ARTHUR MITCHELL

Arthur Mitchell co-founded Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1968 with the late Karel Shook. Mr. Mitchell was trained at New York City's High School for the Performing Arts, where he was the first male student to win the coveted annual dance award, and the School of American Ballet. When he joined New York City Ballet in 1955, Mr. Mitchell became the first African-American male dancer to become a permanent member of a major ballet company. During his 15 years in the company, Mr. Mitchell originated roles in Balanchine's Agon and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, including the 1997 "Americans for the Arts" Arts in Education Award, the 1996 Independent Sector's John W. Gardner Leadership Award, the 1987 National Medal of Arts, the highest honor awarded by the President of the United States in the arts and humanities, the coveted MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the School of American Ballet Lifetime Achievement Award, the Barnard Medal of Distinction from Columbia University, and the 1994 Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1993, Mr. Mitchell was awarded "Living Landmark" status by the New York Landmark Conservancy. Also in 1993, he became one of the youngest recipients of the Kennedy Center Honor, celebrating "an extraordinary lifetime of contributions to American culture through the performing arts." That same year, Mayor David Dinkins presented him with the Handel Medallion, New York City's most prestigious award for artistic contribution. Mr. Mitchell is a member of the Council of the National Endowment for the Arts and an Honorary Patron of the Market Theatre Foundation in South Africa. In 1999, he was inducted into the Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga, New York.