Source: Arts Centre Melbourne photo
The Performing Arts Heritage Network joins an industry across Australia in mourning the loss of Frank Van Straten AM, who died on 19 April 2024.
Frank was the first archivist at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Performing Arts Museum (now the Australian Performing Arts Collection), and its director from 1984 until 1993. Retirement gave him the freedom to interpret what he had experienced in theatres and the collections he had helped to assemble. A steady stream of books and articles followed. He researched and presented ABC Radio’s Nostalgia Show broadcast on Melbourne’s 774 and the ABC Victorian Regional Network between 1986 and 2001. He contributed to the Cinema and Theatre Historical Society (Victoria), Theatre Heritage Australia and Live Performance Australia among other bodies. Following his death, his achievements have been detailed in Artshub and Stage Whispers, among other publications.
The Performing Arts Heritage Network would like to pay a special tribute to Frank’s role in laying the foundations for the network in 1992. In the previous twenty years, Australia had experienced increased interest in the management of performing arts collections located in arts centres, the National Library, state libraries and other organisations. Computers had just arrived to assist in organising collections and making them accessible. To map out a coordinated approach, Frank convened the seminar, On with the Show, at the Arts Centre Melbourne on 11-12 November 1992. The seminar attracted 86 delegates represented libraries, museums, archives, galleries, publishers, broadcasters and other interested parties. The meeting explored ideas for improved communication and co-operation before seeking to operate as a special interest group of Museums Association of Australia (now the Australian Museums and Galleries Association). The group was endorsed by the Museums Association of Australia on 16 November 1992.
When the association devoted its May 1998 issue of Museum National to performing arts museums in Australia, Frank’s article Special and Evocative, a survey of performing arts collections in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane, was the scene-setting feature. Twenty-five years later, it serves is a touchstone as we contemplate the challenges of the next twenty-five years.
Although Frank did not participate in running the network he had helped set up, he continued his relationships with performing arts history and heritage colleagues with warmth, modesty, energy and generosity. When he was asked a question about the provenance of two busts of Harry Rickards, he provided relevant text that had been edited out of his book Tivoli. When he was asked a question to assist research on the design of variety shows, a copy of his latest book Hanky Panky arrived in the mail several days later with a warm inscription. His books and articles are his legacy. His knowledge has departed with him. His spirit will continue to influence our future.
Paul Bentley, Claudia Funder, Helen Munt, Mark St Leon, Helen Trepa.
Performing Arts Heritage Network 