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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Alec Baldwin, Emmy Award®-winning TV, film and stage actor and arts advocate, will provide introductory remarks at The 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. He will introduce this year’s lecturer Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author Maureen Dowd—a tip of the hat to the 2012 Lecture during which Dowd provided introductory remarks for Baldwin.  The Lecture is presented by Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education, and is part of the annual Arts Advocacy Day events in Washington, D.C. on March 24 and 25.

"The only thing better than giving the Nancy Hanks Lecture is introducing the great Maureen Dowd when she gives the Nancy Hanks Lecture," said Baldwin.

“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.”
 
“I am thrilled to welcome both Marueen and Alec back to the Kennedy Center stage,” said Robert (Bob) 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 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 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.

Since 1980, Alec Baldwin has appeared on stage, in films and on television and has received a Tony nomination (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1992) an Oscar nomination (The Cooler, 2004) and he has won two Emmy awards and eight Screen Actors Guild Awards as Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his role on NBC-TV's 30 Rock.  Baldwin is a 1994 BFA graduate of Tisch and received an honorary doctorate in 2010. He is also the radio announcer for, and a board member of, the New York Philharmonic.

Maureen Dowd, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, became a columnist on The New York Times Op-Ed page in 1995 after having served as a correspondent in the paper's Washington bureau since 1986. She has covered four presidential campaigns and served as White House correspondent. She also wrote a column, "On Washington," for The New York Times Magazine. Ms. Dowd joined The New York Times as a metropolitan reporter in 1983. She began her career in 1974 as an editorial assistant for The Washington Star, where she later became a sports columnist, metropolitan reporter and feature writer. When the Star closed in 1981, she went to Time magazine.  Born in Washington D.C., Ms. Dowd received a B.A. degree in English literature from Catholic University (Washington, D.C.) in 1973.

Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America. With offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City, it has a record of more than 50 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.

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