The Maine Center for Creativity (MCC) recently announced that actor and cancer activist Patrick Dempsey will be one of the co-recipients of this year’s Maine Creative Industries Award, a prestigious biennial honor that recognizes exceptional people and organizations who enrich Maine’s growing reputation as a state where the arts and enterprise meet and flourish.

The other recipient of the award will be Jackson Laboratory, a leading-edge genetics research laboratory located in Bar Harbor. The awards will be presented on November 15 at a gala celebration in Portland.

“These exemplary honorees showcase Maine’s creativity in separate ways – Mr. Dempsey as a product of our rich performing arts community, which led to his success and ability to found the Dempsey Center, and Jackson Laboratory as an example of our world-class research and development industry,” said Jean Maginnis, founder and executive director of MCC. “Their common accomplishment is their imaginative approach to bringing comfort, care and the pursuit of a cure to cancer patients in Maine and beyond.”

“This blend of artistic, scientific, and economic endeavor is exactly what the Maine Center for Creativity works to showcase and encourage,” added Maginnis.

Born in Lewiston and raised in Buckfield and Turner, Dempsey is best known for his role as Dr. Derek Shepherd on the long-running TV drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” He founded the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing in Lewiston, which offers a cutting- edge model of support, education and integrative medicine services to anyone impacted by cancer.

In 2012, actress Glenn Close and her husband, David Shaw, founder of IDEXX, accepted the inaugural award at the Maine Creative Industries gala. Shaw will present the 2014 award to Jackson Laboratory. Dempsey Center Assistant Director Mary Dempsey, along with Peter Chalke, CEO of Central Maine Healthcare, will present to her brother.