At Purchase College’s groundbreaking in 1969, New York Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller articulated a vision for this new college of the State University of New York.

It was, he stated, to be the “main campus of our state university system for professional training in the visual and performing arts” and, as such, Purchase College would help “preserve the university as the open gateway to opportunity…where the only qualifications that count are the qualities of will and heart and mind of our young people.”

Over the last 40 years, the students, faculty and administration of the College have actively pursued Gov. Rockefeller’s founding vision of an educational community where the arts, the liberal arts, and the sciences flourish and mutually reinforce one another.

With the generous approval of Mrs. Nelson A. Rockefeller—and in recognition of the continuing importance of Gov. Rockefeller’s vision to the place of the arts in higher education—Purchase College will inaugurate the Nelson A. Rockefeller Awards at its 40th anniversary gala on November 12. Rockefeller Awards will be presented to five individuals who have distinguished themselves through their contributions to the arts or the environment.

Inaugural Rockefeller Awardees, 2007

Merce Cunningham
One of modern dance’s most innovative and influential figures, Merce Cunningham is noted for his collaborations with contemporary visual artists, filmmakers, and musicians, and especially with John Cage. The most famous and radical result of their work together concerns the relationship of dance and music, both of which are time-based arts. Originally a soloist in the Martha Graham company, Cunningham formed his own dance company in 1953. His choreography emphasizes his dancers’ strength, agility and athleticism.

Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler is among the most important and distinctive color field painters of the Twentieth Century. Breaking from the early influences of artists such as Jackson Pollock and Arshile Gorky, she developed her own method and formal vocabulary to create diaphanous and lyric pools of color on unprimed canvas, a stain technique that has deeply influenced subsequent generations of color-field painters. Although they are not abstractions of nature per se, many of her most famous works evoke a strong feeling of landscape.

Ming Cho Lee
Ming Cho Lee is a leading American theatrical set designer whose work includes more than 20 Broadway shows, as well as sets for opera, ballet, and major regional theatres. In addition to the National Medal of Arts, which he was awarded in 2002, he has won three Drama Desk Awards for set design, a Tony for scenic design, and a Helen Hayes Award. A member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame, he has taught at Yale University’s School of Drama since 1969, where he is the Donald M. Oenslager Professor (Adjunct) of Design and co-chair of the Design Department.

Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman is one of the most celebrated of contemporary sopranos. Having made her mark in operatic roles such as Aida, Cassandre, Alceste, and Leonara in Fidelio, she is also a renowned singer of arias, Lieder, spirituals, jazz and contemporary music. Recognized worldwide for her remarkable humanitarian efforts, she has received honors from colleges, universities and governments around the world. Appointed an honorary U.N. ambassador in 1990, she became the youngest recipient of the United States Kennedy Center Honor in 1997; and in 2006, she won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Douglas Durst and the Durst Organization
Douglas Durst is co-president of the Durst Organization and a member of the third generation of Dursts to run this family firm. He is also Chairman of New York Water Taxi.

A lifelong environmentalist, Douglas Durst is part owner of the largest organic farm in New York, Co-Chairman of Friends of the Hudson River Park, and is active in helping to maintain and preserve New York City's waterfront and natural areas.

Mr. Durst is also a board member of The Roundabout Theater, Primary Stages and The Town Hall. In addition, he is a director of the Real Estate Board of New York, The Landmarks Conservancy, The New School, The Municipal Art Society and Project for Public Spaces and a trustee of The Old York Foundation, which is committed to helping people understand the history and issues facing New York City.

Founded in 1915 by Joseph Durst, The Durst Organization is one of New York City's oldest and largest real estate firms. It is a world leader in the development of technologically advanced and environmentally responsible commercial property. Among the company’s current projects are 4 Times Square, featuring some of the latest “green” technology, and the Bank of America Tower, a 945-foot-tall office tower scheduled to open in Midtown Manhattan in 2008.