- Museum of Performance & Design
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Coordinates: 37°46′46.59″N 122°25′13.96″W / 37.7796083°N 122.4205444°W
The Museum of Performance & Design, formerly the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum, is located in San Francisco, California in the historic War Memorial Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue. The Museum collects and makes accessible, free of charge, materials about the performing arts, with a special emphasis on documenting and preserving the San Francisco Bay Area’s rich and diverse performing arts heritage from the Gold Rush to the present. The museum produces exhibitions, lectures, presentations and artist conversations as well as providing conservation and archival services to performing arts institutions; and initiating youth education programs. The Museum's collections include original artwork, costumes and other artifacts. The Museum also houses the archives of many local performing arts organizations, such as the San Francisco Ballet and San Francisco Opera, as well as the Stern Grove Festival, the Ethnic Dance Festival, Pickle Family Circus, and The Lamplighters.
Contents
Mission
The mission of the Museum of Performance & Design is to educate people of all ages about the impact and value of the performing arts in their lives through exhibitions, programming, and research. In addition the Museum collects, preserves, and makes accessible performance and design materials that reflect our diverse culture.
History
More than sixty years ago, Russell Hartley started a private collection in his home with the purpose of collecting and preserving material documenting the history of dance. Mr. Hartley, who was both a dancer and costume designer for the San Francisco Ballet in the 1940s and 1950s, searched second-hand shops, traveled to Europe to purchase dance artifacts, and in 1947, established the San Francisco Dance Archives. As the collection grew, it expanded to include all of the performing arts, and in 1975 moved into a branch of the San Francisco public library system as the Archives for the Performing Arts. In 1983, the growing collection was moved to the Opera House, giving the collection 1,000 square feet (93 m2) for storage. At his passing, Mr. Hartley bequeathed his collection to the Archives. At that time, a board was developed and 2 full-time professional staff laid the groundwork toward the creation of an institution.
In 1989 the collection was moved to a larger facility in the Civic Center area. The facility underwent extensive renovation to accommodate the collection, and at the same time the organization took a new name: the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum. The collection continued to grow and in 1999 the Performing Arts Library moved to its present home in the Veterans Building in the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. This larger space better accommodated the growing collection, expanded staff and ever increasing number of researchers using the resources. It also enabled the Museum to exhibit the collection and to hold lectures, classes and special events.
On the occasion of its 60th anniversary in 2007, the organization changed its name to the Museum of Performance & Design to more accurately reflect the organization’s growing mission. Located in the Veterans Building in San Francisco’s Civic Center, the organization continues to collect, preserve, and make available to the public–free of charge–its collection of 3.5 million items and its programs documenting the diverse cultural legacy of the performing arts in California and beyond.
The Museum of Performance & Design is an independent nonprofit organization that relies on a variety of funding sources, including memberships, corporate, foundation and individual gifts. It is also funded in part by the Grants for the Arts program of the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Exhibitions
The museum gallery opened its doors in March 2008 with a new 2,000 sq ft (190 m2) space dedicated to performing arts exhibitions. Along with a current exhibition, the museum offers a variety of permanent exhibitions in the hallway galleries along with ancillary exhibitions created by special guest curators. Permanent exhibitions include: "Maestro, Photographic Portraits by Tom Zimberoff", "San Francisco Stage 1900", "San Francisco in Song", "Stars of the Early San Francisco Stage" and "150 Years of Dance in California".
Previous exhibitions include Enrico Banducci's hungry i: San Francisco's Legendary Nightclub (March - September 2007), In Character: Actors Acting (September 2006 - February 2007), Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era (February - August 2006), Irving Berlin's Show Business: Broadway (July - December 2005), Painted Men: Chinese Opera Backstage (March - June 2005), Madame Butterfly: From Puccini to Miss Saigon (September 2004 - January 2005), America's Dance Treasures: The First 100 (February - May 2004), Kronos @ 30: Thirty Years of Kronos Quartet (January - June 2003), Hirschfeld: A Centennial Celebration. Treasures from the Hirschfeld Archive (July - December 2003) and With a Song in His Heart: A Celebration of Richard Rodgers (April - September 2002).
Performing Arts Library
The Museum of Performance & Design Performing Arts Library is dedicated to collecting, preserving and making available to the public materials documenting a broad spectrum of the live performing arts and theatrical design. The more than three million items in the Archives, Reference Collection, Special Collections, and Theatrical Design Collection include books, periodicals, playbills, clippings, photographs, posters, sheet music, plays and libretti, radio interviews, videotapes, musical theater recordings, the Legacy Oral History program, theatrical design research materials, costume and set designs, personal papers of performers and patrons, as well as the archives of several local organizations. An online catalog contains a portion of the materials available at the Museum of Performance & Design Performing Arts Library. The Library is open to the public free of charge.
