By Tom McClimon
February 9, 2004

At the Thursday luncheon, the mayors honored individuals for public leadership in the arts. The arts awards were co'sponsored with Americans for the Arts. Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz, Chair of the Conference's Arts, Parks, Entertainment and Sports Committee moderated the luncheon session.

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley was honored with the Local Arts Leadership Award. O'Malley has infused new energy into the arts community in Baltimore by instituting several arts enhancing initiatives and education programs. He elevated the city's local arts agency to a cabinet level position as part of the Office of Promotion and the Arts. He also created a Cultural Tourism Council and the Baltimore City Heritage Area Association in an effort to high light Baltimore's cultural assets. In 1999, he created the Be Instrumental initiative in order to refurbish the Fine Arts Education programs in the city's schools. This initiative has resulted in putting more than $1.4 million worth of new musical instruments into the schools. In accepting his award, O'Malley stated that the "arts give inspiration for the future and help us to deal with present problems.," as the mayor has done in his community.

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell, former Mayor of Philadelphia, was awarded the State Arts Leadership Award. Governor Rendell has established the first Gubernatorial Arts and Cultural Transition Team and has increased state funding for the arts. As the former mayor of Philadelphia, he spearheaded the creation of the world-renown Avenue of the Arts. He also instituted the Arts and Culture Fund, which gives operating grants to small arts organizations. Rendell in accepting is award stated besides the economic impact that the arts have on states and cities, $134 million in Pennsylvania, " the arts create the soul of a city and lead to a special dynamism and cultural and ethnic diversity."

Tony Bennett was honored with the Arts Legacy Award. As a national award-winning performer, having 11 Grammy Awards to his name including the Lifetime Achievement Award, Bennett has also put his time into a number of humanitarian concerns. Dubbed by Frank Sinatra as "the best singer in the business," Bennett honored his late friend by conceiving the idea of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, which opened in the Fall of 2001. The school offers an intensive specialized arts program in its full academic curriculum and provides an emphasis on community service by partnering with hospitals, day care centers, and senior citizen residences. Through a charitable non-profit organization he established, Exploring the Arts, Bennett is committed to providing and enhancing arts education in cities. In accepting his award, Bennett talked about how "arts are (as Winston Churchill once stated) are what we are fighting for," and every city in America should have an arts school.

Henry Winkler was awarded the Arts Legacy Award. While being instantly recognizable from his role as "The Fonz" on the long-running TV series Happy Days, he also an award-winning producer and director of family and children's programming, including television specials dealing with adoption, child abuse, teenage drunk driving, and young people coping with divorce. He is a founder of the Children's Action Network, an organization composed of entertainment industry leaders dedicated to raising the profile of children's issues through the media. He is also the author of a book series for children, which are inspired by his struggle with dyslexia throughout his education. In accepting his award,. Winkler talked about how he "traveled the river of the arts", through his life and that the arts are the "key to unlock the creativity in each child" and allow each child to express his or herself.

Prior to the awards' presentations, the executive directors of both sponsoring organizations' Americans for the Arts and U.S. Conference of Mayors — reaffirmed their organizations' commitments to the arts. Robert Lynch, President and CEO, Americans for the Arts, stressed that the mayors are their most important partners and that cities collectively contribute over $1 billion towards the arts. Conference Executive Director Tom Cochran, talked about the long commitment that the organization has had towards the arts beginning in 1978 with former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson and that even then he recognized that -arts mean business' and that issue is being carried on today by the Conference's leadership.

The luncheon was sponsored by the United States Conference of Mayors Partners — American Management Services, Inc., Dupont, Intrado, Nationwide Retirement Solutions and Nehemiah Corporation of America.