The creative crusader
Actress and arts activist Jane Alexander on Friday received the 2013 Radcliffe Medal, which recognizes someone “whose life and work substantially and positively influenced society,” said Lizabeth Cohen, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, who presented the medal. Alexander is a “warrior for the arts,” Cohen said during the afternoon event known as Radcliffe Day, a luncheon and reunion celebration traditionally held a day after Harvard’s Commencement. Alexander’s work at the head of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) from 1993 to 1997 helped deepen and expand the group’s constituencies and helped protect arts funding, ensuring “that Americans enjoy continued access to the arts,” Cohen said. Alexander’s talents and accomplishments, she added, “have touched us all.” The actress has garnered four Oscar nominations, nine Emmy nominations and two wins, and seven Tony nominations, including a win for her Broadway turn in “The Great White Hope.” She is also known...