To Honor Friedan, Schnabel, Spielberg

ROBERT LONG

Betty Friedan, Julian Schnabel, and Steven Spielberg will be honored by Guild Hall on Dec. 1 at its 14th annual Academy of the Arts awards dinner at the Plaza Hotel. The evening's master of ceremonies will be the ABC-TV anchorman Peter Jennings.

Guild Hall's academy members - past recipients of the award as well as a diverse group of people in the arts who live on the East End - chose the winners from dozens of nominees in the literary, visual, and performing arts.

Ms. Friedan, who lives part of the year in Sag Harbor, is the honoree in the literary arts category. The influence of the groundbreaking feminist as a thinker and as a writer has been felt by both women and men since the publication of her classic work "The Feminine Mystique" in 1963.

"Beyond Gender"

In 1966, she helped to found and became the first president of the National Organization for Women. She also helped to organize the National Women's Political Caucus and the International Feminist Congress, and served as co-chair of the National Commission for Women's Equality of the American Jewish Congress.

Ms. Friedan has been an adjunct scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Her other works include "The Second Stage," "It Changed My Life," and "The Fountain of Age." She is at work on a new book, "Beyond Gender: The New Politics of Work and Family."

Mr. Schnabel, who will be given the visual arts award, first made an impression on the art world in the 1970s with a series of paintings that incorporated smashed crockery.

Versatility

Since then, he has proven to be a versatile and influential artist in several media. He has shown his work worldwide.

He directed the critically lauded film "Basquiat," about the life and premature death of his friend the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, and is the author of a book about his artistic education and values, "C.V.J."

In August, Guild Hall presented a one-man exhibit of Mr. Schnabel's work from the last three decades. He has a house in Montauk.

"E.T." and "Ryan"

Mr. Spielberg, the acclaimed director, screenwriter, and producer, has a house in East Hampton. He began his career in 1969 as the director of a made-for-television movie, "The Night Gallery." Three more television movies followed.

In 1974, he made his big-screen debut as the story writer and director of "The Sugarland Express," with Goldie Hawn. Since then, Mr. Spielberg has directed 16 movies, among them some of the most critically and financially successful in the history of cinema.

His body of work includes "Jaws," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Jurassic Park," "Schindler's List," "Deep Impact," and "Saving Private Ryan."

He has won several Academy Awards and has countless other honors to his credit.

Past Recipients

In 1985, Guild Hall's board of trustees decided it would be appropriate for the cultural center to recognize visual, literary, and performing artists on the East End; they invited a jury to select three recipients. The winners that year were Willem de Kooning, Kurt Vonnegut, and Alan Alda.

The following year, the Academy of the Arts was formed; its first members were the 1985 jury and awardees. Since then the academy has grown to include some 141 members.

Last year's award recipients were Wendy Wasserstein, in the literary arts, William King, in the visual arts, and Billy Joel, in the performing arts. The designer Jack Lenor Larsen was the first honoree in a new category, for achievement in a cultural field outside of the three traditional areas.

In a letter to academy members on Sept. 21, the organization's chairman, Edward Bleier, announced that a committee was in formation to select this year's winner in that category. His or her name will be announced within the next few weeks, as will the names of those who will present the awards.