Museum of Performance + Design

The Museum of Performance + Design is an independent nonprofit archives and museum devoted to the history of the performing arts and theatrical design. Located in San Francisco, California, it is the only independent, non-profit arts organization of its kind in the United States. Founded in 1947 by Russell Hartley, a dancer and designer with the San Francisco Ballet, the institution preserves and makes accessible materials documenting the performing arts, with particular emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area's diverse performing arts heritage from the Gold Rush era to the present. Through its collection of 3.5 million items, public exhibitions, educational programs, and research services, the museum serves as a vital cultural resource for scholars, artists, and the general public.

Russell Hartley established the San Francisco Dance Archives in 1947, initially as a private collection housed in his home. Hartley, who danced and designed costumes for the San Francisco Ballet during the 1940s and 1950s, had gathered materials from second-hand shops and European travels. The collection moved in 1975 to the Presidio Branch of the San Francisco Public Library as the Archives for the Performing Arts, where Hartley curated more than 60 exhibitions over five years. In 1981, the archives returned briefly to Hartley's home due to space constraints. The San Francisco Ballet then allocated space on the fourth floor of the Opera House, and on May 4, 1983, the organization opened to the public with professional staff and a board of directors. Hartley died shortly after this opening and bequeathed his collection to the institution. In 1989, the organization relocated to 399 Grove Street in the Civic Center area, renovating the facility and adopting the name San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum. A move in 1999 to the Veterans Building in the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center provided expanded space for the growing collection, staff, and researchers. On its 60th anniversary in 2007, the organization became the Museum of Performance + Design to reflect its broadened mission. The Veterans Building closed in summer 2013 for seismic upgrading, prompting a move to a south of Market location on Folsom Street near the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. The museum was incorporated and established as a charitable organization in 1976.

The Museum's collection encompasses more than 3.5 million items spanning the full range of performing arts disciplines. The holdings include books, periodicals, playbills, clippings, photographs, posters, sheet music, plays and libretti, radio interviews, videotapes, and musical theater recordings. The collection also features theatrical design research materials, costume and set design renderings, personal papers of performers, patrons, and critics, and the archive of several local performing arts organizations. Special collections document individuals, productions, organizations, and genres significant to performing arts in California, with particular emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area. These include biographical files on actors, dancers, musicians, composers, conductors, choreographers, singers, and other performing artists. The museum also maintains the Legacy Oral History Program, created in 1988 by Jeff Friedman, Ph.D., which produces full-life oral histories with emphasis on personal experience in the performing arts. The museum's online resources include approximately 4,300 photographs, audiovisual recordings, and printed memorabilia accessible 24 hours a day.

The Museum serves as the official archives for several of the Bay Area's most significant performing arts organizations. These include the San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, Stern Grove Festival, Lamplighters, Loring Club, Merola Opera Program, Pickle Family Circus, and San Francisco Municipal Chorus, among others. The museum's digital collections encompass specialized archives such as the Bay Area Theater Images Collection, the Chinese Theater Images Collection, the Christensen Family Digital Archive, the Anna Halprin Digital Archive, and the Leonid Yakobson Digital Archive. The Legacy Oral History Program has been recognized nationally and internationally as a model for performing arts documentation, with most interviews published in hardbound archival-quality books containing edited text, photographs, introductions by peers, biographies, historical timelines, appendices, and detailed indexes. The Theater Film Archive and materials related to the San Francisco Musical Club also form part of the holdings.

The Museum's current temporary location is situated between Potrero Hill and Bernal Heights in San Francisco. This site houses a small exhibit showcasing highlights from the museum's 75 years of collecting. The museum previously occupied space at 2200 Jerrold Avenue, Suite T, in the Bayview District. Earlier locations included the Veterans Building in the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center at 401 Van Ness Avenue in the Civic Center, a facility at 399 Grove Street, the fourth floor of the San Francisco Opera House, and the Presidio Branch of the San Francisco Public Library. The 2013 departure from the Veterans Building was necessitated by seismic upgrading and renovation of that structure.

The Museum of Performance + Design is an independent nonprofit organization funded through memberships, corporate, foundation, and individual gifts, with additional support from the Grants for the Arts program of the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. Onsite visits to the current temporary location require strong recommendation for reservations, which can be made by email or telephone. The museum provides research appointments for scholars and maintains library services for researchers. Its mission emphasizes keeping the unfolding history of the performing arts in the San Francisco Bay Area alive through collecting, preserving, and providing access to performance and theater design materials. The organization celebrates artists' legacies and fosters mutual support within the cultural ecosystem through dynamic stewardship of its collection and innovative public humanities programming.