The Museum of Performance (formerly the Theatre Museum) in the Covent Garden district of London is the United Kingdom's national museum of the performing arts. It is a branch of the UK's national museum of applied arts, the Victoria & Albert Museum. Covent Garden is a shopping and entertainment complex in central London. ... St. ... The Cromwell Road entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum viewed from Thurloe Square The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) is on Cromwell Road in Kensington, West London. ...

The Theatre Museum tells the story of the performing arts in Britain from the sixteenth century to the present. It covers all the live performing arts including drama, dance, opera, musical theatre, circus, puppetry, music hall and live art. It claims to have the largest collections of documents and artefacts on these subjects in the world. Costumes, designs, manuscripts, books, video recordings, including the National Video Archive of Performance, posters and paintings are used to reconstruct the details of past performances and the lives of performers, past and contemporary. Drama is a term generally used to refer to a literary form involving parts written for actors to perform. ... A contemporary dancer rehearsing in a dance studio Dance (from Old French dance, further history unknown) generally refers to human movement either used as a form of expression (see also body language) or presented in a social, spiritual or performance setting. ... The foyer of Charles Garniers Opéra, Paris, opened 1875 Opera is an art form consisting of a dramatic stage performance set to music. ... Musical theater (or theatre) is a form of theater combining music, songs, dance, and spoken dialogue. ... The term circus originates from Latin and can mean several things: A public equipped space for shows and other spectacles of the Classical period (e. ... A puppet is any controlled character, whether formed by a shadow, strings, by the use of a glove, by direct mechanical contrivance (for example a cable-controlled figure for film or TV) or electronic guidance (such as a radio or infrared remote controller). ... Music Hall is a form of British theatrical entertainment which reached its peak of popularity between 1850 and 1960. ...

The origins of the museum can be traced back to 1911 when collector Gabrielle Enthoven began a campaign for the creation of a "National Museum of Theatre Arts". The Victoria & Albert Museum accepted custodianship of Enthoven's collection in 1924, and she continued to add to it until her death in 1950. In 1971 Harry R. Beard donated his collection of over 20,000 theatrical and operatic prints, texts, and programmes. The Theatre Museum was created as a separate institution in 1974 when the two collections held by the V&A were combined with those of the British Theatre Museum Association, which had been founded in 1957 to collect theatrical material to increase the impetus for the creation of a separate national museum, and of the Friends of the Museum of Performing Arts, another private endeavour towards the creation of a theatrical museum, which owned much Ballets Russes material. 1911 was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... The ballet company Ballets Russes created a sensation in Western Europe in the early years of the 20th century, due to the great vitality of Russian ballet, as compared with what was current in France at the time. ...

The new museum acquired many further collections through gift, purchase and bequest. These included the archives of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre and of the D'Oyly Carte Company (relating to Gilbert and Sullivan operas), the design collections of the Arts Council and British Council, the Antony Hippisley Coxe Circus Collection and the British Model Theatre and Puppet Guild Collection. In 1987 the Museum moved into converted premises in Covent Garden. In the 1990s it placed renewed emphasis on the acquisition of 20th century material. The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, in the Chelsea area of London noted for its contributions to modern theatre. ... Richard DOyly Carte (May 3, 1844 – April 3, 1901) was a London theatrical impresario during the latter half of the nineteenth century. ... Playwright/lyricist William S. Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer Arthur S. Sullivan (1842-1900) defined operetta or comic operas in Victorian England with a series of their internationally successful and timeless works known as the Savoy Operas. ... The Arts Council of Great Britain was a Quango dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Britain. ... The British Council is a partly UK Government-funded cultural relations organisation and a registered charity in the United Kingdom. ...

The museum has the usual education and research facilities and runs a programme of temporary exhibitions. It receives its main funding from the British national government via the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and admission is free, but it also raises funds from private donors for specific projects. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (sometimes abbreviated DCMS) is a department of the British government. ...

See also

• List of London Museums
• West End Theatre

There are over 240 museums in London. ... // West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre in London, or sometimes more specifically for shows staged in the large theatres of Londons Theatreland . Along with New Yorks Broadway Theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of theatre in the...

External link

• Official site