Han sido premiados con la Medalla Nacional de las Artes de Estados Unidos, desde sus inicios:
2013
- Julia Alvarez
- Brooklyn Academy of Music
- Joan Harris
- Bill T. Jones
- John Kander
- Jeffrey Katzenberg
- Maxine Hong Kingston
- Albert Maysles
- Linda Ronstadt
- Billie Tsien y Tod Williams
- James Turrell
2012
- Herb Alpert
- Lin Arison
- Joan Myers Brown
- Renée Fleming
- Ernest Gaines
- Ellsworth Kelly
- Tony Kushner
- George Lucas
- Elaine May
- Laurie Olin
- Allen Toussaint
- Washington Performing Arts Society
2011
- Will Barnet
- Rita Dove
- Al Pacino
- Emily Rauh Pulitzer
- Martin Puryear
- Mel Tillis
- USO (United Service Organizations)
- André Watts
2010
- Robert Brustein
- Van Cliburn
- Mark di Suvero
- Donald Hall
- Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
- Quincy Jones
- Harper Lee
- Sonny Rollins
- Meryl Streep
- James Taylor
2009
- Bob Dylan
- Clint Eastwood
- Milton Glaser
- Maya Lin
- Rita Moreno
- Jessye Norman
- The Oberlin Conservatory of Music
- Joseph P. Riley, Jr.
- The School of American Ballet
- Frank Stella
- Michael Tilson Thomas
- John Williams
2008
- Olivia de Havilland
- Fisk Jubilee Singers
- Ford's Theatre Society
- Hank Jones
- Stan Lee
- José Limón Dance Foundation
- Jesús Moroles
- The Presser Foundation
- The Sherman Brothers
2007
- Morten Lauridsen
- N. Scott Momaday
- Roy R. Neuberger
- R. Craig Noel
- Les Paul
- Henry Ziegler Steinway
- George Tooker
- University of Idaho Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival
- Andrew Wyeth
2006
- William Bolcom
- Cyd Charisse
- Roy R. DeCarava
- Wilhelmina Holladay
- Interlochen Center for the Arts
- Erich Kunzel
- Preservation Hall Jazz Band
- Gregory Rabassa
- Viktor Schreckengost
- Ralph Stanley
2005
- Louis Auchincloss
- Paquito D'Rivera
- James DePreist
- Robert Duvall
- Leonard Garment
- Ollie Johnston
- Wynton Marsalis
- Dolly Parton
- Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
- Tina Ramirez
2004
- Ray Bradbury
- Carlisle Floyd
- Frederick Hart
- Anthony Hecht
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
- John Ruthven
- Vincent Scully
- Twyla Tharp
2003
- Austin City Limits
- Beverly Cleary
- Rafe Esquith
- Suzanne Farrell
- Buddy Guy
- Ron Howard
- Mormon Tabernacle Choir
- Leonard Slatkin
- George Strait
- Tommy Tune
2002
- Florence Knoll Bassett
- Trisha Brown
- Philippe de Montebello
- Uta Hagen
- Lawrence Halprin
- Al Hirschfeld
- George Jones
- Ming Cho Lee
- William Robinson "Smokey"
2001
- Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation
- Rudolfo Anaya
- Johnny Cash
- Kirk Douglas
- Helen Frankenthaler
- Judith Jamison
- Yo-Yo Ma
- Mike Nichols
2000
- Maya Angelou
- Eddy Arnold
- Mikhail Baryshnikov
- Benny Carter
- Chuck Close
- Horton Foote
- Lewis Manilow
- National Public Radio, Cultural Programming Division
- Claes Oldenburg
- Itzhak Perlman
- Harold Prince
- Barbra Streisand
1999
- Irene Diamond
- Aretha Franklin
- Michael Graves
- The Juilliard School
- Norman Lear
- Rosetta LeNoire
