Koons, Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton who won the Arts Education Award for her newly developed Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas’ Ozark Forest, and Sophia Loren, who was presented by director Rob Marshall with the Carolyn Clark Powers Lifetime Achievement Award. “Of course I don’t like to make speeches,” Ms. Loren joked. “It’s very, very difficult for me, because I’m asked to act words written for me when I make films. It’s much easier.” 

Thanks to The Observer for such great coverage of our 2015 National Arts Awards - read more below.