Curtain
Up! The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to Reopen at Lincoln
Center after Major Renovation
Public Service Begins October
29 at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Free Public Open House on Saturday, October 13
New York, September 4, 2001
-- While it may look familiar from the outside, visitors to The New
York Public Library for the Performing Arts will find it dramatically
transformed when the Library reopens at Lincoln Center after a major renovation.
After operating from temporary quarters during the three-year construction
period, the Library reopens for regular public service with expanded hours
on Monday, October 29. A free public open house will be held Saturday,
October 13. The $38 million project, designed by Polshek Partnership Architects,
reflects the vast changes in the needs of users, and in methods of documenting
the arts, that have developed since the Library was established in 1965.
(See the Fact Sheet for details).
"This redesign of one of the world's most popular research
libraries is a response to the enormous increase in its collections and
usership, the extraordinary advances in information technology, and the
development of large multimedia collections that document live performances,"
said New York Public Library President Paul LeClerc. "We've made the collections
more accessible, created inviting reading rooms and galleries, and added
the latest technology to improve the environment for the public, the staff,
and the collections."
When the building reopens to the public, it will also have
a new name -- the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center -- in honor of the
couple whose generous contribution to the Library made the new state-of-the-art
facility possible. "The Cullmans' support will enable the Library to enhance
greatly its ability to document the performing arts and provide broad
public access to the materials in its collections," said Samuel C. Butler,
Chairman of the Library's Board of Trustees. Major support for the renovation
was also provided by the family of Donald and Mary Oenslager. The City
of New York, under the leadership of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and City
Council Speaker Peter F. Vallone, has contributed more than $20 million
to the renovation of the Library for the Performing Arts. The Library
will formally express its gratitude to all the contributors to this project
at an opening ribbon-cutting ceremony on October 11.
"The list of improvements to the Library is impressive,"
said William D. Walker, Senior Vice President and Andrew W. Mellon Director
of The Research Libraries. "They include a grand, light-filled reading
room, spectacular loft-like exhibition galleries, new audiovisual stations,
a vastly more efficient centralized retrieval system, expanded storage,
an enhanced preservation lab, a four-fold increase in public-access computers,
and a massive number of networked databases." He added that "an automated
system will control temperatures where delicate materials are stored."
The
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The Library for the Performing Arts, one of four major research centers
of The New York Public Library, serves more than 425,000 visitors a year
and houses the world's most extensive combination of circulating, research,
and rare archival collections in its field. The materials are available
free of charge, along with a wide range of exhibitions, seminars, and
performances. Approximately 30 percent of the Library's holdings are books,
but it is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book
materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts,
correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs,
posters, and photographs. The Library's Research Collections are the Billy
Rose Theatre Collection, the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, the Music
Division, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound.
It also features extensive Circulating Collections with materials in music,
dance, drama, film, and arts administration, including large collections
of circulating audio and video recordings.
"This marks the first major renovation of the Library since
it opened in 1965," said Jacqueline Z. Davis, The Barbara G. and Lawrence
A. Fleischman Executive Director of The New York Public Library for the
Performing Arts. "The Library's collections have grown exponentially since
then to nine million items that require more than seventeen and a half
miles of shelves. In addition," Davis said, "technology has completely
changed the way materials are stored and accessed. The reconfigured space
will allow us to provide better service in a more pleasing environment
that can comfortably accommodate continued collection processing and preservation
work. It also gives us the opportunity to make significant improvements
to our staff work areas." (Read more about the History
of the Library for the Performing Arts).
New
Reading Room for Research Collections
The most noticeable and dramatic change in the Library is the new Research
Collections reading room on the third floor. The grand room extends across
the width of the building and features two banks of skylights that bring
in natural light and provide glimpses of surrounding Lincoln Center buildings.
The room also reflects one of the most significant changes in service
at the renovated Library. Previously, each of the four Research Collections
had its own separate reading room. The new unified space makes it much
easier for researchers to work simultaneously with materials from different
divisions. This is of increased importance at a time when so many new
performance works are multidisciplinary in nature. Now Library users will
have access to items from the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Jerome Robbins
Dance Division, Music Division, and Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives
of Recorded Sound all from one location. The unified room also allows
the Library to provide users with faster service and to function more
efficiently by eliminating redundant operations.
The Research Collections reading room will feature 46 video
playback stations and 10 audio stations. Each of those stations will also
have a networked computer workstation to control the audio and visual
materials and let users communicate remotely with technicians running
the playback equipment. The reading room will also feature approximately
30 workstations with access to the Library's catalogs, performing arts
and general reference databases, and the Internet.
