Reel-to-Reel collection

In 1953, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (SRGM), under the Directorship of James Johnson Sweeney, announced the inauguration of a series of free art lectures and gallery tours in connection with its educational programs. The first regularly scheduled series of illustrated lectures on modern art at the museum began in 1961 under the directorship of Thomas M. Messer. Distinguished speakers in these first lectures included: Thomas M. Messer; Clement Greenberg, art critic; H.H. Arnason, Vice-President for Art Administration at SRGM; and James A. Michener, popular author and collector. When the lectures began, aside from the museum entrance fee, no admission was charged to attend the lectures. Seating in the auditorium was limited to 250 persons.

In following years, the regularly scheduled lectures given by guest speakers and museum staff were supplemented by special lecture series on various artists. Often held in connection with exhibitions, these series profiled the work of artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Robert Motherwell, Juan Gris and Julio Gonzalez. The lectures also expanded to include artists working in disciplines other than the visual arts; from 1964-1975, the Academy of American Poets sponsored poetry readings at SRGM. Participants featured included poets such as Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov, Robert Duncan, Richard Lattimore, Marianne Moore, Louise Gluck, John Berryman and Ishmael Reed.

Select lecture series were broadcast on WNYC. Included in this group was a series from the 1970s, "Round and About the Guggenheim," moderated by Mimi Poser. This interview program was directed towards a popular audience and designed to acquaint listeners with events in the art world, in particular, at SRGM. Participants in the series included artists, art historians, gallery and auction house owners, and private collectors. Programs about SRGM dealt with exhibitions and special events, the function of museum staff members, and the museum's role in the community. Continuing in this vein, lectures were sponsored by the Art Dealers Association of America, "Behind the Scenes with the Art World: The ADAA Panels," an annual series begun in the 1980s in which leading collectors, critics, museum directors, curators, and dealers discussed current trends in the art world.

In 1978, the Hilla Rebay Lecture Series was established under the museum's auspices by the Hilla von Rebay Foundation to bring distinguished scholars to SRGM. The inaugural lecture was given by Sir Ernst Gombrich in 1980 on "Image and Word in Twentieth Century Art." Series lecturers included speakers such as Douglas Cooper, Pierre Schneider, Robert L. Herbert, Leo Steinberg and John E. Bowlt. SRGM continues to sponsor and digitally record lectures to the present day. As of 2018, SRGM holds an Annual Hilla Rebay Lecture with the purpose of examining significant issues in the theory criticism and history of art.