Harvard Arts Meadlist 1999 David Hays '52, founder, National Theatre of the Deaf. Photo by A. Vincent Scarano.

David Hays '52, founder of the National Theatre of the Deaf, award-winning set designer, best-selling author, and world- class sailor, will receive the 1999 Harvard Arts Medal. The award will be presented to Hays by President Neil L. Rudenstine on Saturday, May 8, as part of ARTS FIRST, a celebration of the arts at Harvard and Radcliffe.

The Harvard Arts Medal was created to honor a distinguished Harvard alumnus, Radcliffe alumna, or faculty member who has achieved excellence in the arts and who has "made a special contribution through the arts to the public good or education." Hays is the fifth honoree. The previous recipients were John Updike '54 (1998), Bonnie Raitt '72 (1997), Pete Seeger '40 (1996), and Jack Lemmon '47 (1995).

"I'm flattered and pleased, and, frankly, I'm enjoying it enormously," said Hays. "I don't think modesty should have anything to do with an occasion like this. I like to remember what Golda Meir said: 'Don't be so modest; you're not that great.' "

Hays founded the National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) in 1967 and directed it until 1996. The NTD, a professional acting company made up of deaf and hearing actors, brought sign language out of the shadows and placed it in the world spotlight, raising it to the level of an art form.

The NTD has served as a theatrical model in the creation of over 40 theaters of the deaf, nationally and internationally, and has performed in all 50 states and every continent, including Antarctica. Hays' daughter, Julia Hays Klebanow '77, has been director of development for the NTD.

Hays has designed more than 50 Broadway sets, including sets for two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays and more than 30 ballets for the New York City Ballet under George Balanchine. He was technical consultant for the first Grand Kabuki tour of America and designed the first American musical to be created in Japan.

Hays has long advocated making the arts a central part of the educational experience.

"Experiences like learning to play an instrument, developing a character for the stage, writing a play and seeing it performed-- these are important parts of an education, and they stay with us our life long," he said.

Hays is particularly interested in making the arts an integral part of education in the early grades and believes that virtually any subject could be taught, and taught more effectively, by approaching it through the arts. Above all, he believes that participation in the performing arts teaches two crucial lessons:

"One, you don't have to be supremely talented to take part in a theatrical team-- there's a place for everyone. And, two, you've got to be there for the show to go on."

Hays is also an avid sailor and set the international small boat record when he and his son Daniel won the Feller Trophy for a 1980 Gulf Stream crossing in a 9-foot dinghy. He and Daniel are also the first Americans to round Cape Horn in a boat as small as 25 feet.

In 1995, father and son wrote a best-selling book, My Old Man and the Sea, about Hays' worldwide sailing adventures. Hays is currently working on a book tentatively titled Today I Am a Boy, about his bar mitzvah at age 67.