ArenaPAL is a UK company, based in London, which specialises in the licensing of performing arts images, both in the UK and throughout the world. Its collection falls under the main categories of opera, theatre, classical and contemporary music, classical and contemporary dance, as well as educational imagery covering all categories. It manages a library of 10 million images with over 750,000 currently viewable online. The library also holds thousands of unscanned prints, negatives and transparencies. These are digitised as part of its on-site archival scanning project. In 2007, it was declared the best international image library in the world.
History
ArenaPAL was founded in 1997 as the first fully digitised performing arts archive. Unlike most specialist photographic agencies, it has worked with a wide range of contributors from its inception. The company continues to expand its extensive archive as well as taking in submissions of contemporary performance, including theatre, ballet, dance and opera productions, plus classical music, rock, pop and jazz events. ArenaPAL is also a photographic commissions agency with a roster of arts photographers including Clive Barda, Richard Cannon, Eric Richmond and Hilary Shedel. ArenaPAL is a member of the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies, which has declared it: "the best international performing arts photographic resource for all images users representing a unique collection from around the world", in 2007.
Collections
In addition to the original Performing Arts Library founded by Barda, the following archives and collections are represented by ArenaPAL:
ArenaPAL represents the archives of many photographers of the performing arts, such as: Sue Adler, Simon Annand, Frazer Ashford, Sophie Baker, Joe Bangay, Clive Barda, Alan Bergman, Conrad Blakemore, Sisi Burn, Sheila Burnett, Laurence Burns, Henrietta Butler, Pamela Chandler, Nobby Clark, Bill Cooper, Fritz Curzon, Ian Dickson, Mark Douet, Mark Ellidge, Sasha Gusov, Jamie Hodgson, Pete Jones, Jak Kilby, Marilyn Kingwill, Ivan Kyncl, Helen Maybanks, Helen Murray, Morris Newcombe, Nigel Norrington, Johan Persson, Robert Piwko, Dan Porges, Keith Saunders, Herb Snitzer, John Timbers, Allan Titmuss, and Colin Willoughby.
