Purpose
The principal objective of the Performing Arts Index is to identify and catalogue the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of images of performance. The index encompasses performing arts in varying styles (folk, social, religious, theatrical, and ethnic/national) and events (celebration, ceremony ritual, rehearsal, entertainment and recreation). In addition, the PAI archive has images of musical instruments and production elements (costumes, masks, and scenery props).
Currently the PAI contains approximately 4000 images filed in binders and arranged according to museum curatorial department with individual catalog records. From the beginning, the Index has offered black and white photographs of relevant images and cataloging information about objects in the museum collections. The information includes: museum accession number, curatorial department, negative number, artist/maker/school/workshop, artist’s date of birth/death, title/object name, brief description, material/medium/technique, dimensions, credit, curatorial classification, period, and style.
The PAI plans to create an electronically classified database that would allow retrieval of images by subject search, full text records and Museum catalogue information including bibliographic records. This database will be designed for maximum compatibility with The Museum System (TMS), the museum’s electronic collections management program.