President Barack Obama awarded Quincy Jones and 19 other artists, scholars and writers the National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal. (See video)

Jones was honored for "his extraordinary contributions to American music as a musician, composer, record producer, and arranger.  As a master inventor of musical hybrids, he has mixed pop, soul, hip-hop, jazz, classical, African, and Brazilian music into many dazzling fusions, traversing virtually every medium, including records, live performances, movies, and television."

The full list of winners:

2010 National Medal of Arts

Robert Brustein

Van Cliburn

Mark di Suvero

Donald Hall

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival

Quincy Jones

Harper Lee

Sonny Rollins

Meryl Streep

James Taylor

2010 National Humanities Medal

Daniel Aaron

Bernard Bailyn

Jacques Barzun

Wendell E. Berry

Roberto González Echevarría

Stanley Nider Katz

Joyce Carol Oates

Arnold Rampersad

Philip Roth

Gordon Wood

Image: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais