Curator of Dance, Michelle Potter, Heads to New
York
Dr Michelle Potter leaves her position as the inaugural Curator
of Dance at the National Library of Australia in August 2006 to take up
the position of Curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New
York Public Library. A distinguished National Library staff member and
internationally recognised dance scholar, critic and curator, Potter holds
a doctorate in Art History and Dance History from the
In announcing Potter’s appointment, the New York Public Library stated that the library’s incomparable collections in dance are in the hands of an extremely experienced artist/librarian ‘who will continue to build on the growing well-spring of creative information sought by scholars and artists the world over … As research libraries define themselves in the 21st century, we must look to leaders who are not only masters in their fields but able to conceptualize new ways of thinking about collections and services for an ever expanding global community of users who depend upon us for their creative and scholarly work.’
Prior to her formal appointment as Curator of Dance in 2002, Potter had
a long association with the National Library. She was the Library’s Esso
Fellow in the Performing Arts from 1988 to 1990, during which she created
a major series of oral history interviews to document Australian dance
history and produced two National Library publications, A Full House
and A Passion for Dance. In 1996, she curated the Library’s exhibition
Dance People Dance, which toured
Between 1997 and 2001, Potter was manager of the Keep Dancing!
project, an initiative of the Australia Council to support the National
Film and Sound Archive, the National Library of Australia and Ausdance
to develop a national archival collection of dance materials. As part
of that project she co-scripted, researched and produced two videos—An
Avalanche of Dancing: The Ballets Russes in
Her achievements at the National Library are especially evident in the
way unique Australian dance collections have been built across manuscript,
pictorial, oral history, music and ephemera collections. She is also responsible
for the development of the national online dance service, Australia
Dancing, in association with Ausdance. It is a ‘boutique’ portal that
has had remarkable success in serving a specialist community both nationally
and internationally. Potter’s role in advocating to the dance community
the importance of the role of libraries and archives in documenting their
art form has also raised broader understanding of the contribution of
dance to the nation’s cultural life. This has been recognised by the recent
major three-year Australian Research Council grant jointly awarded to
the National Library, The Australian Ballet and the
The Library farewells and thanks Potter for her sustained contribution
to Australian dance, most especially through the development of collections
and online services, and for producing a major body of interpretative
publications relating to the nation’s dance collections. Her contribution
has significantly enhanced the documentary record and preservation of
The new Curator of Dance will be Lee Christofis who will take up his position on 18 September.
Robyn Holmes
Curator of Music



