Digitization project will make historic Hollywood film backdrops accessible to fans around the world

Texas Performing Arts’ Hollywood Backdrop Collection has garnered international attention in the past few years, as interest has grown in this important art form. Thanks to generous support from donors, the collection will soon be available to view and explore online.

These assets make up the largest and most extensive educational collection of Hollywood motion picture backdrops in the world.

Assistant Professor of Practice Karen Maness and Professor Emeritus Richard Isackes lovingly documented the history of the film backdrops in their award-winning publication, The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop (Regan Arts 2016). A cache of 68 historic paintings was generously donated to Texas Performing Arts by J.C. Backings and the Art Directors Guild Archives’ Backdrop Recovery Project.

The collection includes backings from iconic and critically acclaimed films such as National Velvet (1944), The Sound of Music (1965), Ben Hur (1959) and North by Northwest (1958). Following national coverage of the project on CBS’ Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley in February 2020 and two subsequent exhibitions hosted on the stage of Bass Concert Hall the following year, the Boca Raton Museum of Art opened Art of the Hollywood Backdrop in April 2022. The exhibition has attracted international media coverage, from the Wall Street Journal to the Times of London.

With generous support from Susan & Robert Morse, Texas Performing Arts is now digitizing the collection to make it even more widely available. A new website will launch and will serve as both digital archive and interactive teaching tool.

“It’s an exciting next step.” says Texas Performing Arts’ Executive and Artistic Director

Bob Bursey. “Sharing the collection digitally will allow us to celebrate these masters of illusion and perspective while inspiring the next generation of artists with access to material never before available.”

The website will showcase the backdrops in high-resolution detail, amplifying and preserving the techniques of backdrop painting and restoration pioneered by Hollywood’s uncredited lead scenic artists. Texas Performing Arts has captured direct instruction from Hollywood’s top motion picture scenic artists Michael Denering, Joe Francuz, and Donald MacDonald for the website.

While student training in these lost techniques continues in Texas Performing Arts’ Fabrication Studios, the digital archive will share detailed instruction for future caretakers how to preserve, stabilize and restore these works as the project continues to expand. The digitization of the collection will also help contextualize the work by connecting the backdrops to the iconic films in which they were featured, reaching audiences around the world.