PCAH Chairman Adair Margo Receives Presidential Award

Adair Margo Chairman of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President George W. Bush during a surprise ending to the National Medal of the Arts and the National Humanities Medal awards ceremony. Joining Chairman Margo in receiving this award were National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia; National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Bruce Cole; and Anne-Imelda M. Radice and Robert S. Martin, the current and former Directors of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Chairman Adair Margo received one of highest awards that this country confers on its citizens from President George W. Bush.
Photo by James Kegley

In bestowing the award on Chairman Margo, President Bush said, “As the Chairman of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, Adair Margo has rallied support for American cultural institutions -- and has used the arts to strengthen our relationships with nations from Mexico to China.”

“The medals were a great surprise and all the more meaningful because they went to five of us. The cultural agencies have worked as a team over the past eight years, creating a dynamic that has better served the American people and also helped other countries with programs and expertise. There is no limit to what we can do when we work as a team,” said Adair Margo.

Chairman Adair Margo was honored by President Bush for her leadership in using the arts “to strengthen our relationships with nations from Mexico to China.”
Photo by Tita Hunt

Since Margo was appointed PCAH Chairman by the President in 2001, the President’s Committee has helped forge greater cooperation between the federal cultural agencies—NEA, NEH and IMLS—particularly in international relations. During the last eight years, PCAH and its cultural partners have signed four cultural accords, principally with Mexico and China. With the help of these agencies; PCAH has supported more than 50 international exchanges, programs or initiatives.

Under Margo's leadership, a cultural accord was signed in 2007 with the People's Republic of China, which has catalyzed new relationships that were outlined in documents signed this week at the Library of Congress between the Chinese Ministry of Culture and the NEH and the IMLS, as well as between the Library of Congress and its Chinese counterpart. In addition, the NEA is working with a Chinese partner in publishing two anthologies one of contemporary U.S. poets and another of contemporary Chinese poets. Last year, Mexico awarded its highest decoration for people who are not citizens of Mexico, the Order of the Aztec Eagle, to Adair Margo for her contributions to strengthening the relationship between Mexico and the United States.

The Presidential Citizens Medal is one of the highest honors the President can confer upon a civilian, second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Since it was established by Executive Order in 1969, approximately 100 people have been awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal.