The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center is more than just a library. It’s a place where anyone can go to learn about all things theater, dance and music.
In an interview with The Broadway Banner, Brendan Leonard, the library’s education and outreach coordinator, explained the different parts of the museum while emphasizing just how accessible the library is to the general public.
“We are the only location that has both a circulating collection and a research collection,” Leonard said. The library has three divisions — theater, dance and music — going way back.
“There’s material here that dates back to the 1100s,” Leonard said. “All of this material belongs to you all with your Public Library Card.” (Get your NYPL card here.)
“I like to say everyone’s as good as their New York Public Library card, whether you’re great at the performing arts, just getting started, somewhere in between, (or) none of those things,” Leonard said. “We want this material to inspire your creativity and move you to get started on a project that we could be archiving someday.”
Whether you enter the library from the Lincoln Center Plaza — past the fountain, to the right of the Metropolitan Opera and to the left of the Lincoln Center Theater –or from Amsterdam Avenue side, Leonard encourages people to arrive open minded and curious. You’ll never know what you can uncover when researching, he said.
The library also has ongoing exhibits that spotlight its vast collections.
Currently, that includes “Martha Graham: Mother of Psychological Dance,” putting Martha Graham’s life and dance techniques on display. (Originally set to close Nov. 7, it has been extended to an undetermined later date.) They also have the “Unleashed” exhibit (looking at the pets of the stars of performing arts) and “Through the Perilous Fight,” which shows one of only 11 known copies of the first edition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and includes a typo. (It spells “Patriotic” as “Pariotic.”)
Meet a ‘collaborator in waiting‘ at the reference desk
If you can’t get to the library, the library will send materials to you through something called an interlibrary loan, Leonard said. And it’s all free.
“We don’t even do late fees at the library anymore, so at this point it’s pretty hard to take your money,” Leonard said with a laugh.
He introduced us to a reference librarian who he assured us would help with any library question. Instead of just pointing you to a bookshelf to look for yourself, these librarians will not only help you look for whatever you need but also help you find things you didn’t think you needed to know.
And they won’t shush you.
“If you want to see a librarian get loud, ask them a question,” Leonard joked. “A librarian is a collaborator in waiting … someone who’s going to get so excited to connect you with information and resources.”
Soon, we arrived at the archive and research library, where important and valuable artifacts can be viewed, handled and studied. Appointments are preferred, but they also take walk-ins.
Leonard then took us to one of the coolest parts of the library, The Theater on Film and Tape Archive, which holds thousands of recordings of live performances, from Broadway and Off-Broadway shows to interviews and regional theater productions.
The collection doesn’t include current Broadway productions, but theater professionals and fans can look up past productions and see how they were staged.
To avoid problems with the lifting of intellectual property, a patron can only watch a recording once, and only at the library, although Leonard has begun taking some recordings to New York City classrooms. A class studying “The Crucible,” for example, could see a Broadway revival of the Arthur Miller play.
By being so accessible and eager to help, the NYPL Library for the Performing Arts continues to share important theater history and the joy of theater, piquing interest in the topic and sharing the magic of performance.
Whether someone just wants to watch a recorded play or needs information to write a paper, the NYPL staff makes it easy for you.
Did you know?
The Library for the Performing Arts has a record collection and a record player for you to use free of charge. A small supply of vinyl is on display, but the collection is extensive. And Brendan Leonard said he’s had patrons who own vinyl records but no record player come to the library to give them a spin.
Khloe JeanBart is a senior at Park Slope Collegiate in Brooklyn.
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