awards for arts achievement

Robert Redford is an artist and businessman who is a staunch supporter of uncompromised creative expression.  His passion remains to make films of substance and social/cultural relevance, as well as to encourage others to express themselves through the arts.

After early success acting on Broadway with Barefoot in the Park, he reprised his role in the film version.  In 1969, he teamed with Paul Newman to star in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, which became an instant classic and firmly established Mr. Reford as one of the industry's top leading men.  He later reunited with Mr. Newman for The Sting, which won seven Oscars and brought Mr. Redford a Best Actor nomination.

His long and distinguished career as an actor includes his work in Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, The Natural, and Out of Africa, among many others.  His acting and producing credits under his Wildwood Enterprises banner include Downhill Racer, The Candidate, The Electric Horseman, and All the President's Men, which earned seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture.

Mr. Redford won the Academy Award for Best Director for his feature film directorial debut of Ordinary People.  He went on to both direct and produce The Milagro Beanfield War, A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, The Hose Whisperer, and The Legend of Bagger Vance.  Recently, he began work on his next directorial effort, The Conspirator, a film which explores the stories behind the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

He founded the Sundance Institute in 1981, which is dedicated to the support and development of emerging screenwriters and directors of vision, and to the national and international exhibition of new independent cinema.  In 1996, Mr. Redford received the Screen Actors Guild's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2002, he received an honorary Academy Award, recognizing his achievements as "actor, director, producer, and creator of Sundance, inspiration to independent and innovative filmmakers everywhere."  He received the 1997 National Medal for the Arts from President Clinton, and in 2005, he accepted the Kennedy Center honors.

He is a member of Americans for the Arts Artists Committee and last year testified before Congress about the importance of federal arts funding.  As founder of the Redford Center, he has annually co-convened at the Sundance Preserve in Utah, the National Arts Policy Roundtable with Americans for the Arts since 2006.  He was the 2003 Nancy Hanks Lecturer on Arts and Public Policy, presented by Americans for the Arts.