There are many, many archives, in this country and internationally, that house some materials related to the history of performance pertinent to our project. Because performance is not only an ephemeral art, but one with so many inextricably intertwined relationships, so many connections with the day-to-day activities of life-as-lived, documents related to performance might rest in a great many archival repositories, and seldom in one devoted to performance. Significant repositories might be anywhere, in the archive of the organization that created the performance, or that culturally defined that performance, or that was simply next-door to that performance…. We cannot list such archives comprehensively—but we can at least be all-embracing in our efforts.

We know that many people from across Canada, who are actively participating in researching the history of performance, have knowledge of the local and the specialized archives containing performance-related materials that will not be easily found by conventional means. So too, there are many collections of recorded interviews that also relate to performance, in archives and in private collections, that will not be obviously or easily found by the researcher. What follows is just a start, and a never-finished document, which will help to draw attention to collections that would otherwise go unnoticed by historians of performance. We invite anyone reading this to send us information on archives that should be posted here. See the Contact link on this website.

To view our growing list of archives, click the “Menu” icon at the top left corner of the interactive Google Map below.