Barry Kay

Barry Kay (born Melbourne 1932 – died London 1985), trained at the Académie Julian in Paris, was a stage and costume designer. In the course of his career, lasting almost four decades, he designed for the ballet, drama and opera alike, working with established directors and choreographers at major theatres and opera houses and their companies worldwide. Kay's emphasis, however, lay in pioneering three-dimensional stage set designs for the ballet. By breaking away from the traditional use of "flat wings" scenery he expanded on the revolutionary ideas of the Russian Constructivists and the Italian Futurists for theatre design in the early part of the 20th century.

Among others, Kay designed for the choreographers Walter Gore, Peter Darrell, Kenneth MacMillan and Rudolf Nureyev and for ballet companies such as 'Western Theatre Ballet', 'The Royal Ballet', 'The Australian Ballet','The Ballet of the Deutsche Oper Berlin' , 'The Stuttgart Ballet', 'The Vienna State Opera Ballet' and 'American Ballet Theater'. Later in his career he also became a photographer of subjects with socio-anthropological contents.

Recognition by the National Library of Australia

In November 2006, the National Library of Australia - an Australian government body bound by stringent selection criteria - identified Barry Kay posthumously for his artistic achievements, as well as the Barry Kay Archive for conserving, preserving and archiving Kay's creations, and for providing public online access to them - as Heritage of national significance with long-term research value.

As a result, the online Barry Kay Archive is now permanently integrated into the Library's database of PANDORA (Preserving and Accessing Networked Documentary Resources of Australia) - Australia's Web Archive - providing independent public internet access to the Barry Kay Archive via the Library's server in perpetuity.

Live Performance Australia awards Barry Kay a place at its Hall of Fame

Live Performance Australia, the peak body for Australia's live entertainment and performing arts industry, posthumously selected Barry Kay as one of eighty theatre artists awarded a place in its newly established virtual Hall of Fame. This Hall of Fame, launched on 30 November 2007, is Live Performance Australia's way of paying tribute to a remarkable collection of people on the occasion of celebrating its 90th anniversary.

Frank van Straten OAM, theatre historian and founding director (1984-1993) of the Victorian Arts Centre's Performing Arts Museum in Melbourne, provided a short biography on each artist, constituting the corner stone of the Hall of Fame. (In 1993 the Victorian Arts Centre was renamed the Arts Centre, Melbourne.)

External links

• Breaking with Traditions in Stage Design for the Ballet - Barry Kay's pursuit of constructed sets for the theatre
• Barry Kay Archive - Online publication of Barry Kay's works and itemized biography
• National Gallery of Australia
• PANDORA - Australia's Web Archive
• Live Performance Australia - Hall of Fame, biography about Barry Kay by Frank van Straten OAM
• The Arts Centre - Home of the performing arts in Melbourne, including the Performing Arts Museum