The main gallery at the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography has closed indefinitely due to a broken humidistat, which controls the humidity — an essential element in preserving the works
The current show, “The Lives of Pictures,” celebrating the CCP’s 40th anniversary, has been removed from the gallery and placed in an “environmentally stable vault,” said UA spokesman Chris Sigurdson.
The humidistat stopped working Tuesday, he said. The gallery closed to the public Wednesday.
The expectation is that the show will be reinstalled, said Sigurdson. “The Lives of Pictures” opened in early October and is due to close May 14.
Steve Llewellyn, the CCP’s building manager, isn’t sure how long it will take to correct the problem. The UA closes Dec. 28-31 for winter break, and he doesn’t expect work on the humidistat will be conducted during that time.
He said it is a “reasonable expectation” that the CCP gallery will be closed until after the first of the year.
The CCP houses the archives of some of the most important photographers of the last century, such as Ansel Adams, Garry Winogrand and Edward Weston. It also has more than 90,000 works by about 2,000 photographers in its holdings. Sigurdson said the humidity control problem is only in the gallery and that all works in the center are environmentally safe.
Check the CCP website, creativephotography.org for updates
