Theater/Performing Arts Museums

Institutions that acquire, preserve, research and exhibit permanent and/or traveling collections of artifacts which relate to the history of the performing arts including dance, theater, opera, circus arts, comedy, storytelling and eclectic stage performances by artists such as magicians, acrobats, impersonators, stage hypnotists and ventriloquists. Collections may focus on a particular theatrical form (e.g., vaudeville, kabuki); performing arts in a particular era and/or community (e.g., early San Francisco stage); props associated with a particular type of performing art (e.g., magic apparatus); the lives and careers of famous stage actors, dancers, puppeteers, clowns, magicians and other performers (e.g., Houdini); and books, periodicals, playbills, programs, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, biographical files, audio and videotapes, costumes, sets and other associated memorabilia.