Mission

CENTER supports socially and environmentally engaged lens-based projects through education, public platforms, funding, and partnerships. Through our advancement of artists and their work, CENTER serves to deepen public understanding of lens-based media’s history and ongoing cultural significance. By establishing partnerships between artists and scholars, editors, students, and the art world, we advance projects that respect all people, open minds, and engage our shared humanity. CENTER has proven for the last 31 years that it can help photographers and lens-based artists grow into their full potential. CENTER programs foster insights and actualizations that ripple and impact all involved by providing platforms where the creative impulse can be engaged and challenged. Public exhibitions, educational presentations, and expositions of the work are held in conjunction with the awards, grants, and Review Santa Fe. Annual programs include the Project Launch Grant, Project Development Grant, Me&Eve Award, The CENTER Awards, The Visual Storytelling Lab for NM Military, Callanan Excellence in Teaching Award, Jay and Susie Tyrrell Excellence in Works by Hand Award, Blue Earth Fiscal Sponsorship, The Democratic Lens: Photography and Civic Engagement lecture series, and the Review Santa Fe Photo Symposium.