Phoenix Art Museum welcomes new photography curator

Sep, 11, 2019

Board of Trustees and LeadershipCollectionsPhotography

Phoenix Art Museum welcomes new photography curator

Audrey Sands has been named the Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography, a curatorial position shared between the Museum and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona

PHOENIX (September 11, 2019) – Phoenix Art Museum announces Audrey Sands as the Museum’s new Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography, a joint appointment with the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) at the University of Arizona. Sands will divide her time between the two institutions, working with CCP’s world-renowned collections to curate exhibitions that will be presented in the Museum’s Doris and John Norton Gallery for the Center for Creative Photography. She began her role with CCP on August 26, 2019, and her first day at the Museum will be September 23, 2019.

“We are thrilled to welcome Audrey Sands to Phoenix Art Museum,” said Gilbert Vicario, the Museum’s Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and the Selig Family Chief Curator. “The Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography position is integral to our valued and longstanding partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, and with her significant experience working in curatorial photography departments at internationally renowned institutions, Sands will bring invaluable expertise and creative vision to the Museum’s photography exhibitions.”

In 2006, Phoenix Art Museum and CCP began an innovative collaboration to bring vibrant photography exhibitions, featuring works from the Center’s unparalleled collections, to new and larger audiences. Founded in 1975 by renowned photographer Ansel Adams and John Schaefer, then-president of the University of Arizona, CCP is home to 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 approximately 110,000 works by more than 2,200 photographers, in addition to a library of books, journals, and exhibition and auction catalogues. Since 2006, CCP and Phoenix Art Museum have organized nearly 40 exhibitions, showcasing works by 20th-century and contemporary photographers alike.

Sands joins the Museum and CCP after recently completing a Chester Dale Fellowship in the Department of Photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She holds a Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University, specializing in the history of photography, with a dissertation on the photographer Lisette Model (1901-1983). She received her M.A. in the History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of Oxford and her B.A. in Art History from Barnard College. Sands has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, grants, and awards, including the Henry Luce/ACLS Fellowship in American Art, the Canadian Photography Institute Fellowship, the Tyson Scholarship from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Joan and Stanford Alexander Award presented by The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Predoctoral Fellowship from the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA). Along with her impressive academic record, she has worked in curatorial departments at several art museums, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

“It is an honor to join Phoenix Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography as the Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography,” Sands said. “The Museum is a dynamic, impactful institution committed to its mission of increasing access to the arts. I am excited to work with CCP’s premier collection of photographs to bring rigorous and inspiring exhibitions to the Museum and its expanded community.”

The next photography exhibition organized by Phoenix Art Museum and the Center for Creative Photography, Ansel Adams: Performing the Print, curated by Rebecca A. Senf, Ph.D., Chief Curator at CCP and former Norton Family Curator, opens in the Museum’s Doris and John Norton Gallery for the Center for Creative Photography on January 11, 2020. Featuring 60 photographs, the exhibition presents sets of prints, grouped in twos and threes, to show how Adams often created varying interpretations from a single narrative. Sands is currently working on an exhibition scheduled to open in summer 2020. For more information, visit phxart.org and ccp.arizona.edu.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum has provided millions of guests with access to world-class art and experiences in an effort to ignite imaginations, create meaningful connections, and serve as a brave space for all people who wish to experience the transformative power of art. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, the Museum is a vibrant destination for the visual arts and the largest art museum in the southwestern United States. Each year, more than 350,000 guests engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 19,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. The Museum also presents a comprehensive film program, live performances, and educational programs designed for visitors of all ages, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.

About the Phoenix Art Museum Curatorial Team

The Curatorial Department at Phoenix Art Museum is overseen by Gilbert Vicario, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Selig Family Chief Curator. It is composed of Janet Baker, Ph.D., Curator of Asian Art; Marissa Del Toro, Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative (DAMLI) Fellow; Betsy Fahlman, Ph.D., Adjunct Curator of American Art; Audrey Sands, Ph.D., Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography; and Rachel Zebro, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art.

About the Center for Creative Photography

The Center for Creative Photography, at the 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 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, including W. Eugene Smith, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Edward Weston, and Garry Winogrand. Altogether there are more than eight million archival objects in the Center’s collection, including negatives, work prints, contact sheets, albums, scrapbooks, correspondence, writings, audiovisual materials, and memorabilia. To learn more about the Center for Creative Photography, visit ccp.arizona.edu, or call 520.621.7968.