By DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press
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WASHINGTON — Jill Biden and Hillary Clinton, the first lady and a former first lady, on Tuesday introduced the recipients of a prestigious Japanese award for lifetime achievement in the arts, an event that led Clinton to her first public appearance at the White House since the Obama administration.

“Secretary Clinton, Hillary, it’s an honor to welcome you back to the White House,” Biden said as an audience dotted with Clinton administration alums and some celebrities, including actor Debra Messing and choreographer Mikhail Baryshnikov, burst into loud applause.

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“Wow, you are so loved,” Biden exclaimed. “Your lifetime of work has left an indelible mark on this country. Thank you for always doing all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can.”

Clinton introduced the recipients of the Praemium Imperiale, which is awarded annually by the Japan Arts Association in the categories of music, theater/film, painting, sculpture and architecture.

Three laureates who attended are trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, painter Vija Celmins and theater director Robert Wilson. Sculptor Olafur Eliasson and architect Diébédo Francis Kéré were absent. All five will be honored at a ceremony in Tokyo next month.

Clinton is the U.S. adviser to the Praemium Imperiale, helping select its laureates. In 1994, then-President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton hosted a ceremony like Tuesday’s.

Jill Biden said the artists being honored “invite us to join a conversation with the world, to step beyond the limits of our imagination.”

Clinton quoted President Joe Biden, who once said the arts “invigorate and strengthen democracy.”

“At a time when so much is happening to change the ways that we work and live and how we connect with one another, how we relate to the rest of the world, it’s so important for us to recognize the critical role that the arts play in helping us understand our past and present while inspiring us to create a better future,” Clinton said.

Her appearance was a reminder of her long association with one of America’s most famous buildings.

In her White House years, Clinton was a wife, a mother and the nation’s hostess, but also a wronged spouse and the head of a national health care task force.

In later years, she became a visiting senator and Cabinet member, but never attained the long-sought role of Madam President.

Early on as first lady, she held a rare news conference where she was grilled about the Clintons’ past real estate dealings, declaring that she had been “rezoned” out of her sphere of privacy.

Former aides expected her return Tuesday to be sentimental.

“I have to imagine she’s really looking forward to being back and being back with the Bidens, who she’s been close to for a long time,” said Lisa Caputo, who was Clinton’s White House press secretary.

Clinton’s ties to the White House bracket her time as first lady.

Early visits came when she accompanied Bill Clinton to the executive mansion, when he was Arkansas governor from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, for annual receptions for the nation’s governors.

She was a regular at the White House in her post-first lady roles as a U.S. senator and as secretary of state, a position that came with a permanent seat next to the president at Cabinet meetings.

Twice she sought the ultimate White House perch, campaigning in 2008 and again in 2016 to become the first woman elected president.

She fell short each time, and kept her distance from the White House during the Trump years.