Did You Know? The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium Edition

Meryl Cates
October 21, 2014

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium; View looking from the stage to the seats; Architects: Voorhees, Walker, Foley and Smith. Photographed in 1954. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium; View looking from the stage to the seats; Architects: Voorhees, Walker, Foley and Smith. Photographed 1954. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

«The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a mammoth building, with so many incredible spaces, dazzling galleries, and more nooks than visitors could stumble upon in one hundred visits. And while bringing performances into the galleries is especially exciting, Met Museum Presents also loves its traditional theater, the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Sometimes there's just no substitute for a proscenium stage and a red curtain.

So, whether you knew there was a full theater located in the Museum's Egyptian Wing or not, we've unearthed some of this hall's lesser-known facts to help better acquaint you with this fabulous performance space.»

Did You Know . . . ?


The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium was built in 1954, and the entrance is located in gallery 135 in the Egyptian Wing.

Above the theater's entrance is a single line drawing of a lyre and scroll originally drawn by Ade Bethune, a renowned liturgical artist, and reproduced on slate panel by artist and calligrapher John Howard Benson.

Inside the theater, the walls are made of Korina wood that, as it ages, enhances the quality and richness of the sounds produced in the hall.

When the theater was built, the wide spacing between seats was considered a major amenity and innovation. (Think of those cramped older Broadway houses, and you'll know what we mean!)

A sound lock was built into the theater's entrance, so outside noise does not bleed into the performance. Likewise, no sound makes it out into the galleries or any surrounding corridors. However, sometimes on a Friday or Saturday, when a performance is taking place, it is piped through speakers into the gallery for some pleasant musical accompaniment.

In the May 1954 issue of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, several articles were dedicated to the new, state-of-the-art Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. One of the articles, detailing the theater's function, cites that it is a place where "music, the spoken word, and the visual arts can live together in a blameless, though creative, ménage a trois."

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium; Drawing or plan for The New Grace Rainey Rogers Mermorial Auditorium
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium; 1954 drawing or plan for The New Grace Rainey Rogers Mermorial Auditorium

Because Grace Rainey was designed for talks as well as concerts, sound reflectors were installed as part of the theater's acoustic design, so sound is both reflected crisply to the audience as well as back onto the stage.

Inside the projection booth, located in the upper mezzanine, there is a rarely used door that leads directly to one of the Asian Art galleries.

The structure of Grace Rainey Rogers was designed by the prominent architectural firm Vorhees, Walker, Foley and Smith, who were also behind many important contributions to the New York City skyline which include the New York Telephone Company Building, now called the Verizon Building. Also, architect Ralph Thomas Walker was very involved with designs for the 1939 New York World's Fair.

The 16mm projector, still in use, was originally owned by Marvin Gaye. It was purchased from the Marvin Gaye estate after a gig.

Originally built for demure classical chamber concerts, Grace Rainey has recently let its hair down. Last season, a mud pit was installed onstage for the premiere of Gloria—A Pig Tale, a production by Doug Fitch for the NY Phil Biennial. And just last weekend, twenty-one screens of various sizes were positioned across the stage for superposition—a high intensity, multimedia performance by visual artist Ryoji Ikeda.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium; View looking from the seats to the stage. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Gloria—A Pig Tale, performed in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, May 2014. Photograph by Paula Lobo

Meryl Cates

Meryl Cates is a senior publicist in the Communications Department.