White House Festival of the Arts

In this photograph First Lady Lady Bird Johnson chats with a guest while other visitors admire artwork installed along the East Colonnade during the White House Festival of the Arts on June 14, 1965. Among the paintings visible in this photograph are "Human Fragment" by Grace Hartigan, and Jack Levine's "Medicine Carrier." Other artists featured at the festival included Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Jacob Lawrence, Tadashi Sato, Robert Rauschenberg, Andrew Wyeth, and Georgia O'Keeffe. Over 300 guests attended the White House Festival of the Arts to honor contemporary American artistic achievement. 65 works of art borrowed from 39 museums across the country were displayed in the East Wing and Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. The 14-hour event also featured a photography exhibition in the Vermeil Room, a film screening in the State Dining Room, and a variety of performances in the East Room, State Dining Room, and the South Lawn including Duke Ellington, the Robert Joffrey Ballet, and the Louisville Orchestra.