Update: The building that housed this collection was sold without the University disclosing the contents. The fate of these historic stage artifacts remain unknown at this time.
Scenic art examples from the Scenery Collection, stored in the Arts Annex of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Northern Illinois University.
The Scenic Collection includes elements from the settings of 90 operas, with approximately 900 backdrops and borders and more than 2200 framed scenic units. The stage settings illustrate an exceptional range of production styles between 1889 and 1932. In addition to the scenery there are 3 dimensional units including furniture and properties. Furthermore, the collection is supported by an extraordinary archive of production notebooks, property lists, inventories, expense records, performance time sheets, correspondence, original photographs of the sets, selected costumes, and opera stars of the period, ground plans and blueprints, painters elevations and renderings, original costume and set design drawings, and 120 exquisitely painted and detailed ¼” scale maquettes of the settings.
Unfortunately, some of the scenery has been damaged since initial documentation. The roof leaks and flooding is a problem due to non-working sump pumps.
Wendy, did you purchase the DeKalb slide collection? Wow…
No. I am helping raise awareness about this collection and the fact that it is in jeopardy. Nothing is being done to fix the leaks or flooding as the University will not do any maintenance on the arts annex structure. There is also a plan to sell the building without any plan of relocating or caring for the collection. The scenery may end up in a landfill. I find it ironic that this culturally significant collection may be destroyed due to empathy and mismanagement by an academic institution. Scenery that escaped Europe before two world wars will die in the United Stated. As an outsider, the most I can do is bring to light that which is hidden and hope that it may prompt the University of Illinois to take some form of action.