Terrace Gallery

And on March 8, 1979, as a joint undertaking with the Library of Congress, the Performing Arts Library (PAL) opened for public service with two hundred visitors on opening day. The PAL maintained approximately five-thousand reference books, including directories, encyclopedias and dictionaries, histories and biographies, indices, abstracts, handbooks and manuals, annals and chronologies, and over 450 periodicals and newspapers. The PAL served more than seventeen thousand visitors, students, and arts professionals annually. The PAL remained open as an official library, jointly with the Library of Congress, until 1994. Following a fifteen-year relationship, a decision was made by both entities that the Library of Congress would discontinue its support effective October 1, 1994. In September 1994, the PAL was officially renamed the Education Resource Center (ERC). The ERC was used by artists, staff, volunteers, and the general public for a variety of reasons. During its life span, several thousand patrons visited the ERC while the space was used as a reading room. On March 12, 2003, the space formerly known as the ERC was officially designated the Terrace Gallery, which is now home to the Kennedy Center Jazz Club.