0:02 ladies and gentlemen the Secretary of State
0:05 John F Kerry and director
0:08 art in embassies Ellen Susman and the chief curator and deputy director of art
0:14 and embassies
0:15 Virginia shore
0:40 hello everybody
0:41 welcome I’m Ellen Susman the director art in embassies
0:44 and it’s my pleasure to welcome Secretary of State and all of you to the
0:48 second
0:49 art in embassies medal of arts awards today we honor seven artists
0:54 whose talent and dedication to their work
0:57 and mission of cultivating dialogue and exchange through the visual arts
1:02 has enriched our program for many many years
1:05 but first a warm welcome to the ambassador from China
1:09 to the United States his Excellency (name in Chinese)
1:13 and to the executive director of the Mexican Institute
1:17 Laura Ramirez I would also like to acknowledge our own state department
1:23 luminaries
1:23 Tony Blinken the deputy secretary of state
1:27 and the director of the overseas buildings operations Lydia Muniz
1:31 who administers the United States efforts around the world
1:34 to build both sustainable and secure new embassies
1:38 heartfelt thanks and gratitude to the sponsors have our luncheon
1:41 Jill and Jay Bernstein, Blake Burn, Gail and Al Engleburg,
1:46 Jeanie and Mickey Klein, Jo Carroll Lauder, Sarah Morgan
1:50 Shelly Rubin, Lori Tisch, and Sarah and Gary Walkowitz
1:54 I’m also immensely grateful to Dick and Sue Wollick, who while I can former ambassador Cathie
1:59 Hall
1:59 and her husband Craig of Hall wines for so graciously donating the delicious wine
2:05 on your tables and finally to Art in embassies amazing staff you’ll meet
2:10 somebody from our office
2:11 at every table without them there would be no curated temporary or permanent
2:16 exhibitions for ambassadors were embassies
2:19 no web presence no cultural outreach
2:22 and no publications like the beautiful booklet on every seat
2:26 which is a perfect example up the more than 70 we produced every year
2:30 now that the acknowledgements are done I’d like to see a few quick words about why
2:35 we’re here
2:36 about what matters and it is this we’re all in this room because at the core of
2:41 our being
2:41 we believe that art does and can change lives
2:45 it can create meaning and bridge a divide, show us something new
2:48 show or something old in a new way, enliven
2:52 and help us to question ourselves and the world around us
2:55 as art classes in funding are cut from schools and public programs
3:00 Art in embassies is proof that the visual arts matter
3:03 on a huge and global scale I recently received a fortune cookie that read
3:08 be brave enough to live creatively and looking at the artists today receiving
3:13 the award
3:13 there can be no doubt that this is their mantra, all of you
3:17 are driven to create. your works will for ever grace the walls of our embassies
3:22 around the world
3:23 your art is often the first and only vision of America people in another
3:27 country see
3:28 and as they walk into an annex or stand in line for a visa
3:33 your art welcomes them into the home
3:36 of democracy. art in embassies works with young emerging artist
3:40 older established artists American artist
3:43 international artists and when we going to a foreign country
3:47 the work of artists in that host country hangs on the walls
3:51 alongside yours. that is power. that this conversation
3:56 and that is diplomacy. artists themselves are often the most well-spoken
4:01 about the place art has in our lives bill viola
4:04 the master of contemporary video art said this
4:07 last summer the hallmarks all human beings
4:11 is creativity and all over this in this room
4:14 our creative in one way or another but before creativity can manifest there
4:18 must be inspiration
4:20 which starts as a tiny spark in the human heart
4:23 a recognition of something that touches us or catches us off-guard
4:27 and then finally there’s mystery the most important of all.
4:31 today we live in a world of reflections and mirrors
4:35 the mirror reflects only what is shown to learn something new
4:39 one must break the mirror to discover what is beyond
4:43 I thank you for your contribution for helping us around the world
4:47 an art in embassies is counting on everybody in this room to continue
4:51 expanding our mission
4:53 and now the secretary
4:56 sometimes you meet someone and you know that they’re destined for greatness
5:00 I first met secretary Kerry in new hampshire in 1972
5:04 when I was 21 and his friend George butler’s true farm. I’m
5:08 we were all working to help elect george mcgovern
5:11 that cold winter and John had his own dreams and a plan
5:15 for life dedicated to public service the synchronicity of life never ceases to
5:20 amaze me
5:21 and it’d my honor to serve our secretary of state
5:24 a man who has worked tirelessly his entire life
5:28 to make this country and the world a better place to live
5:31 ladies and gentlemen Secretary of State John Kerry
5:42 thank you very much thank you very much ladies and gentlemen I accept the
5:46 nomination
5:47 tried that
5:52 been there
5:53 I love it is great to be here with all due in
5:57 It is great to be here with all of you and especially indoors as it begins to snow out there.
6:01 Those of you who I met earlier who’ve come up here from
6:05 Palm Beach have an obligation to take some of us back with you.
