NEW YORK, July 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The Whitney Museum of American Art
presented the 13th Annual American Art Award to Louis C. Camilleri, Chairman
and CEO of Altria Group, Inc., parent company of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris
International, and Philip Morris USA, at a gala benefit on Wednesday, June 2.
Proceeds from the black-tie event exceeded $1.6 million and provide support
for Whitney Museum exhibitions, education, and public programs. The American
Art Award is given each year to honor a sustained commitment to the artistic
and cultural heritage of the arts in America.
Adam D. Weinberg, Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney, notes, "For
more than four decades, Altria has set an outstanding example in corporate
leadership for the arts. Not only have they collaborated with the Whitney in
a partnership of rare duration and significance, they have bolstered countless
other cultural institutions in New York City, and consistently sustained the
arts throughout America. We are deeply grateful to Mr. Camilleri and to
everyone at Altria for their commitment."
"The Whitney's outstanding contribution to American art has made the
Museum a great cultural treasure of New York City and the nation," said Louis
C. Camilleri, Chairman and CEO of Altria Group, Inc. "It is an honor for all
of us at Altria to receive this award from the Whitney and an even greater
privilege to have spent nearly forty years supporting its extraordinary work."
Altria and the Arts: A History of Support of American Art
Altria companies have supported the Whitney Museum of American Art since
1967, through annual contributions and sponsorship of numerous exhibitions
that champion the breadth and scope of American art. This 37-year
collaboration has brought the work of emerging and more established American
artists to audiences across the United States and around the world. Altria is
currently sponsoring the 2004 Biennial and most recently sponsored the 2002
Biennial and BitStreams: Art in the Digital Age (2001). In 1996, Altria
companies funded Multiple Identities, an exhibition examining the last 20
years of innovation in American art through works from the Whitney's permanent
collection. As part of its sustained commitment to American art, in the last
three decades of its partnership with the Whitney, Altria has sponsored a
diverse range of exhibitions, including: Richard Diebenkorn (1997); The
Nature of American Art: 1970-1990 (1996); the 1995 Biennial; Hand Painted Pop
(1993); Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson (1992); The
Drawings of Jasper Johns (1991); Willem de Kooning: Painting and Sculpture
(1983); Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist (1980); Jasper Johns: A
Retrospective (1977); The Flowering of American Folk Art (1974); and Two
Hundred Years of North American Indian Art (1971).
The Whitney at Altria: 21-Year Old Branch Provides a Public Forum for
Contemporary Art
Founded in 1983, with approximately 100,000 visitors annually, the Whitney
at Altria presents a wide range of programs that are free and open to the
public. The opening of this branch of the Whitney Museum marked the first
time a corporation established and fully funded a museum as an integral part
of its offices. In addition to exhibitions, the branch offers gallery tours,
lectures by artists and curators, panel discussions, and gallery talks and
workshops for public school and community groups. Each year, the gallery
space presents four exhibitions of contemporary art. Three exhibitions are
dedicated to presenting site-specific commissions by emerging contemporary
American artists working in a variety of media. The fourth exhibition,
Contemporary Artists on Contemporary Art, invites artists to select work from
the Whitney Contemporary Collection and to create new work to be shown
alongside their choices. The sculpture court features two annual exhibitions
of site-specific commissions by contemporary artists, and each spring presents
Performance on 42nd, a multi-evening series of free music, dance, and theater
performances organized around a thematic idea.
About Altria Group Inc.
Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE: MO) is the parent company of Kraft Foods Inc.,
Philip Morris International Inc. and Philip Morris USA Inc. For more than
four decades, the companies of Altria have provided sustained and wide-ranging
support for the arts, as well as numerous programs that address important
community needs. As part of this commitment to responsibility, Altria
companies have awarded nearly $130 million to arts organizations throughout
the United States over the past decade. Additional information about the
diversity and community-focused initiatives of Altria companies is available
at http://www.altria.com/media_programs.
About the Whitney Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art is the leading advocate of 20th and
21st-century American art. Founded in 1930, the Museum is widely regarded as
the preeminent collection of 20th-century American art and includes the entire
artistic estate of Edward Hopper, the largest public collection of works by
Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, and Lucas Samaras, as well as significant
works by Arshile Gorky, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman,
Georgia O'Keeffe, Claes Oldenburg, Kiki Smith, and Andy Warhol, among other
artists. With its history of exhibiting the most promising and influential
American artists and provoking intense critical and public debate, the
Whitney's signature show, the Biennial, has become a measure of the state of
contemporary art in America today.
Contact:
Whitney Museum of American Art
Jan Rothschild, Stephen Soba, Meghan Bullock, Nathan Davis
(212) 570-3633
SOURCE Whitney Museum of American Art
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Related links:
http://www.whitney.org
CONTACT:
Jan Rothschild, Stephen Soba, Meghan Bullock,
Nathan Davis, all of the Whitney Museum of American Art,
+1-212-570-3633
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