Planning for the Sustainable Preservation of At-Risk Film in the Center for Creative Photography Archives
FAIN: PF-260753-18
Arizona Board of Regents (Tucson, AZ 85721-0073)
Alexis Peregoy (Project Director: December 2017 to September 2022)
Dana Hemmenway (Project Director: September 2022 to April 2025)
A planning grant to explore and identify
sustainable cold storage solutions for the at-risk film-based materials at the
Center for Creative Photography (CCP). The collection includes more than 6
million photographs and related materials.
Items to be housed in the planned cold storage vault include cellulose
nitrate and cellulose acetate negatives, transparencies, slides, and
reel-to-reel film dating to the late 19th century.
The Center for Creative
Photography (CCP) seeks a planning grant from the NEH SCHC program to explore
sustainable cold storage solutions for CCP’s at-risk film-based materials in
the archives. The film-based materials in need of sustainable preservation
include cellulose nitrate and acetate negatives, transparencies, slides, and
reels dating back to the 19th century. An interdisciplinary team will work
together to assess the CCP building and its facilities, determine current
preservation challenges and potential solutions, and identify sustainable
locations for cold storage. Deliverables will include preliminary designs and
cost estimates for the implementation phase of the project. This project will
ensure long-term access for scholarly study for generations to come. The loss
of these valuable materials through deterioration would be negligent by
professional standards and detrimental to the photographic community and
researchers – ultimately rendering the collection incomplete.