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Jim Clayburgh

American theatre director

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ3178759
Source-derived summary

Jim Clayburgh (born May 23, 1949) is an American scenic designer. He was a founding member of The Wooster Group and served as the group's resident designer from 1975 to 1994. He currently lives in Brussels, Belgium, where he founded the company JOJI INC with choreographer and dancer Johanne Saunier, and continues to design for theatre, film, dance and opera both in the USA and in Europe.

Life and career

Jim Clayburgh is the brother of actress Jill Clayburgh (1944–2010).

Clayburgh holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Claremont McKenna College, majoring in design at Pomona College, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Design from New York University School Of The Arts. In the USA he has taught masterclasses at MIT, New York Tisch School of the Arts, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Michigan, Hollins University, Simons Rock College of Art. In Europe, he has taught at St Luc's Ecole Supérieur des Arts and the International School of Brussels.

He was part of the design team for the interior renovations of two major concert halls in Brussels: La Maison de la Radio at Flagey, Ixelles, and Le Palais des Beaux Arts.

In 2011 he gave a keynote address at the 41st International Theatre Festival at the Venice Biennale.

In 2013–14 he was a Visiting Artist at the American Academy of Rome.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Jim Clayburgh” as american theatre director. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Clayburgh, American and theatre.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1949, 1975, 1994, 1944—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1949-05-23. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Clayburgh, American and theatre providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Jim Clayburgh”, the useful work is to connect “american theatre director” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3178759. VIAF identifies the subject as 50985212. The Library of Congress control number is n97850536. None of the 3 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1975, 1994 and 1944.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Jim Clayburgh”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Jim Clayburgh primary sources, Jim Clayburgh archive and Clayburgh research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Jim Clayburgh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.