Circulating Collections
Two large reading rooms on the first and second floors, both with tall
windows overlooking Amsterdam Avenue, have been reconfigured for the Circulating
Collections (the second floor room was previously a large exhibition gallery).
The first floor room features the Library's circulating recorded sound
and moving image collection and includes 14 listening units on which Library
users may review compact discs and cassette tapes. Circulating music collections
will be located on the second floor in the Robert W. Wilson Music Circulating
Collection Reading Room. The Miriam and Harold Steinberg Reading Room
for circulating drama, film, dance, and arts administration collections,
also on the second floor, has been refurbished and outfitted with new
computers and viewing stations.
New
Galleries
When visitors enter the Library's first floor from Lincoln Center Plaza,
they will immediately notice soaring glass walls, large colorful signage,
and a new main exhibition site, the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery.
The Vincent Astor Gallery is located near the Library's Amsterdam Avenue
entrance. Although previously used as an exhibition space, the Astor Gallery
has been redesigned with a raised ceiling to create a more versatile room
to accommodate exhibits, meetings, and special events. Both galleries
have been provided with new state-of-the-art cases, flexible lighting
systems, and advanced power and digital data connections to support the
audio, video, and interactive exhibit components created in the Shelby
Cullom Davis Museum. To celebrate the reopening, the first exhibition
will fill both galleries with interpretive displays from the Library for
the Performing Arts' collections. Transformations, which looks
at transformations inherent to the creative process, will be on view from
October 29, 2001 to January 5, 2002. The Oenslager Gallery will now be
open Monday through Saturday until 8 p.m. so that audience members may
attend Library exhibitions before performances at Lincoln Center.
Multimedia and Technology
Since the debut of The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center in 1965,
methods for documenting the performing arts have changed dramatically.
The Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) and its Jerome Robbins
Archive of the Recorded Moving Image have become active producers of videotapes
of live performances and have built collections that include thousands
of items. These collections are among the most popular in the Library,
yet the systems to play these materials were largely developed and installed
in piecemeal fashion over time. Additionally, the Library's Rodgers &
Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound includes collections of more than
500,000 audio recordings. The renovated Library includes a suite of audio
and video studios for the preservation of these materials, plus playback
areas where for the first time all of the Library's video and audio materials
will be played from a central source.
Additionally, the Library has been extensively wired with
a cabling system that will carry analog sound and video, digitized sound
and video, data from the Internet and Library databases, and communications
from users regarding playback. Overall, in the various reading rooms and
public spaces, there will be approximately 200 public access computers
for Library users.
As the Library reopens, it will also launch a new initiative
to make a large portion of its collections available digitally. The
Treasures of the American Performing Arts, 1875-1923, funded in part
by the National Endowment for the Arts, will give Library users digital
access to approximately 16,000 items that may be used either remotely
through the Internet or through workstations at the Library. The wide-ranging
materials available include such items as clippings files, sheet music,
theater photographs, circus posters, and silent films. This project will
greatly broaden access to Library collections and also help conserve fragile
materials by reducing the need to handle original physical items.
Bruno
Walter Auditorium
The Library's Bruno Walter Auditorium is a 203-seat venue that hosts a
popular free series of music and dance performances, readings, seminars,
and showings of classic films. The renovated auditorium will include new
seats and carpet-ing and an acoustical upgrade featuring diffusion panels
and a new sound system. A new video system will make it possible to videotape
performances. A new entrance will make the theater accessible to wheelchair
users. The green room has been completely renovated and a dressing room
and shower have been added.
The inaugural series in the Bruno Walter Auditorium will
be part of the UK in NY Festival and will feature free performances,
lectures, screenings, and panel discussions related to British performing
arts. Participants include Richard Rodney Bennett, Richard Easton, Akram
Khan, Thea Musgrave, Sheridan Morley, Christopher Wheeldon, and many others.
Technology Training Center
One of the many new technological features of the renovated building is
a technical training center that will offer classes and other resources
on research in the performing arts for students, researchers, performers,
and others. The center will have a dozen training stations as well as
integrated audiovisual systems. Based on the successful model at The New
York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library, classes
on a diverse range of topics within the performing arts will be taught
by librarians and other staff members.
Orientation Center
Visitors to the Library will be greeted at a new information desk where
Library staff members will be available to orient users to the Library's
online systems and refer them to the appropriate collections and other
resources in the Library. The Orientation Center will also feature a bank
of computer workstations providing access to Library catalogs and other
information.
Collection Preservation and Environmental
Systems
The renovated facility has been designed with the care, preservation,
and storage of the millions of materials that make up the collections
as a primary concern. The most important development in this regard is
the installation of a comprehensive, computerized 24-hour climate control
system that provides optimal temperature and humidity settings in galleries
and storage areas. This system also controls climate conditions in the
staff and public areas.
