MUMBAI: Legendary musician Bob Dylan has been inducted as an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, joining the ranks of leading writers, composers and artists in the prestigious 115-year-old group.
Honorary members into the Academy are people of great distinction in the creative arts.
Academy president Henry Cobb said, “For more than 50 years, defying categorization and culture, Bob Dylan has encouraged our mind, recorded and then changed our world and our lives through poetry manifested in songs, created connections for which we never dreamed that they could exist between the world, emotions and ideas.”
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The Academy’s executive director Virginia Dejani said that Dylan’s induction was decided by a vote of the membership, which totals 250.
Dylan was apparently made an honorary member because the Academy failed to decide which department – art, literature or music – he would fit into. The rules of the academy limit honorary membership to 15 Americans.
Dejani stated, “It was decided that he is a very multitalented person whose work was so unusual for what he has accomplished that it defies categorization.”
The citation stated, “For more than 50 years, defying categorization in a culture beguiled by categories, Bob Dylan has probed and prodded our psyches, recording and then changing our world and our lives through poetry made manifest in song – creating relationships that we never imagined could exist between words, emotions and ideas.”
Although the singer/songwriter did not attend the ceremony as he is on a tour, he sent his regrets in a statement.
Dylan said, “I feel extremely honoured and very lucky to be included in this pantheon of great individual artists who comprise the Academy of Arts and Letters. I look forward to meeting all of you sometime soon.”
The ceremony held yesterday in Manhattan witnessed Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon delivering the keynote address and cited Dylan’s lyrics, along with actress Meryl Streep, another honorary member, presenting an award.
Other honorary US members include directors Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, choreographer Paul Taylor and cellist Yo Yo Ma. Dylan is the first rock musician to be included in the elite group.
