Library Guides: Biographies: Art, Music & Film

Artists

the-artists.org: modern & contemporary artists
Excellent source for biographical information on hundreds of artists who flourished from 1900 to the present.
Archives of American Art - Guide to the Papers of Asian American Artists
Presenting the papers of many notable Asian American artists.
Axis: The Finest Emerging Artists and Their Work
Axis is a national contemporary visual arts service providing information about artists and makers living/working in Britain to a national and international audience. It maintains a large interactive database of contemporary British art.
Iowa Artists
"Our mission is to promote and educate artists throughout the state. From painting groups to art shows and workshops, there is an opportunity for you to expand and enhance your art. Each of us has a unique creative spirit and by networking together our work will continue to grow and flourish as all things do in the Iowa heartland!"

Encyclopedia of Film Composers by Thomas S. Hischak
Publication Date: 2015
This electronic book provides "entries on more than 250 movie composers from around the world. It not only provides facts about these artists but also explains what makes each composer notable and discusses his or her music in detail.”
Encyclopedia of Filmmakers by John C. Tibbetts and James Michael Welsh
Call Number: PN1998.2 T53 2002 (Tier 2 - Reference Collection)
Publication Date: 2002
Entries provide a biographical portrait of each filmmaker, a discussion of key films and major themes, and criticism on each filmmaker's style.
Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema by Torriano S. Berry; Venise T. Berry
Publication Date: 2015
“This second edition of Historical Dictionary of African American Cinema covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1400 cross-referenced entries on actors, actresses, movies, producers, organizations, awards, and terminology.”

IMDb: the Internet Movie Database
To locate biographies of actors and directors, use the Advanced Search. There is a dropdown box specifically for searching Biographies.

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers by Nicolet V Elert, Aruna Vasudevan, and Leanda Shrimpton
Call Number: PN1997.8 I58 (Tier 2 - Reference Collection)
Publication Date: 1997
4-volume set. Entries contain comprehensive credits, an extensive, fully updated bibliography, and a critical essay by a leading writer on film.
New Biographical Dictionary of Film by David Thomson
Publication Date: 2014
6th edition. 1 user. "The book includes more than 1300 entries, some of them just a pungent paragraph, some of them several thousand words long."
Women Screenwriters by Jill Nelmes and Jule Selbo (editors)
Publication Date: 2015
Women Screenwriters is a study of more than 300 female writers from 60 nations, from the first film scenarios produced in 1986 to the present day. Divided into six sections by continent, the entries give an overview of the history of women screenwriters in each country, as well as individual biographies of its most influential.

Biographies: Life and Times of the Great Ones
Part of the PBS site relating to Ken Burns' Jazz documentary, this page includes biographical information on many prominent jazz musicians.
Music Academy Online
This site provides an extensive list of detailed composer biographies from the Medieval era through the present age. Each entry contains a list of references for further reading.