How do you convey Juilliard's rich, 100-year history on four walls? Jane Gottlieb, vice president for library and information resources at Juilliard, Jeni Dahmus, the School's archivist, and Barbara Cohen-Straytner, the Judy R. and Alfred A. Rosenberg curator of exhibitions at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, faced just such a challenge in putting together a multimedia exhibit, "The Juilliard School, 1905-2005: Celebrating 100 Years," in honor of the School's centennial.

A picture of Risë Stevens as Dryad in the New York premiere of Richard Strauss's Ariadne Auf Naxos, presented by Juilliard in December 1934, is among the dozens of photos, videos, and other works on display in an exhibit at the New York Public Library. (Photo by Samuel H. Gottscho) For more images from the exhibit, go to Slide Show: The Juilliard School, 1905-2005: Celebrating 100 Years.

The exhibit, which opens on September 16 at the Public Library's Lincoln Center branch, draws upon the many unique treasures in the collections of the two neighboring institutions. It also demonstrates the close relationship between Juilliard and the New York Public Library.

Formally established in 1990 with a grant that brought Juilliard its first full-time archivist, the School's Archives houses many invaluable materials: the administrative papers of all presidents, from founder Frank Damrosch to current president Joseph W. Polisi; biographical files on former students, faculty, and administrators; production files; scrapbooks; and thousands of photos. A representative sampling of these items was selected for the show by Ms. Gottlieb and Ms. Dahmus, who regularly handle hundreds of inquiries from Juilliard offices and from scholars and researchers around the globe. (Recent biographies of alumni Henry Cowell, Miles Davis, Richard Rodgers, and Kay Swift, as well as the American Masters film and book Juilliard, and filmmaker and alumna Salome Arkatov's documentary on Rosina Lhévinne, are among the many projects that have drawn extensively on the Archives's vast resources.)

The exhibit will highlight a selection of films and videos of Juilliard's dance performances since the early 1950s (along with related printed documents), drawn from the N.Y.P.L.'s Jerome Robbins Dance Division and the Juilliard Archives. These materials exist thanks to the foresight of Martha Hill, founding director of Juilliard's Dance Division, who realized that they would be of interest to a wider public. As Madeleine Nichols, curator of the Jerome Robbins collection, put it, "For dance, Juilliard's filming and videotaping of its student productions since the 1950s, together with the photographs, program notes, and related items, is systematic and essential. Copies of these and other materials are studied daily by students, faculty, and others here at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, supplementing Juilliard's internal resources. The combination succeeds in preserving the past as preparation for the future."

Some items featured in the current exhibition are from the Juilliard-related collections housed in the Public Library's Music Division. Among them are the personal papers of former Juilliard president William Schuman, as well as papers of Juilliard alumnus and jazz record producer Teo Macero, who joined the staff of Columbia Records in 1956. Macero's session sheets, clippings, and other documentation relating to his work with Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Stan Getz, Lionel Hampton, and other jazz greats will be displayed.

The establishment of Juilliard's Drama Division in 1968 and the School's move to Lincoln Center in 1969 will be well documented, too, through a profusion of programs and photographs featuring drama alumni and faculty such as Christopher Durang, LisaGay Hamilton, Michael Kahn, Kelly McGillis, and many others.

Along with now-familiar images—such as portraits of I.M.A. founder Frank Damrosch and Augustus D. Juilliard—are some never-before-seen, very early correspondence between Damrosch and James Loeb, his primary funder, drawn from Juilliard's Archives.

While this exhibition is not the first collaboration between Juilliard and the New York Public Library—in 1941, the library exhibited some of its materials related to Juilliard operas produced between 1931 and 1941, designed by renowned Viennese architect Frederick Kiesler—it is the largest and most comprehensive. Many hours went into its planning and mounting. Last month, Jane Gottlieb took some time out from the preparations to speak with The Juilliard Journal about the exhibit.


Juilliard Journal: There are thousands of fascinating documents, photos, etc., in the Juilliard Archives. How did you pare down and select what would go into this exhibit?

Jane Gottlieb: It was very difficult to select materials from our own thousands of wonderful performance photos and the materials in the New York Public Library's collections. We could easily have filled a much larger space. We tried to tell the story of Juilliard's first century in a coherent manner, while displaying photographs and other documents that featured notable productions, faculty, or alumni.

JJ: Speaking of notable faculty and alumni, who are some of the more prominent people to appear in the exhibit? How important was "name recognition"?

JG: Here's where it always gets tricky, because we obviously don't want to offend anyone by omission. Some decisions about who to include are based on external factors, such as lack of available photos—or inability to obtain permission from photographers. The issue of available photos has been compounded in recent years, since now most photos are taken in digital form, and we don't necessarily have prints.

