Meryl Streep Will Be Honored at Irish Arts Center Gala

Irish Arts Center will honor Meryl Streep at their 25th Annual Spirit of Ireland Gala this November. On Friday, November 15 at Pier 60, IAC will herald the completion of its third full year of operation in its new Irish Arts Center building and gather support for its future contributions to the New York and American cultural landscape.

In keeping with IAC’s year-round celebration of superlative artistry, the organization is honoring an actress who, through her countless transformations, has consistently brought boundless humanity and complexity to her characters, earning her the frequent title of “best actress of her generation”—as well as record numbers of Oscar (21) and Golden Globe (33) nominations.  

Streep’s body of work stretches back to her early days in Joe Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival and on Broadway, to her early acclaimed film performances in The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, and Silkwood, to later award-winning turns in The Iron Lady, Julie and Julia, Angels in America, The Post, The Devil Wears Prada, and Mamma Mia, to more recent work on television in Only Murders in the Building.

Meryl Streep said, “I am thrilled and delighted to join my Irish friends on the night, in support of this extraordinary center and its dedicated staff and associated writers, performers and artisans. I know the craic will be good!!”

Irish Arts Center Executive Director Aidan Connolly said, “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to present Meryl Streep with our Spirit of Ireland Award at this year’s 25th Annual Gala.  As an organization we strive to present transformative work that takes audiences on an emotional journey and illuminates our common humanity. Ms. Streep has done this throughout her astounding career, with uncommon grace and astounding longevity, and we cannot wait to pay tribute to her in New York on November 15th.”

The gala will also include a special guest musical performance from Irish recording artist Declan O’Rourke, who has enjoyed global acclaim, including numerous residencies and performances at Irish Arts Center, and whose studio recordings have consistently reached the top of the Irish national charts.

About Meryl Streep 

For almost 45 years, Meryl Streep has continued to bring a varied and vivid array of characters to life in a career that has cut its own unique path from the theater through film and television.

Educated in the New Jersey public school system through high school, Ms. Streep graduated cum laude from Vassar College and received her MFA with Honors from Yale University. She began her professional life on the New York stage, where she quickly established her signature versatility and verve as an actor. Within three years of graduation, she made her Broadway debut, won an Emmy for Holocaust and received her first Oscar nomination for The Deer Hunter. She has since won three Academy Awards, and in 2018, in a record that is unsurpassed, she earned her 21st Academy Award nomination for her role as Katharine Graham in The Post.

She was most recently featured in season three of Hulu’s hit series Only Murders in the Building. Just before that, she starred in the first episode of the television series Extrapolations, an eight-part series exploring the human stories circling the effects of climate change in the near future on Apple TV+. She was also recently seen in Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up for Netflix, Ryan Murphy’s film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical The Prom for Netflix, and Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk for HBO Max. She also served as producer on the documentary film Sell/Buy/Date.

Ms. Streep has pursued her interest in the environment through her work with Mothers and Others, a consumer advocacy group that she co-founded in 1989 under the aegis of NRDC. M&O worked for ten years to promote sustainable agriculture, establish new pesticide regulations, and ensure the availability of organic and sustainably grown local foods. Over the years since then she has supported the work of many and varied non-profit organizations in the areas of the environment /climate change, human rights and social justice, including The Climate Emergency Fund, NRDC, Women for Women International, Equality Now, The Women's History Museum, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Donor Direct Action, Partners in Health, Kageno, and the Innocence Project.

She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has been accorded a Commandeur de L'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Government. She has been awarded an Honorary César by the French Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma, and an Honorary Golden Bear by the Berlin International Film Festival. She has received the TIFF Tribute Acting Award from the Toronto International Film Festival, the Chaplin Award from the Film Society of Lincoln Center, The Donostia Award from The San Sebastian Film Festival, and a Career Tribute from the Gotham Awards, all for her extensive body of work. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 2008, and the 2010 National Medal of Arts from President Obama. In 2011, Ms. Streep received a Kennedy Center Honor, and in 2014 the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She holds honorary degrees from CCNY, Dartmoth, Harvard, Indiana University, Lafayette, Middlebury, Princeton, U of New Hampshire, Yale, and the Barnard Medal.

She and Don Gummer are the parents of a son and three daughters, and proud grandparents of five children under four years of age.