Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal October 2008 Volume 6(5)

Conferences: Performing arts

Gripping performance

Alan Jones reports on the SIBMAS Congress, which explored saving performance culture.

What have Can Can dancing and Information science in common? The answer is such high kicks are naturally a part of a SIBMAS congress, an information conference exploring saving performance culture. The 27th International Congress of SIBMAS (Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle) took place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) this August. More than 100 participants from around the globe descended on Glasgow for a week-long conference to debate the challenges facing information professionals working in the performing arts.

It was the National Library of France in the 1950s that identified a need for a different approach to collections of performing arts and consequently founded SIBMAS as an international forum. RSAMD has a specialist performance arts library of note, the Whittaker library. It supports students, teachers, professionals and interested members of the general public alike. It is Scotland’s première performing arts library and one of the best theatre-related libraries in the UK. 

RSAMD hosting SIBMAS allowed for collaborations between the V&A Museum and the National Galleries of Scotland. The V&A brought ‘The Dressing Room’ exhibition, photographs by Simon Annand. His unique images allow us a rare glimpse of the more private face of famous actors, photographed in their West End dressing rooms, preparing to go on stage during ‘The Half’ – the last half-hour before the start of a play. The photographs do not portray the actors from a glamorous point of view, but rather, highlight their dedication.

National Galleries of Scotland on the Mound in Edinburgh undertook ‘FOOTLIGHTS: Capturing the Essence of Performance’; an exhibition which examines how artists have captured the fleeting nature of theatrical performances over the centuries. Included are works by Toulouse Lautrec, designs for the Russian theatre by Natalya Goncharova, and images of Berlin cabaret by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. There are also fantastic costume and set designs. This exhibition is open until 16 November. 

One of the strengths of a SIBMAS conference is that it’s not simply for archivists, librarians or curators. It also attracts performance professionals, academics, researchers and performance company education officers. All participants share a common goal of how best to collect or save performance heritage. The theme, ‘To capture the essence of performance & the challenge of intangible heritage’, allowed as broad a range of papers as possible, including a number on oral history. Anselm Heinrich, Glasgow University, talked on oral history and regional theatre in 1930s-40s England and Germany. Mitch Miller also from Glasgow University spoke on the disappearing life of travelling show people in Scotland.

Information professionals do not work in isolation, they must work alongside the disciplines they support. This inclusive approach is very important in the performing arts. A number of papers looked at working with artists. Janine Barrand from Arts Centre Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, gave a fascinating paper on working with Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) and pop princess Kylie. It was more than how best to preserve gold hot pants and Gladioli but also how to present their work in a museum form as Australian cultural icons. Dr Francesca Marini, UBC, Vancouver, also gave a paper on working with and filming the work of the choreographer and dancer Judith Marcuse. 

There were 50 papers in all including a new innovation to the conference programme – Exhibition Papers. Participants displayed a project in the form of an exhibition, thus allowing for more interaction with delegates. The Lindsay Anderson Archive, Stirling University, presented a fine selection of items. Matthieu Bonicel, BNF, France, presented an impressive project on Mediaeval Manuscripts on theatre for e-learning. In addition, Rupert Ridgewell, of the British Library, presented an exhibition on ‘Developments in the Concert Programmes Project’.

The excellence of the keynote speakers added to the quality of the event. Professor Shear West, Birmingham University, presented a paper on ‘Portraits of Performance: Documents, Monuments or Traces?’, looking at what we can today now read into performance portraits of the past. Lighting is possibly one of the most intangible elements of performance. The doyen of theatre lighting, Francis Reid, gave a clear and precise paper based on his work, making accessible something that’s often inaccessible to many. Neil Murray, Executive producer of the National Theatre of Scotland, presented a paper on Blackwatch, their hit show which has gone around the world to great acclaim. Finally Judith Bowers of the Britannia Panopticon Music Hall Trust did a performance / paper, complete with dancing girls, on her role in saving an old Glasgow institution. Judith has breathed life back into the space by recreating the music hall performances that once graced the boards in Argyle Street.
Generally, in-house classifications are favoured by specialist institutions. The Cataloguing Commission hosted a discussion about how best performance collections should be catalogued, as universal systems of classification often fall short and need customisation.

One of the greatest aspects of the conference was the involvement of RSAMD’s students. Musical Theatre students performed to a sanding ovation, technical and production students presented an exhibition of costumes and props and film students edited a spectacular welcoming film on Intangible Heritage. It showcased the simple fact that Scotland has performance talent by the bucket load. This is all good news for the future performance information professionals who will try and capture some it for posterity, in what ever form it might take: text, photo, database, document or drawing. 

The Congress, without doubt, made an important contribution to the development of information science and to the practical development of theatre culture on a world-wide scale. 

Alan R. Jones is Drama Librarian at RSAMD and Vice President of SIBMAS. Full Congress papers will be published in January.

Information Scotland Vol. 6(5) October 2008

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.