NAMM Honors President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities Turnaround Arts Artists with SupportMusic Awards

WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 25, 2016 – At a reception held last night, the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) presented leading artists, creative luminaries and champions of arts education from the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities program, Turnaround Arts, with the SupportMusic Champion award. The award was given as designation of each artist’s commitment to increasing access to arts in schools, and dedication to expanding arts education.

Recipients included founding PCAH Member artists: arts leader and dancer, Damian Woetzel and Jersey Boys actor and singer, John Lloyd Young.  Current Turnaround artists including indie rocker Citizen Cope, mezzo-soprano Carla Dirlikov, Grammy-award winning blues musician Keb’ Mo’, mega-producer, actor and director Tim Robbins, and former NY Yankee and Latin Grammy-nominated artist, Bernie Williams were also honored with medals. New artists were announced and recognized, including New York Times journalist David Brooks, jookin’ innovator, Lil Buck, Hawaiian soul artist, Paula Fuga, singer-songwriter Valerie June, choreographer, Nigel Lythgoe, celebrity photographer, Johnny Nunez, and performance poet Jacqueline Suskin.

The evening featured nearly two hours of an all-star jam band of sorts, with performances by Bernie Williams and Keb’ Mo’, country artist Eric Paslay, Paula Fuga, Citizen Cope and many attendees from the event’s reception taking up other instruments.

The Turnaround Arts initiative was created as part of President Obama’s Presidential Committee on the Arts and Humanities in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education and the White House Domestic Policy Council. It is a public-private partnership designed to help transform some the nation's lowest performing schools through comprehensive and integrated arts education. The Turnaround Arts program is a beneficiary of The NAMM Foundation.