There are some pretty big names amongst the presenters for this year’s Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery gala—take former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Grammy Award-winning artist Alicia Keys, for starters. Also on the line-up: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson, Emerson Collective founder and president Laurene Powell Jobs, Carlyle Group co-founder and co-chairman David Rubenstein, Starbucks Corporation chairwoman Mellody Hobson, interior designer Sonya Haffey, and film producer Isha Price. The Portrait Gallery announced the presenters in a release today.
Each presenter will give one of the gala’s honorees their 2022 Portrait of a Nation Award at the gala on November 12, and presenters are being paired with honorees with whom they have a special relationship, says museum director Kim Sajet.
This year’s gala honorees were announced in January, and include National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, celebrity chef José Andrés, children’s rights activist Marian Wright Edelman, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Clive Davis, multi-award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay, and tennis superstars Serena Williams and Venus Williams. The prize recognizes “extraordinary individuals who have made transformative contributions to the United States and its people across all fields of endeavor from the arts and sciences.”
Each of the honorees will have a portrait on display on the National Portrait Gallery’s first floor from November 10 through October 22, 2023.
Before becoming Research Editor, Damare Baker was an Editorial Fellow and Assistant Editor for Washingtonian. She has previously written for Voice of America and The Hill. She is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she studied international relations, Korean, and journalism.
