Theatre Museum
Encyclopedia
The Theatre Museum in the Covent Garden
district of London
, England
, was the United Kingdom
's national museum of the performing arts
. It was a branch of the UK's national museum of applied arts, the Victoria and Albert Museum
. It closed in 2007, and has now been replaced by new galleries at the V&A's main site in South Kensington http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/theatre_performance/index.html.
The Theatre Museum told the story of the performing arts in Britain from the sixteenth century to the present. It covered all the live performing arts including drama
, dance
, opera
, musical theatre
, circus
, puppet
ry, music hall
and live art. It claimed to have the largest collections of documents and artefacts on these subjects in the world. Costumes, designs, manuscripts, books, video recordings, including the National Video Archive of Performance
, posters and paintings were used to reconstruct the details of past performances and the lives of performers, past and contemporary.
The museum received its main funding from the British government via the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
, and admission was free.
In 1971 Harry R. Beard donated his collection of over 20,000 theatrical and operatic prints, texts, and programmes. The Theatre Museum was created as a separate institution in 1974 when the two collections held by the V&A were combined with those of the British Theatre Museum Association, which had been founded in 1957 to collect theatrical material to increase the impetus for the creation of a separate national museum, and of the Friends of the Museum of Performing Arts, another private endeavour towards the creation of a theatrical museum, which owned much Ballets Russes
material.
The new museum acquired many further collections through gift, purchase and bequest. These included the archives of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre
and of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
(relating to Gilbert and Sullivan
operas), the design collections of the Arts Council
and British Council
, the Antony Hippisley Coxe Circus Collection and the British Model Theatre and Puppet Guild Collection. In 1987 the Museum moved into converted premises in Covent Garden. In the 1990s it placed renewed emphasis on the acquisition of 20th century material. In 1993 the National Video Archive of Stage Performance (later renamed National Video Archive of Performance) filmed its first production, Richard III starring Ian McKellan. The collection included over 200 productions by 2008.
In December 2006, it was announced that the Victoria and Albert Museum
and Blackpool Council were in discussions to move the archives to Blackpool
, where a new National Museum of Performing Arts would be located. The reasons given by the local council are that Blackpool has a strong theatre history, has one of the most diverse and thriving theatre districts in the UK and also houses the National Theatre of Variety.
On 7 January 2007, after failing to raise £5 million for refurbishment of the premises in Covent Garden, the closure of the museum was confirmed.
- The Exhibition and The Story of the Supremes
. From March 2009, to coincide with the opening of new Performance Galleries within the V&A, it was re-named V&A Theatre & Performance Department. The collections will continue to be displayed in touring exhibitions and object loans worldwide. The reading room remains open to researchers at Blythe House
, Kensington Olympia. The V&A Theatre Collections also owns TheatreVoice.
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
district of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, was the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's national museum of the performing arts
Performing arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
. It was a branch of the UK's national museum of applied arts, the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
. It closed in 2007, and has now been replaced by new galleries at the V&A's main site in South Kensington http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/theatre_performance/index.html.
The Theatre Museum told the story of the performing arts in Britain from the sixteenth century to the present. It covered all the live performing arts including drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
, opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
, puppet
Puppet
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....
ry, music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
and live art. It claimed to have the largest collections of documents and artefacts on these subjects in the world. Costumes, designs, manuscripts, books, video recordings, including the National Video Archive of Performance
National video archive of performance
The National Video Archive of Performance is a film and video archive in London, England which holds recordings of stage performances.In 1992 the Theatre Museum, a branch museum of the Victoria & Albert Museum, began recording stage performance in the United Kingdom...
, posters and paintings were used to reconstruct the details of past performances and the lives of performers, past and contemporary.
The museum received its main funding from the British government via the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is a department of the United Kingdom government, with responsibility for culture and sport in England, and some aspects of the media throughout the whole UK, such as broadcasting and internet....
, and admission was free.
History
The origins of the museum can be traced back to 1911 when collector Gabrielle Enthoven began a campaign for the creation of a "National Museum of Theatre Arts". The Victoria & Albert Museum accepted custodianship of Enthoven's collection in 1924, and she continued to add to it until her death in 1950.In 1971 Harry R. Beard donated his collection of over 20,000 theatrical and operatic prints, texts, and programmes. The Theatre Museum was created as a separate institution in 1974 when the two collections held by the V&A were combined with those of the British Theatre Museum Association, which had been founded in 1957 to collect theatrical material to increase the impetus for the creation of a separate national museum, and of the Friends of the Museum of Performing Arts, another private endeavour towards the creation of a theatrical museum, which owned much Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...
material.
The new museum acquired many further collections through gift, purchase and bequest. These included the archives of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
and of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
(relating to Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas), the design collections of the Arts Council
Arts council
An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad...
and British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
, the Antony Hippisley Coxe Circus Collection and the British Model Theatre and Puppet Guild Collection. In 1987 the Museum moved into converted premises in Covent Garden. In the 1990s it placed renewed emphasis on the acquisition of 20th century material. In 1993 the National Video Archive of Stage Performance (later renamed National Video Archive of Performance) filmed its first production, Richard III starring Ian McKellan. The collection included over 200 productions by 2008.
Closure
On 26 September 2006, it was announced that the museum would close in January 2007 because of a lack of funds. A group called The Guardians of The Theatre Museum was formed in late Autumn 2006, by the theatre community, to try to support the museum.In December 2006, it was announced that the Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
and Blackpool Council were in discussions to move the archives to Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, where a new National Museum of Performing Arts would be located. The reasons given by the local council are that Blackpool has a strong theatre history, has one of the most diverse and thriving theatre districts in the UK and also houses the National Theatre of Variety.
On 7 January 2007, after failing to raise £5 million for refurbishment of the premises in Covent Garden, the closure of the museum was confirmed.
Current status and future
The Theatre Museum was temporarily called the V&A Theatre Collections and has moved permanently to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The department has contributed to the exhibitions Collaborators: UK Design for Performance 2003-2007 (in association with the Society of British Theatre Designers), KylieKylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
- The Exhibition and The Story of the Supremes
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
. From March 2009, to coincide with the opening of new Performance Galleries within the V&A, it was re-named V&A Theatre & Performance Department. The collections will continue to be displayed in touring exhibitions and object loans worldwide. The reading room remains open to researchers at Blythe House
Blythe House
Blythe House is a listed building located at 23 Blythe Road, West Kensington, London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, UK. Originally built as the headquarters of the Post Office Savings Bank, it is now used as a store and archive by the Victoria and Albert, Science and British Museums.-Post...
, Kensington Olympia. The V&A Theatre Collections also owns TheatreVoice.
External links
- Theatre and Performance Collection at the V&A
- V&A Theatre Archives – Information about access to V&A Theatre and Performance collections in the Reading Room of the V&AVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
located at Blythe House in KensingtonKensingtonKensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
Olympia. - Link to archive collections held at the V&A Theatre and Performance Department
- "London’s Theatre Museum - Something Worth Saving". Website of the "Guardians of The Theatre Museum". Accessed May 1, 2008.