The Library of Performing Rights on Tour

A unique collection of resources that examine the intersection between performance and Human Rights roves the World.

Background and Context 

The Live Art Development Agency in collaboration with Lois Weaver of Queen Mary, University of London, and artistic director of Performance Studies international #12: Performing Rights, direct and coordinate The Library of Performing Rights: an actual and a virtual library, housing resources, research materials and technologies to explore and enable the transmission and documentation of human rights and performance. The actual Library is housed in the Agency’s Study Room.

The Library of Performing Rights was developed for the Performance Studies international #12: Performing Rights conference/events in London, June 2006 to:
• create a body of materials, documentation and evidence that aimed to archive the remains of performance-related interventions
• stimulate performance and human rights experimentation, and
• further networks between societies, communities, artists, activists and academics involved and interested in the intersections between performance and human rights.

Since the PSi event, the Library has developed and grown as a physical resource containing over 200 publications, videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs, brochures, digital and web-based initiatives. Further presentations of the Library occurred at Performing Rights Vienna (2007), in collaboration with Tanzquatier, and the National Review of Live Art in Glasgow (2008). The Library is transported, reassembled and further developed in different locations and contexts. Additional materials are gathered in each location through an open call for further submissions to be added to the Library at each location.

On Tour 

The materials in The Library of Performing Rights form an effective roving archive and educational resource, and the Library enables an engagement with the significance of human rights in a time of war and globalisation, makes links between international and local communities, and tests innovative practices that might facilitate human rights work.

The Agency is working on plans to develop the Library with international partners who are keen to host, profile, display and contribute to the Library’s continued existence as a unique resource. These include arts organisations in Brazil, Korea, Japan and Australia.

We would also like to hear from anyone interested in collaborating with us on the Library. In each location we propose a minimum of two weeks access time to the materials after they are installed in each location, and users are free to access and engage with the materials across the specified hours according to the capacity of each partner. We envisage the material and the Library space will be used to inspire small-scale discussions and events around key themes, concerns or lines of enquiry that partners might wish to initiate, inspired by the conceptual framework of the Library and its contents.

The Agency would house the materials in a suitable flight case for easy travel, and each hosting partner organisation would provide space and viewing technology for the Library to be fully accessed by visitors. The Agency would oversee and fully manage the project in collaboration with Queen Mary, University of London. In each location the Agency would facilitate its installation, promote access and engagement with the holdings, and further disseminate calls for materials to be added to its ever-growing collection.

Please contact us on [email protected] should you wish to discuss hosting The Library of Performing Rights On Tour.