Get a free Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Library eCard instantaneously. It can be used to access our online resources including eBooks, eAudiobooks, eNewspapers, eMagazines, online classes, online tutoring, and learning games, as well as streaming movies and music, and more.
Music Playlists
Listen to a streaming playlists from Freegal Music, Naxos Music Library, Naxos Jazz Music Library, Hoopla or Alexander Street free with your library card. Alexander Street will ask for an academic institution, use Glendale Public Library.
Learn About Music
Chrome Music Lab is a website that makes learning music more accessible through fun, hands-on experiments. A lot of fun for kids and adults!
Read Music
The Frances G. Spencer Collection of American Sheet Music at Baylor University is a digital collection of over 30,000 titles of American popular music spanning from the late 18th century to the early 20th century.
Streaming Music
The Folk Alliance International has a frequently updated livestream calendar.
The Library of Congress has a fantastic collection of concert videos on their web site.
Art Online
The Billy Rose Theatre Division of The New York Public Library is one of the largest and most comprehensive archives devoted to the theatrical arts. Encompassing dramatic performance in all its diversity, the division is an indispensable resource and fun to browse. Browse theater history, set and costume design sketches, circus and magic posters, and more.
The Folger Shakespeare Library has the world's largest collection of materials relating to Shakespeare and his works, from the 16th century to the present day. Explore podcasts, audio recordings of Shakespeare plays, or an online exhibit about the life and career of William Shakespeare. Think you know Shakespeare? Test your knowledge with these quizzes!
Learn About Art
Art Full Text is an art research database providing full-text art journals and books. It covers fine, decorative and commercial art, as well as photography, film and architecture. Beyond art studies, Art Full Text supports related fields, including women's studies, media studies, cultural studies, and history.
Oxford Art Online offers access to online art reference publications from Oxford University Press, including Grove Art, the foremost scholarly art encyclopedia with global coverage of visual culture by scholars and specialists.
Art Inspiration - Try It at Home
Experiment with color, one of the elements of art:
The Brilliant History of Color in Art traces the use of (and science behind) colors throughout art history.
Watch a preview, then borrow the book.
Henri Matisse created dynamic works with bright colors and bold shapes called cut-outs. Make your own cut-outs with colored paper, scissors and glue.
Josef Albers was an artist best known for his iconic color square paintings and his color studies documented in Interaction of Color. Try your own color experiments with workshops from The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.
Staff e-Recommendations
Keeping Score: Charles Ives Holiday Symphony. Charles Ives is one of the most important American composers and I was so happy to see this in the San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score series. I purchased the DVD set for Brand Library years ago but when the pandemic started the SF Symphony released it to watch for free on their YouTube channel. Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, narrates. Ives is a fascinating subject, an American original who composed on the weekends but made a fortune as an insurance executive. A lot of his music foreshadows the modernist movements of the 20th century using polyrhythms, polytonality, microtones, clusters and aleatoric techniques. Each of the four movements of the Holiday Symphony corresponds with a season, remembering his childhood holidays. It’s a fascinating journey, and well worth watching. -BW
Be More Chill (Original Broadway Cast Recording) is a high-energy, 16-bit, rock n’ roll mess of a musical about the rollercoaster ride of high school, capturing the atmosphere of the 2000s the way Clueless captured high school in the 90’s. Jeremy Heere, a self-described loser just trying to get through this alive, is given the opportunity to change his social destiny with an insanely advanced bit of tech called a SQUIP (as the guy who tells him about it metal-screams, “It’s from JAPAAAAAAAN!”). The SQUIP is – of course – far more dangerous than advertised; bright, hard-driving musical numbers and social drama both ensue. The surface silliness of the show might be inviting or annoying, depending on your mood, but it’s the perfect emotional springboard for some gentle lessons about love, independence, personal growth, and self-acceptance. As Jeremy’s dad sings, in a burst of realization, “When you love somebody, you put your pants on.” Be More Chill is available on Hoopla. (Pants optional.) -LD
Covid-19 Resources
Reliable information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) is available from the World Health Organization, the California Department of Public Health and Los Angeles County Public Health Department and City of Glendale.
Resources for Music Businesses And Industry Workers, Playing for Change, Sounding Point LA