In this special 30th anniversary year, we are thrilled to share that CENTER has received a significant grant that will support the formalization of our digital archive, providing stability and longevity to the CENTER legacy. Activating the Archive: Preserving 21st-Century Photography will make nearly 20,000 images and related text available as an accessible online resource for scholars, educators, and others. We look forward to providing you with this resource.
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MAY 2, 2024 ANNOUNCEMENT • CENTER, the non-profit photography organization in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is proud to have received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and its Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program. The grant will support planning for Activating the Archive: Preserving 21st-Century Photography, CENTER’s initiative to make nearly 20,000 images and related text into an accessible online resource.

CENTER’s collection is made up of in-depth, socially and environmentally focused lens-based projects. Each year since 2000, a jury has selected 100 photographers to attend CENTER’s annual flagship program, the Review Santa Fe Symposium. The collection also includes projects by renowned photographers who received support through CENTER’s annual grants and awards. The NEH funding will support the design and testing of a website template. When complete, the website will showcase nearly 20,000 images alongside captions, artists’ statements, scholarly analysis, and information about the technological, social, and cultural milestones of the 21st century reflected in the artists’ work.

“As CENTER celebrates its 30th anniversary, we are excited to receive the NEH’s support as we begin planning to make our image collection searchable and accessible to the public,” says CENTER’s executive director Laura Wzorek Pressley, who will lead Activating the Archive. “Photo projects produced with CENTER’s support have responded to timely issues such as immigration and displacement, identity, citizenship, the human impact of environmental problems, and the aftermath of violence and conflict. The goal of Activating the Archive is to design a website that will encourage the public to learn about photographers’ methods and how their images reflect the times in which they live.”

CENTER is one of only 33 institutions – 18% of applications – chosen this year to receive a grant from the NEH’s highly competitive Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program, which helps preserve and expand public access to important historical records and humanities collections.

CENTER will collaborate with Fred Gibbs, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of History at the University of New Mexico, who will advise on website architecture and development. Professor Gibbs was Director of Digital Scholarship at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History of New Media from 2009-2013, where he directed and collaborated on dozens of pioneering digital history projects with funding from many agencies, including NEH, Mellon Foundation, and IMLS. Since arriving at UNM, Gibbs has been developing numerous digital humanities courses and an open-source platform for publishing student-driven public history projects. He will advise CENTER on platform selection and data standards for a searchable website that incorporates photographers’ biographies, maps, and timelines of significant 21st-century events. Text on the site will include scholarly essays contributed to CENTER’s discussion series, The Democratic Lens: Photography and Civic Engagement and Photography 20/20 Compendium, both supported by grants from the NEH.

Activating the Archive will be guided by a Scholar Advisor Counsel that includes Professor Gibbs, curator Mary Anne Redding of Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC; Digital archivist Rachel Snow, Ph.D., who has previously worked on media collections for New Mexico Public Media; and Will Wilson, a Diné photographer and Associate Professor at the University of Texas, Austin, formerly the Head of the Photography Department at the Santa Fe Community College, NM.