6:08 I want you to know also that
6:12 this is a place where we like to do firsts
6:16 but lol I’m tell you truthfully that is the first time I’ve ever heard wisdom
6:22 from a Chinese fortune
6:23 Joke yes, good idea yes.
6:27 It is a pleasure for me to welcome our terrific ambassador
6:33 from China, who is a good friend of mine personally
6:37 and very persuasive and important and influential in the city, and we thank you for coming here
6:42 and being with us today.
6:43 Thank you, Mr. Ambassador. former ambassadors who were here
6:46 likewise I want to recognize my very good friend and former colleague Senator
6:51 Chris Dodd
6:52 It’s good to be with you, Chris. It’s really
6:56 up special to gather here
7:00 in the Ben Franklin Room where
7:04 we hold special events we do a lot of things in this room but most importantly
7:08 this is our
7:09 premier place to bring people this where we do the Kennedy Center Honors
7:14 that’s where we now have the privilege honoring 7 highly accomplished men and
7:20 women
7:20 who enrich our lives
7:24 with art and thereby
7:28 contribute immeasurably, really, to America’s cultural
7:31 diplomacy nobody should ever underestimate
7:35 the power, importance of cultural diplomacy and
7:39 when I say cultural it’s in every form cultures
7:42 It’s in our music, it’s in our visual arts, it’s in our literature;
7:46 and every respect
7:48 it has an impact on people. I’ve met people – I know Chris did when he was in the Senate
7:52 you visit somewhere, you meet with people in civil society
7:57 or you meet with dissidents in a country or you meet with even former leaders
8:01 Vaclav Havel
8:01 others who themselves are
8:04 in the Arts so to speak, even as they are engaged in politics.
8:08 And the impact of words, of dreams,
8:12 aspirations people’s visions and hopes
8:16 is so powerful beyond measure from Latin America we’ve had some the most powerful
8:22 voices
8:22 Russia from other countries over the course of time
8:26 so you know this a special
8:29 I can tell you personally along time ago but the
8:33 time %uh the discovery of fire I had some aspirations be an artist myself
8:39 I mean way back I was a kid I played the
8:43 bass guitar in a rock n roll band best thing I could
8:47 to describe our sound was will say loud but we had fun
8:52 and the I’d fool around well as an undergraduate college with the
8:57 filmmaking and you know my images were too
9:00 blurry my pans were too fast but boy did I have fun
9:05 not funny discovered that what I really want to do is what I’m doing today
9:09 I still take my guitar with me
9:12 on the airplane and entertain only myself
9:16 sure you but it’s fun and
9:19 my appreciation for the craft in the skill of
9:23 the artist is just plain and simply grown immeasurably over these years and
9:28 particularly
9:29 as Secretary of State as I travel the world is
9:33 Secretariat privilege to
9:36 go into our many missions around the world always get see
9:40 the art you helped place whether it’s in the residence
9:45 or in the embassy or consulate itself
9:49 in Kyiv
9:51 I saw Susanna Starrs embroidered
9:54 doilies on display at Villa Taverna
9:58 I saw the marvelous
10:02 Calder sculpture that’s out in the garden
10:06 and sat there really a with prime minister netanyahu
10:11 with others negotiating and talking even as we look to cross
10:15 over at this extraordinary display a
10:19 in Rabat there is Kendall Busters
10:23 sweeping pattern flow that descends gracefully from the ceiling
10:27 in this weightless beauty
10:31 and when I get to see these exhibits one of the things that comes home to me very quickly
10:36 comes home to me
10:37 very quickly is the
10:40 Breadth and the diversity of our
10:44 presentation and that is is it ought to be because it really reflects the
10:48 diversity of our countries who we are
10:50 and that’s what are our supposed to reflect whenever people have another
10:54 country look at us
10:56 they in fact whether it’s its
10:59 art per se cultures a whole they see
11:04 I think apart themselves and in some cases
11:09 they also get an opportunity to imagine things that they don’t have
11:13 whether its human rights freedoms for opportunities
11:17 american culture is a mosaic
11:20 everything from Armenian
11:23 to Zimbabwe everything in between and when all of our traditions come together
11:29 they
11:30 absolutely do create universal language that is
11:35 the really in indispensable asset for
11:39 the American brand and for our diplomacy
11:42 art in embassy its
11:45 is the principal lens through which the world is able to view the dynamism the
11:51 our culture
11:52 and AIE
11:56 was commissioned in nineteen sixty-three under the very premise that American
12:01 fine art could reach out to people thousands miles away
12:04 people who speak different languages practice different customs worship
12:08 different gods
12:10 perhaps not even any at all so the first director Nancy Kefauver
12:16 used her position to bring color and light
12:19 to embassies Kuala Lumpur to moscow she sent
12:23 Mark Rothko’s oil paintings to New Delhi
12:26 placed Andy Warhols acrylic flowers
12:30 in Madrid and Nepal and she shipped
12:33 Reginald Marsh’s Harbor scenes Copenhagen her goal she said was to show
12:38 all the world what america stands for and in her words
12:41 to make sure that it was more than our cokes and frigidaires
12:44 1963
12:49 Folks AIE was born when artists were giving new meaning
