Meanwhile, the second year of the Kennedy Center/Dance 

 Theatre of Harlem Community Residency initiative involved 

 more than ioo local students and their families. 



The center's new production ot How to Succeed in Business 

 without Really Trying, starring Matthew Broderick, played in 

 the Opera House before beginning a successful Broadway run. 

 Washington audiences had their first look at Angels in Amer- 

 ica, the Pulitzer Prize— winning play by Tony Kushner devel- 

 oped with financial support from the Kennedy Center Fund 

 for New American Plays. 



The education division inaugurated a new annual series of 

 lectures, gallery talks, and demonstrations exploring artists' 

 materials and techniques. The division also published 75 gal- 

 lery guides; expanded the annual National Teacher Institute; 

 and offered a new program for students at three District of Co- 

 lumbia public schools. 



Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF) 



National Gallery of Art 



Earl A. Pouell 111, Director 



The National Gallery of Art serves the United States in a na- 

 tional role by preserving, collecting, exhibiting, and fostering 

 the understanding of works of art at the highest possible mu- 

 seum and scholarly standards. 



The temporary exhibition program continued to offer a 

 selection of subjects and artists designed to appeal to 

 widely diverse audiences. During the past year, exhibitions 

 included original Italian Renaissance wooden architectural 

 models of St. Peter's in Rome and the cathedrals of Flor- 

 ence and Pavia; "The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eigh- 

 teenth Century"; the work of 20th-century Dutch painter 

 Piet Mondrian; a Claes Oldenburg survey; the mature work 

 of Arshile Gorky; the most comprehensive gathering of 

 work by James McNeill Whistler since 1904—05; and rare 

 images by pioneers of photography. 



With the opening of new, small-scale exhibition space 

 adjacent to the Dutch galleries, the Gallery now has an 

 area suitable for the display of smaller Dutch and Flemish 

 paintings and related objects such as drawings, prints, and 

 small sculpture. 



Purchases for the collection are made possible by funds do- 

 nated by private citizens. Outstanding among them were a 

 major painting by the early-l7th-century Dutch artist Osias 

 Beert the Elder; a Claes Oldenburg soft sculpture, Clarinet 

 Bridge: and the Mary and David Robinson collection of early 

 photographs. 



Gifts to the collection included a group of important 19th- 

 and 20th-century French works from Paul Mellon; works by 

 Jean Dubuffet, a partial gift from Stephen Hahn; and a 1981 

 sculpture by Richard Long, Whitechapel Slate Circle, from the 

 Collectors Committee. 



The gallery's ongoing efforts to find frames appro- 

 priate to the period, style, and aesthetic character of its 

 paintings are transforming the appearance of the perma- 

 nent collection. Especially notable was the replacement of 

 the frames of three paintings by the Dutch master 

 Johannes Vermeer. 



Ruth Graves, President 



Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) began in 1966 as a small pilot 

 literacy project in the District of Columbia. The success of 

 this experiment sparked the imagination of communities 

 across America and RIF quickly grew into a nationwide pro- 

 gram spanning all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto 

 Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. By the beginning of 

 1995, RIF's grassroots network of local projects had put more 

 than 152 million books into the hands of America's children. 



Today, community groups across the country rely on RIF's 

 volunteer force of 184,000 local citizens to ensure that chil- 

 dren in their neighborhoods grow up reading. RIF projects 

 now operate at more than 18,000 sites and in all kinds of set- 

 tings — elementary and secondary schools, Head Start centers 

 and other early childhood sites, libraries, hospitals, clinics, 

 housing projects, Native American reservations, schools for 

 children with disabilities, migrant worker camps, juvenile de- 

 tention centers, and homeless shelters. 



RIF not only brings books and reading activities to chil- 

 dren, it also tries to see that parents make reading a priority 

 in the home. Last year, RIF continued to reach out to parents, 

 other family members, and community volunteers with publi- 

 cations, workshops, a training video, and a network of family 

 literacy programs. 



RIF also focuses public awareness on the importance of 

 reading. In 1995, that goal was furthered as a number of na- 

 tional leaders demonstrated their support for literacy. Here are 

 but three examples: 



As RIF's new spokesperson, basketball superstar Shaquille 

 O'Neal of the Orlando Magic talked to children about the im- 

 portance of reading in a new Public Service Announcement 

 for RIF. Produced and televised by the National Basketball 

 Association, the new PSA was aired during the NBA playoffs 

 last spring. 



Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge presided over a cere- 

 mony honoring RIF children in Summit Township, Pa. for 

 winning the Margaret McNamara Readers Cup. For three 

 years in a row, the children at the project have read more on 

 average than any other RIF pro|ect in the nation. The 

 children's accomplishments were also noted by U.S. Senators 

 Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, who sent envoys from their 

 offices to take part in the ceremony. 



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