Performing Arts Archives

The Performing Arts Archives preserves and studies the records relating to the history of theatre, music, dance, and associated organizations in Minnesota.

About the collection

Established in 1971, its goal is to document as fully as possible the activities of individuals and groups in both professional and amateur performing arts throughout the state. The collections include the most important companies in each of the major arts fields.

Please contact ascref@umn.edu for reference questions and research appointments.

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News

Larry Long archive acquisition

The University of Minnesota Libraries is honored to have acquired American Troubadour, Larry Long's legacy collection into the Performing Arts Archive. 

The complete archive includes recordings, oral histories, media, posters, correspondence, national and local work with schools and communities, and personal writings that document his decades of songwriting and performing and artistic collaborations. 

Larry Long has written and performed hundreds of ballads celebrating community and history makers. He has given musical voice to struggling Midwest farmers, embattled workers, veterans, and underrepresented communities. Long’s work in Minnesota elementary schools sparked the creation of an international non-profit organization, Community Celebration of Place, which creates intergenerational and multicultural opportunities for students to learn and grow through a program called Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song.

Archives of Pulitzer-Prize winning composer acquired

The Performing Arts Archives recently welcomed the archives of composer and Professor Emeritus Dominick Argento. The collection, totaling 30 boxes, includes letters, score manuscripts, signed photographs, and several rare recordings.

The materials illustrate the composer’s impressive creative output as well as his collaborative relationships with other Twin Cities musicians and musical groups, including Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence, Dale Warland and the Dale Warland Singers, the Minnesota Opera, and tenor Vern Sutton. For more information about the collection, please contact ascref@umn.edu.

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Explore the Performing Arts Archives

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Visit

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Note: Appointments are required to visit the reading room within these hours.
More Andersen Library hours

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Give to the collection

Consider a financial donation to help continue to build and preserve the Performing Arts Archives.

Give to the collection

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