But, to answer your question, we've included materials documenting the tenures of all the presidents of Juilliard—Frank Damrosch, Ernest Hutcheson, John Erskine, William Schuman, Peter Mennin, and Joseph W. Polisi, the various personnel of the Juilliard String Quartet over the years, and many other important faculty and alumni. The list is too long to name them all, but among them are Leopold Auer, Van Cliburn, Miles Davis, Norman Dello Joio, Joseph Fuchs, Rosina Lhévinne, Vincent Persichetti, Richard Rodgers, and Risë Stevens, in music; Martha Graham, Martha Hill, Doris Humphrey, José Limón, Anna Sokolow, Paul Taylor, and Antony Tudor, in dance; and Christine Baranski, Andre Braugher, Michael Kahn, Kevin Kline, Laura Linney, Patti LuPone, Marian Seldes, John Stix, Harold Stone, Robin Williams, and Moni Yakim, in drama. Of course this list does not take into account the many alumni who will be featured in orchestral photos, including one of the Juilliard Orchestra in 1927, one of the earliest orchestra photos we have, or in performances displayed through photographs or videos.

JJ: Did the size and shape of the exhibit space influence your decisions and if so, how?

JG: Yes, of course. The Performing Arts Library's Astor Gallery is not that large, and we were required to submit materials as they would appear in their frames. The gallery has 1,715 square feet of wall space and 163 linear feet of wall space. There will be approximately 40 framed panels of materials, 6 to 9 cases, and 3 media kiosks: one for audio, one for video, and one for continuous showing of the 2002 American Masters film Juilliard.

JJ: Did working on this exhibit give you a chance to do anything different than you'd been able to do in past exhibits?

JG: Yes; the other exhibits I have done have been here at Juilliard, which has its own limitations on exhibit space. The Juilliard Library has large exhibit cases on one wall in the reading room, as well as flat cases next to all of the entrances. The School also has two mobile flat exhibit cases, which we transport to the library for more extensive exhibits, because we never hang framed materials on the walls. The N.Y.P.L. exhibit is curated by a museum staff who frame and mount the materials. It's great to see our documents in such elegant frames!

JJ: What were the differences, if any, between your role and the role of the New York Public Library curator in shaping this show?

"The Juilliard School, 1905-2005: Celebrating 100 Years" New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center Sept. 16, 2005-Jan. 14, 2006 Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday—noon to 6 p.m.; Thursday—noon to 8 p.m. Free; no tickets required.

JG: Well, Jeni [Dahmus] and I did most of the research, and our co-curator [Barbara Cohen-Straytner] monitored everything from the New York Public Library perspective. We worked very closely with their collection curators in music, dance, theater, and recorded sound. Those folks know their collections really well and sometimes pointed us to materials we might not have otherwise found. For example, the first time we met with George Boziwick, acting curator of N.Y.P.L.'s Music Division, and Bob Kosovsky, head of Music Special Collections, they had already selected some fascinating materials in their William Schuman, Rosina Lhévinne, and Teo Macero collections, all of which will be in the exhibit.

The Schuman materials include some correspondence between Schuman and Joseph Fuchs relating to the New York premiere of Schuman's Violin Concerto here at Juilliard. In the Teo Macero collection they located some rich correspondence between Macero (who produced Miles Davis's recordings) and journalist Ralph Gleason (correspondence that is frequently cited) in which Gleason accuses Macero of "killing jazz." And, the N.Y.P.L.'s Rosina Lhévinne papers include some wonderful and warm correspondence between Mme. Lhévinne and the then 14-year-old James Levine, who began his piano studies with her at Aspen in 1957, prior to entering Juilliard in 1961.

JJ: What were some of the obstacles you encountered?

JG: Time was certainly the biggest obstacle, as we did most of the work this summer and the exhibit opens on September 16. If we had a few more months, there are many more items I would have pursued. For example, we were disappointed that the N.Y.P.L. did not have more materials relating to the 1935 premiere of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, which included Anne Wiggins Brown and Ruby Elzy, both of whom attended Juilliard. They have a program, which is bound in a book, and therefore difficult to display. We would have also pursued additional materials on Juilliard alumni Tito Puente and Nina Simone.

JJ: What are some of your favorite pieces in this exhibit and what makes them special?

JG: There are so many favorites, it's hard to choose. The dance photos are particularly special, and I know that Jeni had a particularly hard time choosing among them, since she has a keen interest in dance and is very close to these materials. Personally, I love seeing our Maria Callas photos next to the ones from the premiere with Zoe Caldwell and Audra McDonald in Terrence MacNally's play Master Class. Incidentally, Ms. Caldwell and all of her successors have come to us to view our photos in preparation for their performances. The photos of the 1934 production of Ariadne auf Naxos with Risë Stevens (from N.Y.P.L.'s collection) are also quite wonderful, particularly knowing that this was only the second U.S. production—and the N.Y. premiere.

JJ: As the "keeper of Juilliard's history," so to speak, what do you hope people seeing this exhibit will take with them when they leave?

JG: I hope that they will find a renewed appreciation of Juilliard's rich history, and a sense of connection between our past and our present. We obviously carry on a rich tradition as we create legacies for future generations.