the Governor's Arts Award Winners

Edgar Foster Daniels

Santa Fe

2015 Recipient, Major Contributor to the Arts

Edgar Foster Daniels, 83, is an accomplished actor, singer, and major patron of the arts. "Edgar has dedicated his life to the arts," said nominator Charles MacKay, the general director of the Santa Fe Opera. "I can think of no one more deserving of the honor (Governor's Arts Award)." Daniels spent the first 30 years of his professional career acting on the Broadway stage, as well as in Hollywood films and on television. "Even before his retirement from acting in 1983, he began to focus his keen and boundless energies on supporting the arts from the other side of the stage," MacKay said. The first production Daniels underwrote at The Santa Fe Opera was Strauss's Daphne in 1981. He founded the Edgar Foster Daniels Foundation in Santa Fe in 1995. "Edgar was the first recipient of the Best Philanthropist/Sponsor Award at the inaugural International Opera Awards in 2014," said MacKay. Daniels has supported numerous other arts organizations in New Mexico, including Performance Santa Fe, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Spanish Colonial Arts Society. A longtime resident of Santa Fe, Daniels is also an avid collector of New Mexican artwork and has supported the careers of many local visual artists. Daniels first visited Santa Fe in 1958 to attend the Santa Fe Opera company founded by John Crosby, a Columbia University classmate and childhood friend. In addition to his substantial giving, Daniels also has been unstinting in his service and currently serves as an honorary board member at The Santa Fe Opera.