The event, which begins at 1:45 PM ET, will be streamed live at www.WhiteHouse.gov/Live.

The National Medal of Arts, established by Congress in 1984, is awarded by the President and managed by the National Endowment for the Arts. Award recipients are selected based on their "contributions to the creation, growth and support of the arts in the United States."

The National Council on the Arts, the Arts Endowment's presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed advisory body, reviews the nominations and provides recommendations to the President, who selects the recipients.

Other honorees include painter and printmaker Will Barnet, poet and author Rita Dove, contemporary arts patron and philanthropist Emily Rauh Pulitzer, contemporary sculptor Martin Puryear, singer-songwriter Mel Tillis and classical pianist André Watts.

Pacino won the Tony Award in 1969 for his performance in Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? and again in 1977 for his performance in The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. He was last seen on Broadway in The Merchant of Venice, for which he received a 2011 Tony nomination.

Pacino is an eight-time Oscar nominee and won in 1993 for "Scent of a Woman." He is also a two-time Emmy Award winner for his work in "You Don't Know Jack" and the HBO miniseries version of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America."