It was with great sadness that I learned of Sidney Harman's passing. Sidney was a rare visionary both as a businessman and as a great champion of the arts and innovation.

He was a major donor to myriad arts organizations, including the Folger Shakespeare Library, and was a trustee of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he was instrumental in creating the Aspen Institute's Harman-Eisner Program in the Arts, which was designed to support and invigorate the arts in America and to enrich civic culture.

Americans for the Arts was honored to partner with Sidney in a series of arts and cultural policy programs at the Aspen Institute over the past few summers. A polymath by definition and by title - he was a Presidential Professor of Polymathy at USC - Sidney's thirst for knowledge, innovation and the arts was legendary. For his contributions to our nation's culture, he received the National Arts Award for Individual Philanthropy in the Arts in 2009.

An ardent fan of Maxwell Anderson, Sidney'€™s life embodied that of his favorite quote from the playwright: "Our best hope lies in our nascent arts. For if we are to be remembered merely as the people who lived, loved, made war and died; then it is for our arts that we must be remembered...The leaders too, are soon forgotten unless they have the wisdom and foresight to surround themselves with doers, poets - artifices of things of the mind and the heart."

Sidney, a great leader, will not be forgotten. The arts world has lost a great friend, and the board and staff of Americans for the Arts deeply mourn his loss.

Robert L. Lynch
President and CEO
Americans for the Arts