CCP at the Phoenix Art Museum
Creative Continuum:
The History of the Center for Creative Photography
Norton Photography Gallery Gallery
July 24, 2010 - November 28, 2010
The year was 1975. Gerald R. Ford was president, a little company named Microsoft was founded, A Chorus Line opened on Broadway and Jaws was making a big splash in movie theaters. And in Tucson, a lifelong dream was realized.
Founded by legendary photographer Ansel Adams and then University of Arizona President John P. Schaefer, The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona was the vision of two men who wanted to create an institution dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting and managing all materials that are essential to understanding photography and its history. Today, 35 years later, the Center has acquired more archives and individual works by 20th century North American photographers than any other museum in the nation.
Creative Continuum charts the Center’s dynamic evolution, beginning with the inaugural exhibition of works by Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind and Frederick Sommer through today’s contemporary artists that are reinventing the medium. This special look at the Center’s history is an exciting and engaging “who’s who” of American photography and features works by Richard Avedon, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Louis Carlos Bernal, Tseng Kwong Chi, Imogen Cunningham, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Roy DeCarava, Andy Warhol and Edward Weston.
In addition to nearly ninety photographs, Creative Continuum also includes a sampling from the Center’s Voices of Photography video oral history project, rare archival objects from the vault and examples of past exhibition catalogues.
Image Credit:
Edward Weston
Nude, 1936
Edward Weston Archive/ Gift of the Heirs of Edward Weston
© 1981 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents
A Landmark Photography Partnership
In 2006, Phoenix Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson inaugurated a highly innovative and unprecedented collaboration to bring the finest in photography to Phoenix Art Museum visitors. It established a vibrant new photography exhibition program at the Museum, while bringing the Center's world-renowned collections to new and larger audiences.
The Center for Creative Photography is one of the world's largest repositories of materials chronicling photography. Founded in 1975, it now houses 3.8 million archival items and 80,000 fine prints by photographers including Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Aaron Siskind, W. Eugene Smith, Frederick Sommer, Edward Weston, and Garry Winogrand.
One of the nation's leading art museums, Phoenix Art Museum presents international exhibitions of the world's great art and features a collection that spans the centuries and the globe-American, Asian, contemporary, European, Latin American, and Western American art, and fashion design. Not to be missed are the Thorne Miniature Rooms, the interactive family gallery PhxArtKids, great shopping and dining, and a variety of public events.
Now, through the combined efforts of these two organizations, Phoenix Art Museum visitors will experience unparalleled excellence in the field of photography in the Museum's new Doris and John Norton Gallery for the Center for Creative Photography.
Phoenix Art Museum
Central Avenue & McDowell Road
(602) 257-1222 \ PhxArt.org