Background Report - Arizona Town Hall

as “superfluous” rather than “core,”’ a general sense of doom and fear (economic dismay
or invasion by “others”) that dampens creative risk-taking and intellectual curiosity,
a sense that the arts may undermine conservative values.
But perhaps it is more useful to talk about the opportunities for the arts that are present in
Arizona today. There is a healthy array of active artist- and community-led local arts
programs all over the state, many of them deeply embedded in the communities they serve.
Phoenix is a genuinely multi-cultural city, accepting more international refugees every
year than the nation of England, creating a social context where visual, musical, culinary, and
narrative communication through the arts can be a major unifying force. Scottsdale has
one of the nation’s leading public art programs, the Phoenix Art Museum is the brightest light
in encyclopedic visual arts between Denver and Los Angeles, and Tempe is home to ASU,
which is truly one of the most recognized innovators of accessible excellence in education
and avant-garde research in today’s post-disciplinary reality. There is an extraordinary
base-culture here in Arizona for the emergence of powerful new art projects to expand our
thinking and connect us to each other and our shared roots and values. The collective
exploratory nature of the arts, and the embedded qualities of communication and empathy that
define the artistic process, reconfirm for all of us that we are more similar than we
are different—as a species, we are all here together and interdependent.
Re-Shaping the Histories of Photography
Katharine Martinez, Director, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
What brought me to Arizona and specifically to the Center for Creative Photography at
the University of Arizona? Three compelling attributes made this a very attractive position.
First, the Center for Creative Photography is a world-class cultural institution with an
extraordinary history. It was founded in 1975 by Ansel Adams, the American photographer
who changed how we see the landscape of the American West, in collaboration with
the young and visionary University of Arizona President John Schaefer as a center for the
appreciation and understanding of creative photography. It is noteworthy that they
chose not to name the institution the museum for creative photography. From its beginnings
the Center was an archive, that is, collections of the private papers, business records,
memorabilia, and photographs of the leading North American photographers, accessible for
research and appreciation through its study center, exhibition galleries, and publications.
Launched with the founding archives of Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, Edward Weston, and
Garry Winogrand, the Center has grown to become the largest archive in the world devoted
to American photographers. Today the Center houses approximately five million photographs
and documents and, along with the George Eastman House and the Library of Congress,
is one of the world’s leading sites for advanced study in the history of American photography.
Through its exhibitions and publications, the Center reaches a global audience.
Second, I wanted to be involved in shaping the on-going history of photography, by
nurturing an environment that enables researchers from around the world to study, think,
look, debate, and write. As a special collection within a university library, the Center
is part of an enterprise that supports inquiry and learning. The Center is about much more
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