PERFORMING ARTS LIBRARY/ MUSEUM

This small museum and library, located on the fourth floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness, may be small in size, but it is indeed, large in stature. As perhaps the preeminent museum dedicated to the Performing Arts in the United States, this museum is a rare jewel that the visitor, as well as the serious scholar will both enjoy.

This free museum includes an unusual array of over two million items in its references, circulating and special collections. The Performing Arts Library & Museum, or PALM, is dedicated to the live performing arts - music, dance, opera, and theater in all its incarnations. The items in the museum include: costumes of all shapes and sizes, playbills from theatrical plays and musicals, music and radio recordings, scrapbooks, biographies of famous as well as forgotten performers, props, artifacts and set decorations, posters, paintings, books, photographs, domestic and foreign magazines, letters, videotapes, films and other materials that illustrate our love of the arts. The diversity of style, and the propensity to perform for others, is a unique artifact of our cultural makeup well preserved in this Library and Museum.

The Bay Area’s rich performing legacy is on permanent display at the museum. Many fascinating photos and drawings from the city’s cultural heritage are available, from the Alcazar theater of the 1880's to Orpheum of today, still going strong. Papers, posters, articles and recordings chronicling The San Francisco Ballet, Opera and Symphony, The Stern Grove Festivals, Ethnic Dance festivals and Rock collections are also available at the museum. There is even an interesting exhibit of historic sheet music, before recordings made this medium obsolete.

PALM also houses a Musical Theater Recording Collection that chronicles Broadway, British, and foreign cast albums and also features film and television musicals.

PALM offers many courses, workshops, lectures, and conversations with legendary contemporary performers. Carol Channing, Yehudi Menuhin and Patti LuPone were special guests. Audiences lucky enough to be present at these talks enjoy a rare and intimate portrait of these artists.

This little museum is definitely one to see, if you are a Performing Arts or American history aficionado. You will be surprised.

The Museum is open Wednesday from 1:00 PM - 7:00 P.M., Thursday and Friday from 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM, and Saturday Noon - 5:00 PM. It is closed on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The museum is free to all persons at all times.