LibGuides: Subject Guides for Websites: Arts

ARTS - PERFORMING & VISUAL Subject Guide

Actors Equity Association (AEA or Equity)
• https://www.actorsequity.org/
• AEA: an AFL-CIO labor union, also affiliated with the FIA
• .org
Ad*Access
• https://repository.duke.edu/dc/adaccess
• Duke University Libraries
• .edu
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Provides images and information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911-1957 in five main subject areas: Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II.
American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment 1870-1920
• http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/vshtml/vshome.html
• Library of Congress
• .gov
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Provides access to a multimedia anthology, including 334 English- and Yiddish-language play scripts, 146 theater playbills and programs, 61 motion pictures, 10 sound recordings, and 143 photographs and 29 memorabilia items documenting the life and career of Harry Houdini
Artcyclopedia.com
• https://www.educationworld.com/awards/past/2000/r0500-12.shtml
• Education World
• .com
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This site is a comprehensive database of museum-quality fine art that can be viewed on the Internet.
Aria Database
• http://www.aria-database.com/
• Professor Rob Glaubitz, University of Central Oklahoma
• .com
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Collection of information about Opera and operatic Arias. Includes some sound files and translations as well as information on the complete operatic aria collections of Mozart, Verdi, Berlioz, Wagner, and Puccini
Art History Resources
• http://arthistoryresources.net/
• Dr. Christopher L.E.C. Whitcombe, founder/owner
• .net
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Index to art history Websites with access to images. Includes art from the various continents, prehistoric to contemporary times, as well as prints and photography.
Art Terms - Tate's Online Glossary
• https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms
• Tate's Museums of Art
• .org - United Kingdom
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Contains definitions, most with illustrations, of over 400 terms including artist groups and art movements, techniques, media and other art jargon.
Back Stage: The Actor's Resource
• http://www.backstage.com/bso/index.jsp
• BackStage.com
• .com
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A commercial resource for actors regarding all aspects of the entertainment industry. Includes casting notices, film & TV production listings, production & industry interviews, audition coverage, etc. Some features are free, others require a subscription.
Canadian Music Periodical Index (CMP)
• https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/music-periodical-index/Pages/canadian-music-periodical-index.aspx
• Library and Archives Canada
• .ca
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Provides an index of articles from Canadian music periodicals. Full texts of articles are not available from this site, but can be obtained through interlibrary loan. The CMPI database includes over 37 000 entries on articles dating from the late-19th century to the present day.
Directory of Open Access Journals - Arts
• https://doaj.org/subjects
• Managed by Infrastructure Services for Open Access C.I.C. - U.K.
• .org
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Provides access to peer-reviewed open-access journals in Fine Arts (and other subjects).
Europeana
• http://www.europeana.eu/portal/
• Europeana Foundation, co-funded by the European Union
• .ed (Europe)
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Provides a single access point to millions of books, paintings, films, museum objects and archival records that have been digitized throughout Europe. It is an authoritative source of information coming from European cultural and scientific institutions.
International Inventory of Musical Sources
• http://opac.rism.info/index.php
• RISM: Repertoire International des Sources Musicales
• .info
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This free online-catalogue provides an index of around 700,000 historical music manuscripts. The original sources are available from the libraries, music archives, and private collections as indicated in the RISM database. These institutions can often be approached for reproductions.
Internet Broadway Database (IBDB)
• http://www.ibdb.com//
• Broadway League
• .com
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Provides a comprehensive database of shows produced on Broadway, including all "title page" information about each production. IBDB also offers historical information, various statistics, and fun facts related to Broadway. Search by: shows, people, theaters, characters, awards, songs and grosses (amount of money grossed by the shows).
LIFE photo archive hosted by Google
• http://images.google.com/hosted/life
• Google
• .com
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Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.
Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP)
• http://www.mocp.org/
• Columbia College Chicago
• .org
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Provides free Web access to the permanent collection of more than10,000 photographs and photography-related objects. Search by artist’s name or artwork title; browse by materials and photographic print media or a subject list of artists.
MUSOPEN
• http://musopen.org/
• MUSOPEN, a non-profit founded by Aaron Dunn, Palo Alto, California
• .org
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Provides access to audio recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Allows browsing by composer, performer, instrument, form and time period.
Photo Study Collection Database
• http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/photo/index.html
• Getty Research Institute
• .edu
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Available online to all users, this database provides descriptive, non-pictorial records of about half of the photos in the Getty’s Photo Study Collections. Searchable by key word and artist name, the database is particularly useful for searches across periods, styles, and media.
Research Guides and Bibliographies
• http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/guides_bibliographies/
• Getty Research Institute
• .edu
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Provides descriptive guides with images on selected topics, such as: Artists’ Biographies Research Guide, Frank Lloyd Wright Resources, History of Photography in China, Prints after Poussin, etc.
Researching African-American Photographers
• https://lib.guides.umbc.edu/c.php?g=24919
• University of Maryland at Baltimore County (UMBC), Albin O. Kuhn Library
• .edu
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Provides selected sources of information aiding research on African American photography. Included are hardcopy catalogued general sources, information sources on individual photographers, and Websites providing additional sources of information.
Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
• http://www.sagaftra.org/
• SAG-AFTRA, a merger of two labor unions
• .org
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SAG-AFTRA represents more than 165,000 actors, announcers, broadcasters journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other media professionals. It is committed to negotiating the best wages, working conditions, and health and pension benefits; preserving and expanding members’ work opportunities; vigorously enforcing our contracts; and protecting members against unauthorized use of their work.

Last update: 8/11/2021

Google Scholar

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a variation of Google. It is designed specifically for scholarly literature searches.

Advantages

It’s free to use.
It has a simple, familiar interface that works much like regular Google.
It finds scholarly books, articles, and conference papers from a wide range of disciplines.

Disadvantages

Coverage is not comprehensive. It is a good first place to start researching a paper, but not comprehensive enough to be the only place you look.
Criteria used for selecting “scholarly” materials is not given. Search results can be a mixture of articles and books as well as unpublished manuscripts, course syllabi, and high school term papers, so you must critically evaluate what you find.
Results are not always full-text or free like regular Google. Often the link for an article will take you to the publishers website where the full article is available only if you buy it.