 A. Everett "Chick" Austin, the museum's first director, arranged the purchase and reassembly of the theater for performances of plays and opera.In the 1960s philanthropists Lewis and Eugenia Van Wezel enabled the city to build a performing arts hall on the bayfront.The auditorium, the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's successor firm, Taliesin Associated Architects team under the direction of William Wesley Peters.