Summer Awards Celebration to Honor artist Robert De Niro, Sr., actor/arts philanthropist Robert De Niro, Jr. and the award-winning author Ann Patchett
The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts announces details for its 5th Annual Summer Awards Celebration scheduled for Saturday, July 12. This year’s festivities honor the late renowned artist Robert De Niro, Sr., actor/arts philanthropist Robert De Niro, Jr. and the award-winning author Ann Patchett. Robert De Niro, Sr. (1922-1993) was an American abstract expressionist painter who was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 1968. He studied with Hans Hoffman in New York and Provincetown and painted at Provincetown’s famed Days Lumberyard Studios, now the site of the Fine Arts Work Center. His son, Robert De Niro, Jr., spent many of his early years visiting Provincetown with his parents and is a distinguished American actor (Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull). He recently co-produced the HBO documentary about his father, Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro, Sr and has been an important advocate for the arts, establishing the Robert De Niro, Sr. Prize, which is awarded annually to a mid-career American artist devoted to the pursuit of excellence and innovation in painting. He is also co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival and Institute, launched in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Ann Patchett, (Bel Canto, State of Wonder, Truth and Beauty: A Friendship, Patron Saint of Liars) is a Fine Arts Work Center fellow (1990-1991) and has won widespread acclaim for her work including the Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Faukner Award. Her books have been both New York Times Notable Books and New York Times bestsellers. She is the co-owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee and a major spokesperson for independent booksellers. In 2012 Patchett was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. The July 12 th 5 th Annual Summer Awards Celebration is a benefit for the Fine Arts Work Center and will be hosted on campus at 24 Pearl Street, Provincetown, MA. The event is from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm and includes cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and the legendary honoree awards presentation. Complimenting the festivities will be an exhibit at the Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Robert De Niro, Sr.: Selected Works, curated by Megan Fox Kelly, advisor to the estate of the artist. A dinner buffet follows.
