Conjuring Arts Research Center

Conjuring Arts Research Center is a not-for-profit organization, based in New York City in the United States, dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of magic and its allied arts.

Established by magician David Blaine and consultant William "Bill" Kalush in 2003, the Conjuring Arts Research Center has over 12,000 volumes of books, journals and rare documents related to magic and magic allied arts (e.g., ventriloquism, mentalism, juggling, theatrical séances, puppetry, circus arts, escapology, psychic and occult phenomenon, hypnosis and deceptive gambling.)

The collection contains several incunabula including several rare variations of the 15th century magic classic Reginald Scot’s Discovery of Witchcraft and 500 books written before the 18th century including those written in Latin, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, Japanese, German, Russian, Swedish. Many of these works are currently being translated into English.

Conjuring Arts Research Center serves magic performers, collectors, historians, writers and magic enthusiasts by making rare books, documents and ephemera available to them.

The Conjuring Arts Research Center also holds special events and publishes two volumes per year of the Gibecière, a research journal with articles contributed by internationally recognized magic authors. The journal is named after the utility device often used by street magicians when performing the cups and balls.

An important research tool of the Conjuring Arts Research Center is an on-line search engine called Ask Alexander. It is a magic-dedicated search tool. Bill Kalush and Larry Sloman's book, The Secret Life of Houdini was researched on Ask Alexander.

The International Brotherhood of Magicians' Board of Trustees recently granted the Conjuring Arts Research Center permission to provide The Linking Ring magazine files to its subscribing members through Ask Alexander.