$3.5M Estate Gift Supports UA Creative Photography Center

UA Foundation
April 5, 2011

The Center for Creative Photography, or CCP, at the University of Arizona received a $3.5 million estate gift from the late Arthur J. Bell, a former photographer and professor at Columbia College in Chicago.

The gift was made in recognition of the international importance of the CCP, said director Katharine Martinez. It was Bell's final nod to his passion for photography – a passion that grew with his exposure to famous American photographers Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, both of whom house their archives in the CCP.

Private funding aids the CCP's preservation of the work and archives of renowned international photographers.

Using Bell's gift, the CCP is creating a permanent full-time position, the Arthur J. Bell Senior Photograph Conservator. The new position will plan and implement short and long-term goals pertaining to the care of photographic materials in the center's collections and recruit staff for the CCP's conservation lab.

"The quality and size of the center's collections underscore the need for a full-time conservator," Martinez said. "This is the culmination of a significant effort to create a conservation program that began in 2008 with the construction of a state-of-the-art photography conservation lab in the center."

Bell's generous estate gift provides a substantial boost for the center, which relies heavily on endowments and outright private gifts for support.

Establishing a charitable estate gift ensures you create a legacy of investing in the UA people and programs that are most meaningful to you. Benefits of charitable estate gifts also include potential tax advantage options and lifetime incomes from your gift.

For more information about gift planning at the UA, please visit uafoundation.org/giftplanning or call 520-621-1993 or 800-845-4877.

The Center for Creative Photography, part of the UA Libraries, holds more archives and individual works by 20th and 21st century North American photographers than any other museum in the world.

The archives of more than 200 major American photographers encompasses 4.5 million items, including negatives, contact sheets, proof prints, diaries, correspondence, publications and 90,000 fine prints from such famous photographers as Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, W. Eugene Smith, Edward Weston, Lola Alvarez Bravo and Garry Winogrand.

The center has an integrated program of acquisition, preservation, exhibition, support for research and instruction, and publications that celebrate the history of photography and its contemporary practice.

The UA Foundation is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to advancing the UA. Managing an existing asset base of more than $600 million, the UA Foundation has helped generate more than $2 billion in private funding to support the University. Learn more about the Foundation at uafoundation.org.

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Stephanie Balzer

UA Foundation

520-621-5581

stephanie.balzer@uafoundation.org