A home for old programs?

[Amy Reusch]

A friend just passed on to me several old Lincoln Center programs from another late friend's estate....

• Joffrey at the State Theater (1985),
  
• Bejart at City Center (1985)
  
• NYCB (1978)(1981)(1982) (1986) (1995) (1997)
  
• ABT (1976 at the Uris)(1984) (1985-Cynthia Gregory's 20th Anniversary Gala)
  
• Royal Danish Ballet (1979)
  

After enjoying paging through them and seeing familiar names and faces and how young they all looked... I really have no use for them. I keep programs of performances I've been to myself, but not if I never saw the performance.

Is there a good home for old programs? I can't but imagine NYPL has more than enough of these... I can't quite bring myself to toss them out. Any advice?

[Mme. Hermine]

maybe a smaller library would be happy to have them; i don't expect (my opinion but i don't think so) the nypl would be able to take them but a smaller library might. or you could try to sell them on ebay. they might sell but you wouldn't make a lot out of that particular group; a little bit more than

that, say, if they're autographed by stars or something.

[Amy Reusch]

Yes, it seems some smaller performing arts library, college library or ? I wouldn't want the bother of selling them , just the ease to my conscience about tossing them. In Cynthia Gregory's gala program, apparently she choreographed a solo for another dancer. There were some nice Joffrey photos in their program. I wonder if some place in Chicago might not be a good home.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

You might consider contacting each company's volunteer guild (or whatever they call their volunteer organization). I know that the NYCB Guild has from time to time sold old programs at its gift bar. The organizations might have other uses for them as well -- maybe even just putting them in a "free kittens" box so that nostalgic members can rifle through them and take what they want.

[Amy Reusch]

Now that is an excellent idea!

[sandik]

Just make sure you call first before you start hauling things over -- my sister used to work for the local opera company, and the number of people who would try and bring in back copies of programs was really impressive. I think many of them assumed that the company was not keeping copies of their own materials.

The little that I've done with this kind of item has been quite varied. Some institutions do like to get multiple copies of their old promotional stuff, to distribute to audiences, and in other cases (especially smaller towns without big library staffs) the local library or historical institution can sometimes use ephemera from companies and other presenters -- materials that they didn't have the capacity to collect when the events occurred. In my community, the university maintained a fairly comprehensive collection of programs from local theaters (including a nice run from the vaudeville houses).

[Amy Reusch]

I am happy to report that the programs have found a home... But i think this thread may help others in a similar situstion.