Guild Hall: Achievers Acclaimed

The sculptor William King, the playwright Wendy Wasserstein, and the Piano Man, Billy Joel, will share the spotlight at Guild Hall's Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards dinner in December.

The three were chosen by members of the cultural center's Academy of the Arts, an impressive group of artists, patrons of the arts, and past award recipients, all of whom have ties to the East End, to receive the honor this year.

To the general public Mr. Joel may be the best known of the honorees. He may also be the first pop musician to win the award. The singer and composer grew up farther west on Long Island, but now lives in Amagansett and does some of his composing at an office in Montauk.

He has raised money for a number of local charities, most notably the East Hampton Baymen's Association, of which he is an honorary member. Mr. Joel has been nominated for almost two dozen Grammy Awards and won six. His albums include "River of Dreams," "Storm Front," "An Innocent Man," "Piano Man," "The Stranger," and "Glass Houses."

Mr. King, a sculptor and East Hampton resident active not only in the arts but in local politics as well, had his first gallery exhibit in the 1950s. He is known for his distinctive wood figures, very tall and thin, many of which bear a slight resemblance to their tall, thin creator.

His figures, which also incorporate metals, fabric, plaster, and clay, have been displayed around the country as public art works.

Ms. Wasserstein won a Pulitzer Prize for her play "The Heidi Chronicles," but all of her plays, including "The Sisters Rosenzweig" and the recent "An American Daughter," have been well received in the theater world. She has a house in Bridgehampton.

The awards dinner will be held at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan on Dec. 2. Tickets have not yet gone on sale.

The museum is taking reservations for a two-day trip to Washington on Nov. 11 and 12 to see the Thomas Moran retrospective at the National Gallery of Art.