Auditorium
When the National Gallery of Art opened to the public, an elegant classicizing auditorium on the ground floor of the West Building provided a locale for public lectures, films, and slide shows. During the next four decades, the auditorium was the site of presentations by members of the Gallery's staff and well-known visiting lecturers, including Kenneth Clark, Isaiah Berlin, Steven Spender, and H. W. Janson. In 1978 programs were moved to a larger, technologically-advanced auditorium in the new East Building, designed by architect I. M. Pei.