PROGRAM

6:00 PM Grand Reception, THEODORE ROOSEVELT ROTUNDA
7:00 PM Dinner and Program, MILSTEIN HALL OF OCEAN LIFE
9:00 PM Finale Dessert Reception, MILSTEIN HALL OF OCEAN LIFE

REMARKS
Alison Fox
CEO, American Prairie

KEYNOTE
Ken Burns

INTRODUCED BY
Sam Waterston

AWARD PRESENTATION
Chair, American Prairie National Board of Directors

2024 Ken Burns American Heritage Prize Recipient
DR. SYLVIA EARLE

Museum Parking Garage Entrance: 81st Street between Central Park West & Columbus Avenue | COCKTAIL ATTIRE

If you are unable to attend or will attend as a guest of a table host, thank you for considering a gift to support the Ken Burns American Heritage Prize:

Net proceeds generated by the Prize after expenses will be equally divided between American Prairie and Ken Burns. American Prairie is a registered 501(c)(3) organization (EIN 81-0541893). All contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Ken Burns has been making documentary films for almost 50 years. Since the Academy Award®-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The War, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, Prohibition, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, The Vietnam War, Country Music, The U.S. and the Holocaust, and, most recently, The American Buffalo.

Future film projects include Leonardo da Vinci, The American Revolution, Emancipation to Exodus, and LBJ & the Great Society, among others.

Ken’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including 16 Emmy® Awards, two GRAMMY Awards, and two Oscar nominations. In September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy® Awards, Ken was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In November of 2022, Ken was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

 

Dr. Sylvia Earle is the President and Chairman of Mission Blue, an Explorer at Large at the National Geographic Society, Founder of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research Inc. (DOER), Chair of the Advisory Council for the Harte Research Institute, and former Chief Scientist of NOAA.

Author of more than 225 publications and leader of more than 100 expeditions with over 7,500 hours underwater, Dr. Earle is a graduate of Florida State University with master’s and doctoral degrees from Duke University and 34 honorary degrees. Her research concerns the ecology and conservation of marine ecosystems and development of technology for access to the deep sea.

She is the subject of the Emmy® Award Winning Netflix documentary, Mission Blue, and the recipient of more than 100 national and international honors and awards including being named Time Magazine’s first Hero for the Planet, a Living Legend by the Library of Congress, 2014 UNEP Champion of the Earth, Glamour Magazine’s 2014 Woman of the Year, member of the Netherlands Order of the Golden Ark, and winner of the 2009 TED Prize, the Walter Cronkite Award, the 1996 Explorers Club Medal, the Royal Geographic Society 2011 Patron’s Medal, and the National Geographic 2013 Hubbard Medal.

 

Sam Waterston was born in 1940 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his father was a language teacher and his mother was a painter. He attended preparatory schools Brooks and Groton before earning a scholarship to Yale University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1962. Later that year, Waterston made his New York debut at the Phoenix Theater in Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad.

Sam’s career goes on to include a plethora of film and television credits as well as repeated returns to the stage. His trophy case includes television awards such as the Emmy® Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award® and theater awards like the OBIE Award® and Drama Desk. Other accolades include an Academy Award® nomination for his role as journalist Sydney Schanberg in 1984's The Killing Fields and six Emmy Award nominations for his roles in I'll Fly Away and Law & Order. Sam co-starred alongside Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer in the Aaron Sorkin HBO series The Newsroom for three seasons and was a lead opposite Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Martin Sheen on the Emmy-nominated Netflix Original series Grace and Frankie, which ran for seven seasons making it the longest running Netflix Original series ever. In 2022, he portrayed George Schultz in the award-winning Hulu limited series The Dropout opposite Amanda Seyfried.

Sam serves as Board President of Oceana, the world’s largest Ocean-focused NGO, and on the Board of Refugees International. 

 

2024 Event Sponsors

FINALE DESSERT RECEPTION
Seadream Family Foundation

PLATINUM LEVEL
Abbe Ranch Vineyards
Liliane & Christian Haub
Jacqueline B. Mars

GOLD LEVEL
CHUBB
Susan & George E. Matelich
Susan & Gib Myers
Shauna & Eric Varvel

SILVER LEVEL
Alexandra & Alan Airth
Stephen Badger
Amy & John Banovich
Carol & Landon Butler
Susan Weeks & David A. Coulter
Sasha & John Galantic
Lauren & Jacob Greenberg
Patricia de Stacy Harrison, Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Lynne Murphy & Richard Hay Jr.
Shelley & Bill HIlf
Patrice Innocenti & Dan Reiner
Mr. & Mrs. Peter Kimmelman
Stewart Koch, Koch Family Fund
Nancy & Joel Kobert
Suzana Malik Lightman & Michael Lightman
Karen Petersen Mehra & Sanjeev Mehra
Lisa & Peter Merrigan
Mission Blue
Nancy S. Mueller
Sherry Nemmers
Lori & Bill Price
Paula & Michael Rantz Foundation
Laura Turner Seydel, Turner Foundation
Mon Siriwatwechakul & Chuck Chai
Mara & Jeffrey Talpins
The Better Angels Society
Anne & Howard Ward
Margot & Garry Weinstein

BRONZE LEVEL
Capital Group Private Client Services
Fran Codispoti
Deep Hope
Atsuko & Tim Jenks
National Geographic Society
Rolex
Tusk Philanthropies

FRIENDS LEVEL
BRS Media
Nancy & Dominic Casserley
Holly & Steven Cousins
John Elting
John G. Shedd Aquarium
Marcia & John Goldman
LSC Consulting
Patricia & David Melrose
Arikha Moses & Greg Steinmetz
Prof. Nicholas A. Robinson
Wendy M. Weinstein Family Fund

Contact kenburnsprize@americanprairie.org with questions or for more information.