- Harvey Lichtenstein
- Lydia Mendoza
- Odetta
- George Segal
- Maria Tallchief
1998
- Jacques d'Amboise
- Antoine Domino "Fats"
- Ramblin' Jack Elliott
- Frank Gehry
- Barbara Handman
- Agnes Martin
- Gregory Peck
- Roberta Peters
- Philip Roth
- Sara Lee Corporation
- Steppenwolf Theatre Company
- Gwen Verdon
1997
- Louise Bourgeois
- Agnes Gund
- Daniel Urban Kiley
- Angela Lansbury
- James Levine
- MacDowell Colony
- Tito Puente
- Jason Robards
- Edward Villella
- Arthel Watson "Doc"
1996
- Edward Albee
- Boys Choir of Harlem
- Sarah Caldwell
- Harry Callahan
- Zelda Fichandler
- Eduardo Guerrero "Lalo"
- Lionel Hampton
- Bella Lewitzky
- Vera List
- Robert Redford
- Maurice Sendak
- Stephen Sondheim
1995
- Licia Albanese
- Gwendolyn Brooks
- B. Gerald y Iris Cantor
- Ossie Davis y Ruby Dee
- David Diamond
- James Ingo Freed
- Bob Hope
- Roy Lichtenstein
- Arthur Mitchell
- William S. Monroe
- Urban Gateways
1994
- Harry Belafonte
- Dave Brubeck
- Celia Cruz
- Dorothy DeLay
- Julie Harris
- Erick Hawkins
- Gene Kelly
- Pete Seeger
- Catherine Filene Shouse
- Wayne Thiebaud
- Richard Wilbur
- Young Audiences
1993
- Walter Annenberg y Leonore Annenberg
- Cabell Calloway "Cab"
- Ray Charles
- Bess Lomax Hawes
- Stanley Kunitz
- Robert Merrill
- Arthur Miller
- Robert Rauschenberg
- Lloyd Richards
- William Styron
- Paul Taylor
- Billy Wilder
1992
- AT&T
- Marilyn Horne
- Allan Houser
- James Earl Jones
- Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund
- Minnie Pearl
- Robert Saudek
- Earl Scruggs
- Robert Shaw
- Billy Taylor
- Robert Venturi y Denise Scott Brown
- Robert Wise
1991
- Maurice Abravanel
- Roy Acuff
- Pietro Belluschi
- J. Carter Brown
- Charles Coles "Honi"
- John O. Crosby
- Richard Diebenkorn
- R. Philip Hanes, Jr.
- Kitty Carlisle Hart
- Pearl Primus
- Isaac Stern
- Texaco Inc.
1990
- George Francis Abbott
- Hume Cronyn
- Merce Cunningham
- Jasper Johns
- Riley King "B.B."
- David Lloyd Kreeger
- Jacob Lawrence
- Harris & Carroll Sterling Masterson
- Ian McHarg
- Beverly Sills
- Southeastern Bell Corporation
- Jessica Tandy
1989
- Leopold Adler
- Dayton Hudson Corporation
- Katherine Dunham
- Alfred Eisenstaedt
- Martin Friedman
- Leigh Gerdine
- John Birks Gillespie "Dizzy"
- Walker Kirtland Hancock
- Vladimir Horowitz (póstumo)
- Czelaw Milosz
- Robert Motherwell
- John Updike
1988
- (Mrs. Vincent) Brooke Astor
- Saul Bellow
- Sydney J. Freedberg
- Francis Goelet
- Helen Hayes
- Gordon Parks
- I. M. Pei
- Jerome Robbins
- Rudolf Serkin
- Roger L. Stevens
- Obert C. Tanner
- Virgil Thomson
1987
- Romare Bearden
- J. W. Fisher
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Dr. Armand Hammer
- Mr. y Mrs. Sydney Lewis
- Howard Nemerov
- Alwin Nikolais
- Isamu Noguchi
- William Schuman
- Robert Penn Warren
1986
- Marian Anderson
- Frank Capra
- Aaron Copland
- Willem de Kooning
- Dominique de Menil
- Agnes de Mille
- Exxon Corporation
- Seymour H. Knox
- Eva Le Gallienne
- Alan Lomax
- Lewis Mumford
- Eudora Welty
1985