Custom-built compact shelving has been installed to allow
for increased storage capacity and more efficient use of storage space.
High-speed book lifts will bring materials from basement storage areas
to users in the Research Collections reading room. The Library for the
Performing Arts will also, for the first time, have a separate conservation
area for paper-based materials where items for all the Library's Research
Collections can be treated.
Polshek Partnership Architects,
LLP
The renovation was designed by the Manhattan-based architectural firm
Pol-shek Partnership Architects, LLP. The design team included James Polshek,
Duncan Hazard, Tomas Rossant, and Mark Thaler. Founded in 1963 by James
Stewart Polshek, the firm is known for its work on behalf of many of the
city's cultural and educational institutions. Recent projects include
the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural
History; Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall; the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium
at the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the expansion of Sym-phony Space on the
Upper West Side; and the New York Botanical Garden International Plant
Science Center.
Funding
The renovation of The New York Public Library for the Performing
Arts is made possible through the generous support of Dorothy and Lewis
B. Cullman. Major gifts toward the renovation have been given by The Family
of Donald and Mary Oenslager and The Kresge Foundation. Additional support
is provided by Julian H. Robertson, Jr., The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels
Foundation, and other private donors.
Funding from the City of New York was made possible through
the support of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, City Council Speaker Peter F.
Vallone, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, Council Member
Ronnie M. Eldridge, and the entire Manhattan Delegation of the City Council.
An additional Con-gressional Appropriation was provided through the U.S.
Department of Hous-ing and Urban Development.
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Expanded Library Hours
Monday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Tuesday through Thursday: noon to 8 p.m.; Friday
and Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Closed Sunday.
The Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery is open
until 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Closed Sunday.
Public Open House
Saturday, October 13, noon to 6 p.m. with free tours of the newly renovated
library, the presentation of (In)Formations A Site-Specific Performance/Installation
created by Stephan Koplowitz & Company, and preview of the exhibition
Transformations.
Rave Reviews
"The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
is the most unique and extraordinary resource of its kind in the
world. I relish inhabiting the place for its energetic atmosphere,
surprising and illuminating exhibits, and incredible wealth of material."
-- Harold Prince, Producer/Director
"There is no institution in New York City more important
to me than the Library for the Performing Arts. Whether I need to
research an 18th- century French opera, or a ballet stage design
from the 1930s, or a piece of music that absolutely cannot be found
in any store in town, I know that I'll find it all at this library.
That the building is reopening soon is fantastic, the wait has been
torturous. It's really one of those places that makes living in
New York not just tolerable, but a thrill." -- Mark
Morris, Choreographer
"By preserving today's works, this Library is encouraging
and ensuring a future for life upon the boards. I feel it an honor
and privilege that my own work has been included in the Library's
archives and that others may utilize the Library and its magical
resources
as I have." -- Susan Stroman, Director/Choreographer
"Having spent countless hours researching music in
many different libraries, I consider New York's Public Library for
the Performing Arts a true diamond." -- Cecilia Bartoli,
Singer
"Many stage works are archivally recorded only in
the Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive and can only be seen
there. I go to the Library often to look at past work I have done
and to see the theater work of others. There are always other viewers
there and we sit side by side taking in New York's theater history."
-- Bill Irwin, Actor
"This Library provides a unique archive of contemporary
performing arts. By preserving on videotape performances of my work,
it will be possible for other artists to reference the original
intentions of these first productions." -- Philip
Glass, Composer
"The growing artist must respond to three things in
pursuit of her or his craft: the past, the present, and the future.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is a vital tool
on all of these levels for artists in every field." -- Paula
Vogel, Playwright
|
Images on this page: (1) Daniel Nagrin in Man of
Action, 1951. Photograph by Marcus Blechman. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.
(2) Three letters from Isadora Duncan to Edward Gordon Craig, dated 1906,
1908, and 1913. Craig-Duncan Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.
(3) Detail from a sketch for Beethoven's "Archduke" Trio, op.
97, ca. 1810. Music Division. (4) Vaslav Nijinsky in Schéhérazade
by Michel Foline, Paris, 1910. Photograph by A. Bert. Roger Pryor Dodge
Collection, Jerome Robbins Dance Division. (5) Several of The Mapleson
Cylinders, original wax cylinders recorded at the Metropolitan Opera House
between 1900 and 1904. Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded
Sound. (6) Poster for Imre Kiralfy's spectacle America, 1893. Billy
Rose Theatre Collection.
Contact: Rima Corben, Herb Scher / (212) 221-7676
Renovation Fact Sheet
Performing Arts Library
History
Notable User Stories
Fun facts
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hscher, rcorben:
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