Archives: The Library serves as the official archives for several of the areas most significant performing arts organizations past and present including: Grants for the Arts, Lamplighters, Loring Club, Merola Opera Program, Pickle Family Circus, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, San Francisco Municipal Chorus, San Francisco Musical Club, San Francisco Opera, Stern Grove Festival, and others.
Reference Collection: The reference collection includes published materials that support core subject areas in Special Collections, the Museum’s exhibitions, and existing major holdings such as sheet music and musical theater.
Special Collections: The special collections include materials which document individuals, productions, organizations, and/or genres significant to performing arts in California, with particular emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area. This includes the biographical files on individual actors, dancers, musicians, composers, conductors, choreographers, singers and other performing artists who have performed in the Bay Area from the Gold Rush to the present, personal papers of performers, patrons, and creators including Lew Christensen and Gisella Caccialanza, Phil Elwood, Alexander Fried, Anna Halprin, Calvin Simmons, Michael Smuin, and Gladys Swarthout, and others, theater film archives of theater performances in the Bay Area from the mid-80’s to the present including ACT, Berkeley Repertory, San Jose Repertory, American Musical Theater of San Jose, 42nd Street Moon, California Shakespeare Festival, and others and the photographic collections including Kurt Herbert Adler, Lillian Bauer, Donald Coney, Thomas Curran, Edgar Foster Daniels, Harry Jew, Katherine Kahrs, Chester Kessler, Henri McDowell, Bob McLeod, Robert Millard, John Morrissey, Alexander Murray, Ida Nevis, Ira Nowinski, Ron Scherl, Bernard Taper, Enid Thompson, Tom Zimberoff, Chris Wahlberg, Max Waldman, Wylie Wong, and others.
Theatrical Design Research Collection: contains more than 10,000 books, periodicals, fashion plates, hand-colored engravings and 35 volumes of postcards documenting centuries of theatrical costumes, theater architecture, set and costume design, masks, and fashion and clothing ranging from Japanese kimono to African tribal dress, including the work of Boris Aronson, Cecil Beaton, Eugene Berman, Stewart Chaney, Elizabeth Dalton, Iris de Luce, Judith Dolan, Julian Dove, Raul Du Bois, Roger Furse, Howard Greer, Russell Hartley, Jesse Hollis, Eiko Ishioka, Romaine Johnston, Willa Kim, Peter Larkin, Oliver Messel, Beni Montresor, William Pitkin, Peter Rice, Douglas Russell, Irene Sharaff, Antonio Sotomayor, Jose Varona, Tony Walton, Walter Watson, and others.
Awards
San Francisco Arts Medallion
The San Francisco Arts Medallion was created by the Museum, in 2005, to recognize those individuals whose leadership, actions, and generosity have benefited the cultural life of the Bay Area, especially in the performing arts. Recipients of the San Francisco Arts Medallion include Stanlee Gatti (2005), Gordon Getty (2006), and Diane B. Wilsey (2007).
The 2008 recipients were Mr & Mrs. George F. Jewett, Jr., philanthropists to a wide variety of institutions, including the San Francisco Ballet, Museum of Performance & Design, San Francisco Symphony, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Luncheon May 1, 2008 was held at the Four Seasons Hotel, San Francisco. Honorary Co-Chairs were Chris and Warren Hellman, the Patron Committee Co-Chairs were June Lilienthal and Therese Post, and the event’s General Chair was Toby Rose.
Articles
- Gereben, Janos. "Arts Archive Boasts New Look." San Francisco Examiner[dead link]
- Howard, Rachel. "S.F. Ballet's corps in awe of alumni." San Francisco Chronicle
- Kossman, Joshua. "Performing Arts Library In New Home, Seeking Boss." San Francisco Gate
- Rubin, Sylvia. "Arts Library Director Named." San Francisco Gate
- Upton, John. "Performing arts museum may raise curtain on new location." San Francisco Examiner[dead link]
- Workman, Bill. "S.F. Arts Library Embraces American Musicals Collection." San Francisco Gate
External links
Categories:- Museums in San Francisco, California
- Art museums in California
- Performing arts museums in California
- Theatre museums in the United States
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