About the Center for Creative Photography
The Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, is recognized as one of the world’s finest academic art museums and study centers for the history of photography. The Center opened in 1975, following a meeting between the University President John Schaefer and Ansel Adams. Beginning with the archives of five living master photographers—Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, and Frederick Sommer—the collection has grown to include 270 archival collections. Among these are some of the most recognizable names in 20th century North American photography: W. Eugene Smith, Lola Alvarez Bravo, Edward Weston, and Garry Winogrand. Altogether there are over eight million archival objects in the Center’s collection including negatives, work prints, contact sheets, albums, scrapbooks, correspondence, writings, audiovisual materials and memorabilia. In addition to whole archival collections the Center also actively acquires individual photographs by modern and contemporary photographers. There are currently more than 90,000 works by over 2,200 photographers. A library of books, journals, and exhibition and auction catalogs including many rare publications plus an extensive oral history collection complements the archival and fine print collections. The combined art, archival, and research collections at the Center provide an unparalleled resource for research, exhibitions, loans, and traveling exhibitions.
American and Western American
The American and Western American collections feature art dating from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. Through the objects on view, we can trace the development and evolution of American artistic traditions through the early interest in portraiture to the prominence of landscape painting, and beyond.
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Contemporary
The contemporary art collection features cutting-edge contemporary works by living artists, from the mid-20th century to today. Representing works by artists working all over the world, the collection features diverse perspectives that illuminate the contemporary human experience.
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Fashion Design
The fashion design collection features nearly 6,000 objects of couture, accessories, and ephemera. Spanning nearly five hundred years, from the historical to the ultra-contemporary, the fashion design collection is one of the most unique of its kind in the world.
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Latin American
The Latin American art collection features more than 1,000 works from across North, Central and South America. From Spanish Colonial to contemporary works by living artists, the collection explores artistic traditions that are especially meaningful to our shared experience in a border region.
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Photography
Through a landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Phoenix Art Museum presents three annual exhibitions of photography to its community, drawn from the CCP’s unparalleled collection of historical and contemporary photography.
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Thorne Rooms
The Thorne Rooms provide a glimpse into replications of rooms found in America and Europe, at an exacting 1:12 scale. A beloved favorite of visitors of all ages, they have been painstakingly preserved for nearly a century.
MoreAbout the 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.
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.
Now, through the combined efforts of these two organizations, Phoenix Art Museum visitors can experience unparalleled excellence in the field of photography in the Museum’s Doris and John Norton Gallery for the Center for Creative Photography, curated by Audrey Sands.
Meet the Curator
Audrey Sands, Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography. A joint appointment between Phoenix Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography.
Audrey Sands joined the Museum and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson in August 2019. Sands brings extensive experience to the Museum’s team of curators, having served in various roles at museums and art institutions across the United States, including The J. Paul Getty Museum; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Lens Media Lab at Yale University. Most recently, she served as the Chester Dale Fellow in the department of photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Sands holds an MSt in the history of art and visual culture from the University of Oxford, and is expected to complete her PhD in the history of art from Yale University in 2019.
Collection Highlights
The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson was founded in 1975 by John Schaefer, then-president of the University of Arizona, and Ansel Adams. The Center’s world-renowned collection includes more than eight million prints, contact sheets, albums, scrapbooks, and other objects drawn from 270 archival collections, including those of Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Frederick Sommer, W. Eugene Smith, Lola Álvarez Bravo, and Edward Weston. The Center also acquires individual photographs by modern and contemporary artists, and its collection now features more than 90,000 works by more 2,200 photographers, in addition to a library of books, journals, and exhibition and auction catalogues.