Honors

Merce Cunningham and fellow recipients receiving honorary degrees from Wesleyan University. 1995

Location
Fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Year: 1954
Location: New York, NY
Fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Year: 1959
Location: New York, NY
Dance Magazine Award
Year: 1960
Location: New York, NY
Medal of the Society for the Advancement of Dancing
Year: 1964
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Gold Medal for Choreographic Invention at the Fourth International Festival
Year: 1966
Location: Paris, France
Honorary degree from the University of Illinois
Year: 1972
Location: Champaign/Urbana, IL
BITEF Award
Year: 1972
Location: Belgrade, Yogoslavia
New York State Award
Year: 1975
Location: Albany, NY
Capezio Award
Year: 1977
Location: New York, NY
Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Year: 1982
Location: France
The Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award
Year: 1982
Location: Durham, NC
The Mayor of New York's Award of Honor for Arts and Culture
Year: 1983
Location: New York, NY
Inducted as an Honorary Member into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
Year: 1984
Location: New York, NY
MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Year: 1985
Location: Chicago, IL
Kennedy Center Honors
Year: 1985
Location: Washington DC
Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts, Southern Methodist University
Year: 1987
Location: Dallas, TX
Dance/USA National Honor
Year: 1988
Location: New York, NY
Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur, France
Year: 1989
Location: France
National Medal of Arts
Year: 1990
Location: Washington, DC
Porselli Prize
Year: 1990
Location: Italy
Digital Dance Premier Award
Year: 1990
Location: London, England
Award of Merit from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters
Year: 1990
Location: Washington, DC
Tiffany Award from the International Society of Performing Arts Administrators
Year: 1993
Location: New York, NY
New York Dance and Performance Award
Year: 1993
Location: New York, NY
(With John Cage, posthumously) the Wexner Prize of the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University
Year: 1993
Location: Columbus, OH
Medal of Honor from the Universidad Complutense
Year: 1993
Location: Madrid, Spain
Dance and Performance Award for Best Performance by a Visiting Artist
Year: 1993
Location: London, England
Inducted into the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Dance
Year: 1993
Location: Saratoga Springs, NY
Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale, Italy
Year: 1995
Location: Venice, Italy
Carina Ari Award (Grand Prix Video Danse with Elliot Caplan)
Year: 1995
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Honorary degree from Wesleyan University
Year: 1995
Location: Middletown, CT
Nellie Cornish Arts Achievement Award from his alma mater, Cornish College of the Arts
Year: 1996
Location: Seattle, WA
Grand Prix of the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques
Year: 1997
Location: France
Barnard College Medal of Distinction
Year: 1997
Location: New York, NY
Bagley Wright Fund Established Artists Award
Year: 1998
Location: Seattle, WA
The key to the City of Montpellier
Year: 1999
Location: France
Fellow of the Academy of Performing Arts
Year: 1999
Location: Hong Kong
Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Lifetime Achievement
Year: 1999
Location: San Francisco, CA
Handel Medallion from the Mayor of New York City
Year: 1999
Location: New York City
Premio Internazionale "Gino Tani"
Year: 1999
Location: Rome, Italy
Named a "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress
Year: 2000
Location: Washington, DC
The 2000 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize
Year: 2000
Location: New York, NY
Herald Archangel Award
Year: 2002
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Career Transition for Dancers Award
Year: 2002
Location: New York, NY
La Grande Médaille de la Ville de Paris (echelon vermeil) from the Mayor of Paris
Year: 2002
Location: Paris, France
Coat of Arms of the City of Mulhouse
Year: 2002
Location: France
Medal of the City of Dijon
Year: 2002
Location: France
MATA (Music at the Anthology) Award
Year: 2002
Location: New York City
Kitty Carlisle Hart Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts (Arts and Business Council)
Year: 2002
Location: New York City
Edward MacDowell Medal in interdisciplinary art at the MacDowell Colony
Year: 2003
Location: Peterborough, NH
Officier of the Légion d'Honneur
Year: 2004
Location: Paris
Praemium Imperiale
Year: 2005
Location: Tokyo
Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, University of Minnesota
Year: 2005
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts
Year: 2006
Location: Seattle, WA
Montgomery Fellow (Arts and Literature), Dartmouth College
Year: 2007
Location: Hanover, NH
Nelson A. Rockefeller Award, Purchase College School of the Arts, State University of New York
Year: 2007
Location: Purchase, NY
Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Bard College
Year: 2008
Location: Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Jacob's Pillow Dance Award
Year: 2009
Location: Becket, MA