The Hollywood Backdrop Collection at Texas Performing Arts preserves and shares the world's largest educational collection of historic Hollywood motion picture backdrops, advancing scenic art, film history, conservation, and academic research.
The Hollywood Backdrop Collection preserved by Texas Performing Arts is the world’s largest educational collection of historic Hollywood motion picture backdrops. The collection includes backdrops from iconic and critically acclaimed films such as The Sound of Music (1965), Ben-Hur (1959), and North by Northwest (1959). These monumental paintings transformed soundstages into convincing landscapes, city streets, and interiors, helping filmmakers create believable worlds long before digital visual effects.
Through conservation, exhibitions, teaching, and original research, the Hollywood Backdrop Collection preserves a living legacy of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Visitors can explore the collection, discover the scenic artists behind these extraordinary works, and learn how painted backdrops helped shape the visual storytelling of American cinema.
The Hollywood Backdrop Collection at Texas Performing Arts preserves, studies, and shares the world’s largest educational collection of historic Hollywood motion picture backdrops. Through exhibitions, conservation, artist biographies, educational resources, and original research, the collection documents the history of Hollywood scenic artists and the painted environments that helped define classical American filmmaking. As an active teaching collection, it supports university instruction while making the history of scenic art accessible to students, researchers, filmmakers, and the public.