The MacDowell Colony, the nation's oldest artists' colony, presented its prestigious Edward MacDowell Medal this year to legendary American choreographer Merce Cunningham. He was the 44th recipient of the MacDowell Medal and the first artist to be recognized in the category of interdisciplinary arts since the Medal was given in 1960. The Medal is awarded annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the arts. Mr. Cunningham joins an impressive list of past recipients, including Aaron Copland, Robert Frost, Georgia O'Keeffe, and I.M Pei.

The award was presented to Mr. Cunningham in a public ceremony during the annual Medal Day celebration on Sunday, August 17, 2003, beginning at 12:15 p.m. on The MacDowell Colony grounds at 100 High Street in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Robert MacNeil, chairman of The MacDowell Colony, awarded the Medal, along with Carter Wiseman, president of the board, and Cheryl Young, executive director. Acclaimed composer and choreographer Meredith Monk, a six-time Fellow at MacDowell, was the presentation speaker.

Mr. Cunningham is considered a key innovator in the fields of dance and choreography as well as a master of crossing artistic boundaries that has led to collaborations with such luminaries as John Cage, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Robert Rauschenberg. Mr. Cunningham, who is 84 years old, has composed more than 150 works for his troupe, The Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He has also choreographed works for the New York City Ballet, the Paris Opera, and The American Ballet Theatre. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including the National Medal of Arts and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and was inducted into the National Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance.

Dan Hurlin, a member of this year's Medal Selection Committee, said: “The committee quickly and unanimously agreed that Merce deserved this award. Throughout his 50-plus-year career, Merce has been — and at 84 continues to be — radical, eradicating differences between disciplines. He has been an inspiration for so many artists because of his uncompromising career. And like any good dancer, he has refused to stay in one place.”

In addition to Mr. Hurlin, this year's committee included Charles Atlas, one of the most influential documentary filmmakers on performance art, dance, and theatre; noted author RoseLee Goldberg, who has written a seminal text on performance art and biographies of artists Laurie Anderson and Shirin Neshat; and Tom Finkelpearl, director of the Queens Museum of Art. Mr. Hurlin, who is on the board of The MacDowell Colony, is an award-winning performer himself who recently received a Guggenheim fellowship for his work in contemporary puppet theater.

Mr. Cunningham, who was born in Washington state, is credited with pioneering a style of dance that was tied to neither music nor story. In addition, he is seen as revolutionizing the performance world through the use of new media. Recent projects have incorporated digital video and computer programming. Throughout all these endeavors and an unmatched productivity — he has 12 productions currently in repertory — Mr. Cunningham has stayed close to his roots as a trained dancer who was once a soloist in Martha Graham's company. “There is no thinking involved in my choreography,” he says. “I work through the body. If the dancer dances, which is not the same as having theories about dancing or wishing to dance or trying to dance, everything is there. When I dance, it means: This is what I'm doing.”

After the awards ceremony, there was an interval for picnic lunches; from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m., current MacDowell artists-in-residence opened their studios to the public.

The MacDowell Colony has provided artists of all disciplines with the time and private space for creative work since 1907. In 1988, MacDowell welcomed its first interdisciplinary artist and has seen the numbers increase each year. Situated on 450 acres of woodland in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the Colony welcomes more than 250 interdisciplinary artists, composers, writers, visual artists, architects, and filmmakers from the United States and abroad each year. The sole criterion for acceptance is talent; a panel in each discipline selects Fellows. In 1997, The MacDowell Colony was awarded the National Medal of Arts for “nurturing and inspiring many of this century's finest artists.”