Arts

The Arts Collection brings together materials from the worlds of music, theatre, dance, magic, cinema, crafts, television, radio, and the visual arts.

What's in the Arts Collection?

This is the largest publicly accessible arts collection in Victoria containing a wide range of materials in a variety of formats. These include books, journals, recorded music, musical scores, sheet music and ephemera. There is also a large selection of arts-related dictionaries, encyclopedias, online and electronic databases, indexes and directories.

What's special about this collection?

Many important 19th and 20th century fine arts periodicals complement an extensive collection of books on European art and the history of western art. Australian art also features strongly, particularly in the Australian Art and Artists (AAA) collection of exhibition ephemera.

Performing arts is also well represented in this collection which not only covers theatre-arts but also film, television and radio. Along with recent material there are some extremely important 19th century journals such as Le Theatre from Paris and Dramatic Notes from London. A special feature is the W. G. Alma Conjuring Collection which includes books and journals on the art of conjuring, biographical information on magicians, posters, promotional memorabilia and magic apparatus.

The Arts Collection also contains a wide range of material for musicians and music researchers. This includes musical scores and sheet music (popular and classical), collected editions of composers' works, piano-vocal scores of operas and musicals, biographies and historical works. Recorded sound and video in various formats - including 78 RPM, vinyl, DVDs and compact discs - is also well represented in the collection.

How do I view material in this collection?

A selection of arts-related books, journals, magazines, audiovisual materials, indexes and databases is readily available for reading and browsing in the Arts Reading Room. Rare and fragile materials, including the AAA collection can be ordered through the catalogue or at the Arts information desk. These items can only be viewed by appointment in the Heritage Collections Reading Room.