12:53 to beliefs about freedom of expression and individual liberty
12:57 believes that people held in their hearts then even in the long shadow the
13:02 Berlin Wall
13:03 and which we were all too graphically reminded
13:06 of in terms of its cost in Paris
13:10 few days ago there are many ways to trumpet
13:14 the virtues that an open society but none
13:17 subtle as compelling whereas
13:21 elegant as well chosen art
13:24 so today we honor are artists
13:28 we honor them because of the mirror they hold up to who we are and
13:32 what we hope to be in because they have the ability to astonish
13:36 to surprise to inspire to make us think
13:40 in New and hopefully liberating ways
13:43 art enriches life and when you consider the concrete barriers
13:49 and other architectural handicaps which many of our embassies are saddled with
13:55 that enrichment is the counter
13:58 to all of that. it lifts
14:00 not only morale have our visitors but believe me also
14:03 our employees and for that we are extremely
14:06 grateful all this goes to underscore what everybody in this room really knows
14:11 very well
14:12 art can be a transformational force across
14:16 globe it is and if we need any further evidence we have only the contemplate
14:22 careers of the artists who we recognize
14:26 this afternoon and now it’s my
14:29 privilege to be able to offer a word of appreciation
14:33 for each of our awardees while
14:36 Ellen and Virginia Shore our chief curator will give out the medals as I
14:41 say a word about each artist and I want every one of you at the end of that
14:44 to receive them appropriately many of us know
14:48 Sam Gilliam as the legendary Washington Color School painter
14:52 around here he is a patron and passionate believer
14:56 in AIE he today Sam has paintings in over 20 countries
15:01 including Morocco Cyprus and South Korea
15:04 and for his longtime supporter permission Sam is the first to receive
15:08 the Medal of Arts lifetime achievement award
15:12 congratulations
15:40 Xu Bing once said that
15:42 art should serve the people which is exactly what the two
15:46 spectacular additions that is monkeys grasping the moon
15:50 sculpture do each day in washington sackler Gallery
15:54 and our embassy in Beijing for his efforts to link
15:57 chinese-american and many other cultures through art
16:01 we thank and congratulate Xu Bing.
16:20 Xu Bing flew all the way from Beijing yesterday literally arrived here
16:24 in time to do this we’re very grateful thank you honor us by
16:28 being here Appreciate it, thank you. when
16:32 mark Bradford looks at the city he sees more than the
16:37 rest of us do with our untrained eyes he invariably looks everywhere and he sees art
16:42 everywhere mark’s collages and
16:46 installation some scavenged all beautiful
16:49 have hung in our embassies in Stockholm and Berlin
16:53 each tells a different story about the American experience a class
16:58 gender and race in an urban environment
17:01 mark we joined and saying congratulations and thank you
17:04 here
17:24 Julie Mehretu’s
17:26 acrylic paintings are made with the accumulation of thousands
17:30 strokes and numerous layers of paint. The effect
17:34 is a complex dynamic body of work which we are proud to display our embassies in
17:39 Madrid
17:40 and Julie’s own birthplace of Addis Ababa.
17:43 Julie, thank you for your creativity and for what
17:46 you’ve lent to us. We appreciate it.
18:02 Pedro Reyes’ sculpture depicting the
18:05 inner ear displayed at our consulate
18:09 is displayed on our consulate in Tijuana and it is a poignant reminder that
18:13 people everywhere need to listen to one another.
18:16 Pedro once said that art is supposed to make people talk
18:20 not about the work itself but about the discussions there yet
18:25 to come Pedro for convincing us
18:28 to listen harder and to hear more
18:31 when we do, we say congratulations here
18:47 Kehinde Wiley has redefined the art of portraiture
18:51 by using highly naturalistic technique not only to depict but to celebrate
18:56 and lift up
18:57 the world’s people in all of their magnificent variety
19:01 for his work in the Dominican Republic Britain and Jamaica
19:05 I congratulate Kehinde and a thank him for his commitment
19:08 and you gotta get me one of those coats
19:31 and Maya Lin’s work
19:33 explores the environment in a way that only
19:36 a brilliant artist can. In our beijing embassy
19:40 we’re pleased to display her Pin River
19:43 installation which is a rendering the entire
19:46 topography the Yangtze river using
19:49 30,000 metal pins and as a veteran of
19:53 the conflict in Vietnam let me also acknowledge the quiet eloquence
19:58 her renowned designed to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
20:02 I know I’m not alone. When you reach out and touch that
20:05 wall or visit it’s a remarkable place and we are so grateful to you for your
20:09 contributions to our country to our relations with other countries
20:13 and for the art you produce thank you.
20:16 (applause)
20:32 so let me ask everybody if you at all join together I want you to rise and pay
20:36 tribute to everybody
20:37 say congratulations to our artists and patriots in the true sense thank you for
20:43 your commitment the ideals of our nation
20:45 and for letting us use your work to forge greater understanding around the
20:49 world
20:49 we are so greatful.