The Kennedy Center co-produced the Broadway revival of 

 Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I, which earned four 

 1996 Tony Awards and was set to make its Washington debut 

 at the Center in spring 1997. The Cencer also commissioned a 

 new musical from Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim, Wise 

 Guys, which will receive its world premiere at che Center. 



The Kennedy Center's jazz programming expanded in 1995— 

 96 with the launch of the Art Tacum Piano Panorama, a series of 

 solo performances paying tribute to one of the music's most in- 

 fluential performers, and the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz 

 Festival, three days of all-star concerts, seminars, films, and free 

 jam sessions fearuring many of the music's top female artists. The 

 third season of "Billy Taylor's Jazz at the Kennedy Center" fea- 

 tured more sessions of music and discussion with special guest ar- 

 tists taped for broadcast on National Public Radio. 



The Kennedy Center/Dance Theatre of Harlem Com- 

 munity Residency initiative was extended following its third 

 season of dance training programs, lecture-demonstrations, 

 and performances for local students and their families. Under 

 the guidance of its new artistic advisors for dance, Charles and 

 Stephanie Reinhart, the Center continued its five-year America 

 Dancing retrospective of modern dance pioneers, and also ex- 

 tended the successful Kennedy Center Ballet Commissioning 

 Project. Meanwhile, the second year enabled more than 100 to 

 learn about dance. 



The Kennedy Center Home Page on the World Wide Web 

 debuted in December 1995, offering detailed information on 

 the Center's programming as well as its education, producing, 

 and outreach initiatives. The National Symphony Orchestra 

 Home Page debuted in September 1996. Both can be found at 

 the Internet address http://kennedy-center.org. 



National Gallery of Art 



Earl A. Powell III. 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 

 museum and scholarly standards. 



The National Gallery ot Art's exhibition program 

 presented a comprehensive retrospective of the work of 

 Winslow Homer; modern works of the early 20th century 

 from the Rothschild family collections; 190 post— World War 

 II works from the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff collection; an ex- 

 ploration of Corot and other open-air painters in Italy at the 

 turn of the 18th century; works by the 17th-century genre 

 painter Jan Steen; the rowing pictures of Thomas Eakins; 120 

 3.000-year-old Olmec sculptures from Mexico, including a 10- 

 ton colossal head, and jade and serpentine masks and 

 figurines; and two major groups of drawings — old master and 



modern works collected by the late Ian Woodner and a selec- 

 tion of Renaissance and baroque drawings from the Devon- 

 shire collection at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, England. The 

 important exhibition of the 17th-century Dutch master Johan- 

 nes Vermeer, which included 21 of his 35 known works, was 

 kept open and available to the public with private funds 

 during the federal government shutdown. 



The opening of the Micro Gallery makes available to 

 visitors the most comprehensive interactive, multimedia com- 

 puter system in an American art museum. Thirteen user- 

 friendly computers can design a visitor's personal tour, 

 illustrate in magnified detail nearly every work of art on dis- 

 play in the permanent collection, and offer artists' biographies 

 and historical and cultural background. Selected works are dis- 

 cussed in depth with special graphics and animation, includ- 

 ing aspects of conservation, current research, and visual 

 analyses. 



Purchases for the gallery's collections are made possible by 

 funds donated by private citizens. This year's outstanding ac- 

 quisitions included three Dutch paintings: a flower still life 

 by the 17th-century artist Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, 

 another flower still life by the 18th-century artist Jan Van 

 Huysum, and The Fall of Man by early-I7th-century artist 

 Hendnck Goltzius. A late-l9th-century painting of magnolias 

 by the American artist Martin Johnson Heade was also 

 acquired. 



Gifts to the collection included a major group of Iate-I9th- 

 century avant-garde theater programs from the Atlas Founda- 

 tion, 154 prints by Roy Lichtenstem given by the artist, and a 

 partial gift of a landscape by Bellotto from Lili-Charlotte 

 Sarnoff. 



A documentary video produced by the department of ex- 

 hibition programs, James MacNeill Whistler: The Lyrics of 

 Art, received three awards: the CINE Golden Eagle, the Silver 

 Muse from the American Association of Museums, and the 

 Telly Award in a national competition of broadcast and non- 

 broadcast video media. As a winner of the Golden Eagle, the 

 video will represent the United States at international film fes- 

 tivals throughout the coming year. 



The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts spon- 

 sored a two-day symposium on "The Art of the Ancient Spec- 

 tacle," which focused on aspects of public and private 

 festivals, rituals, and theater in Greece and Rome. 



Twenty-eight galleries in the West Building were closed 

 for II months as replacement of the 54-year-old roof and 

 skylight system began. The existing single-layer skylights, 

 many of which are cracked and have been protected with a 

 temporary" plastic covering, are being replaced with energy- 

 efficient multilayer glass that will eliminate condensation and 

 leaks, control transmission of harmful ultraviolet light, and 

 reduce energy consumption. 



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