Delectable Collectables

Editorial

When: 25 May-26 Aug, 2009

Where: Adelaide Festival Centre

Back in 1979, the Premier of South Australia, Don Dunstan, was approached by Colin Ballantyne, a noted figure in the Adelaide arts scene. The director-cum-playwright-cum-photographer, who was also a teacher and administrator, had a vision: to chronicle South Australia's rich cultural history via the Performing Arts Collection.

Dunstan approved and Ballantyne got to work, donating the Collection's first item: a sword from the National Theatre in England. Over the years, the collection has accumulated relics from both past and present. Operas, musicals, circuses, dramas and dances taking place on stages across South Australia have found their representative in programs, puppets, models or masks, all carefully catalogued by the Collection's staff.

Now in its 30th year, with more than 100,000 items to its name, the Performing Arts Collection is celebrating this milestone with the exhibition Delectable Collectables. Among the treasures are the 1974 designs for A Little Night Music, jewellery that once belonged to avant-garde poet Dame Edith Sitwell, and an assortment of items from some 400 costumes and 200 accessories worn over the years by some of Australia's greatest talents, including Geoffrey Rush, Cate Blanchett and John Farnham.

Kilian David