Selection Committee
Cora Cahan, president, The New 42nd Street
Following her distinguished career as a dancer, Cora Cahan moved into an effective arts administrator, co-founding and serving as Executive Director of the Feld Ballet, developing the Lawrence A. Wien Center for Dance and acquiring and transforming the Elgin Cinema into the award-winning Joyce Theater. Since 1990, she has served as President of The New 42nd Street, the non-profit organization established to restore and find appropriate uses for seven neglected historic theaters located between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, starting with The New Victory Theater. Cora serves on the Boards of The Park Avenue Armory; The Times Square Alliance, is Founder and Trustee Emeritus of both the Joyce Theater and Eliot Feld’s Ballet Tech, and has been the recipient of a number of awards for public service, including the 2001 New York State Governor’s Arts Award.
Graciela Daniele, choreographer
Dancer, theater director and choreographer Graciela Daniele made her Broadway debut in 1964 in What Makes Sammy Run? She studied with Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham and has worked with such luminaries as Bob Fosse, Agnes de Mille and Michael Bennett. Graciela has been nominated ten times for Broadway’s Tony Award, including choreography for The Pirates of Penzance, Once on this Island, The Goodbye Girl, and Ragtime, direction for Once on this Island and co-authorship for Chronicle of a Death Foretold. In addition to her work in New York City, where she has choreographed for Ballet Hispanico and served as a director-in-residence at Lincoln Center, Graciela has directed and/or choreographed theatrical, opera, and dance productions throughout the United States.
Michael Kaiser, president, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Michael M. Kaiser has been President of the John F. Kennedy Center since January 2001, where he has expanded the educational and artistic programming for the nation's center for the performing arts and has overseen a major renovation effort of most of the Center’s public spaces. Previously he served as Executive Director of the United Kingdom’s Royal Opera House, the American Ballet Theatre, and the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Foundation. Michael has created significant programs to help individuals and organizations in the arts, including the Kennedy Center Arts Management Institute, and artsmanager.org. He has received numerous awards including Washingtonian of the Year (2004), US Department of State Citation 2005, and the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America (2009).
Terrence McNally, playwright
Playwright Terrence McNally has been the recipient of four Tony Awards for the plays Love! Valour! Compassion! (1994) and Master Class (1995), and the musicals (books) Ragtime (1996) and Kiss of the Spider Woman (1992). Other plays include Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, The Lisbon Traviata, and his most recent play, Unusual Acts of Devotion, which debuted at the La Jolla Playhouse and Philadelphia Theatre Company. He has written the books for the musicals The Full Monty (Tony nomination), A Man of No Importance and The Visit, and the libretto for the opera Dead Man Walking. Terrence has been the recipient of the Drama Desk Award (4), an Emmy Award, the Lucille Lortel Award (2), and the Obie Award (2), and has received a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Lowery Sims, curator, Museum of Arts and Design
As curator at the Museum of Arts and Design, Lowery Stokes Sims co-curated the inaugural exhibition, Second Lives, for 2008 re-opening of the museum in its new space on New York’s Columbus Circle. From 2000-2007 she served as executive director, president and adjunct curator for the permanent collection at The Studio Museum in Harlem, and previously, she was on the education and curatorial staff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1972-1999. Lowery has lectured nationally and internationally and guest curated numerous exhibitions most recently at the New York Historical Society. She serves on the board of ArtTable, Inc., the Tiffany Foundation, Art Matters, Inc. and The Alliance of Artists Communities.
