ANSEL ADAMS BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
The Center for Creative Photography is the premier research collection of American photographic fine art and archives, promoting creative inquiry, dialogue, and appreciation of photography’s enduring cultural influence. The Center was co-founded in 1975 by then- University of Arizona President Dr. John P. Schaefer and world-renowned landscape photographer Ansel Adams. Schaefer recalls their conversations in December of 1974, “We spoke of archives, teaching programs, seminars, visiting scholars, and collecting and preservation, publication, the creation of exhibitions; over the course of days the concept of the Center for Creative Photography was born… 1 .” As a way of celebrating Ansel Adams and sharing his important legacy the Center for Creative Photography holds an annual Ansel Adams Birthday celebration.
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Excerpt from the John P. Schaefer article in Original Sources: Art and Archives at the Center for Creative Photography
In its inaugural year, the Center offered a Public Birthday Celebration with a presentation by Chief Curator Dr. Rebecca Senf, small group tours of selections from Ansel Adams’s archive led by Head Archivist Leslie Squyres, displays of vintage cameras by the Western Photographic Historical Society, and of course, birthday cake! The event garnered over six-hundred attendees in under three hours from throughout the local University and Tucson community. After this first success, we expanded the event into a two-day affair: a sold out ticketed Evening Celebration and the Public Birthday Celebration. The evening program offered attendees an intimate look at selections from Ansel Adams’s archive, an exclusive print viewing, and a first-look at an annual exhibition in the Heritage gallery. The Public Birthday Celebration features an invited special guest headlining speaker, self-guided archival object tour, an Adams-themed photo booth, vintage camera displays by WPHS, hands on activities for families, birthday cake, and more.
COVER Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Just after He Got the Contax, 1936, © 1981 Arizona Board of Regents, Collection Center for Creative Photography INTERIOR Abe Aronow, Ansel Adams, 1981, Photograph by Abe Aronow, Collection Center for Creative Photography EXTERIOR John P. Schaefer, Ansel Adams, 1980, © John P. Schaefer, Collection Center for Creative Photography
Outside of the Evening and Public Birthday Celebration programming, the Ansel Adams Birthday Celebration cultivates vast digital engagement. In partnership with Zocalo Media, last year’s celebration brought in over 800 attendees and had record participation in our event-related Instagram campaign, #inspiredbyAnsel where we encouraged readers and visitors to post their own photos, inspired by Ansel Adams’s work, to Instagram.
PHOTOGRAPHY LIVES HERE THE CENTER FOR CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY 520-621-7968 | 1030 North Olive Road Tucson, AZ 85721 www.ccp.arizona.edu | info@ccp.arizona.edu
The Ansel Adams Celebration has been a driver for awareness building, for engaging visitors of all ages, and promoting diverse access across multiple channels. We are approaching the anniversary of Ansel Adams’s next birthday, and we are planning an event expanding on the engagement and excitement from the past years. Plans for our next Celebration include an Ansel Adams exhibition in the Center’s Heritage Gallery, family activities, a headline speaker, and a capsule Adams collection for the CCP store.