Eastman House and ICP Announce Alliance.

Business Editors

COLOGNE, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--September 20, 2000

Two Leaders In The Photography World To Share Talent and Resources

George Eastman House, the International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, N.Y., and New York City's International Center of Photography (ICP) will make their priceless collections and unique programs more widely available to the public, scholars, teachers, and students through a collaborative alliance announced today before hundreds of journalists gathered here at Photokina, the world's largest photographic trade show.

Through the alliance the two museums will concentrate on five initiatives:

-- Exhibitions in both museums drawn from their permanent collections bringing,
for the first time, the vast collections of the Eastman House to New York City
and ICP's unique collections to Rochester

-- Creation of a triennial exhibition of contemporary photography from around
the world, beginning in 2003

-- Inauguration of a joint Web site, presently under design, to display key
images and interpretative materials from the museums' collections

-- Development of a joint cataloguing system that will greatly simplify and
improve the public's ability to search both collections for images arranged by
subject and theme

-- Joint development of five internationally touring exhibitions

Eastman House has unparalleled collections of 400,000 photographs from 8,000 photographers dating from the beginnings of the art; 15,000 cameras and other items of technology; 25,000 motion-picture titles and 5 million publicity stills; and what is believed to be the world's most comprehensive library of photographic books, manuscripts, and journals. Located in modern archives adjacent to George Eastman's restored Rochester home, the Museum offers world-leading graduate and post-graduate programs in photograph and film preservation.

The International Center of Photography (ICP) is a museum and a school dedicated to the understanding and appreciation of photography. ICP advances the knowledge of the medium through thought-provoking exhibitions, approximately 20 per year; collections, which provide access to more than 1,000 photographers with 50,000 prints emphasizing works in the documentary tradition; and the largest museum photography school in the world, serving more than 5,000 students in a broad array of educational courses, including one-year certificate programs, a masters program, and community outreach for students of all ages and levels. A broad general audience is also engaged in ICP's activities through a full range of public programs including interactive workshops, guided tours, lectures, and family-day events.

To augment its visibility and effectiveness, ICP is bringing its school and gallery space together in new expanded and renovated facilities only steps away from each other to create a unified cultural "campus" in midtown Manhattan at 43rd Street and Avenue of the Americas. ICP is dedicating significant resources to foster new initiatives that will take advantage of the rare synergism created by the close proximity of the museum to its internationally recognized photography school.

"Through two years of study and discussion, it became clear to us that collaboration with ICP offers the opportunity for joint development of collection standards and educational outreach that will enable us to inform and inspire as never before," Dr. Anthony Bannon, director of the Eastman House, said in Cologne. "The beneficiaries will be those we serve at every level, from masters of the art to teachers, students, and the millions of people who see photography as a rewarding pastime. This truly is a case where one plus one equals four."

"The alliance between ICP and the Eastman House is meant to strengthen our programs and enhance access to our collections," said Willis Hartshorn, director of ICP, in New York City. "The institutions are remarkably aligned in their missions and complement each other in location and emphasis; ICP with its major galleries in New York City and energetic school, the Eastman House with its extraordinary collection and conservation programs. Our curatorial and education staffs work very well together and benefit from the energy collaboration provides. Together ICP and the Eastman House create one of the great resources for the study and understanding of photography."

ICP and the Eastman House share compatible missions, organizational structures, and long-range goals. Through this strategic alliance the museums will strengthen their fundraising presence; work together to gather, organize, and share information; foster the exchange of staff; share in development of exhibitions, educational programs, and collection databases; and undertake joint planning and marketing.

Kim Igoe, director of museum advancement and excellence of the American Association of Museums (AAM), is coaching the Eastman House and ICP on this alliance. Igoe is advising on strategic-planning issues and is studying the alliance to develop programs at AAM in the areas of leadership and change readiness.

The collection-sharing between the Eastman House and ICP will begin this fall, with the first in a series of eight exhibitions over three years called "New Histories of Photography." The exhibition titled Daguerreotypomania! will feature rare artifacts to illuminate the impact photography has had on culture. Daguerreotypomania! opens Nov. 3, in conjunction with the grand reopening and expansion of ICP's museum space. The other seven exhibitions will be Delmaet and Durandelle: The Construction of the Paris Opera; Photography and the Book: Selections from the Richard and Ronay Menschel Library; The First Snapshots; Before Cinema: The Projected Image and the Moving Image; Movie Stills from Hollywood's Early Days: Images of African-American Life; and Commercial Photography of the 1920s-1950s.

The Eastman House collections range from the works of pioneers Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot to the 20th-century photographs of Ansel Adams, Lewis Hine, and Alfred Stieglitz. The motion-picture holdings range from classic silents such as D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation and the original negatives of The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, to libraries of films from famed directors such as Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee, among many other Hollywood notables who have deposited their films at Eastman House because of the museum's expertise in preservation and its high standing in photographic scholarship.

A second series of exhibitions will be created for travel from the two museums' collections. This series, tentatively titled "American Focus," will begin in 2003 and continue every two years until 2009. The exhibitions will focus on a single photographer, group, or theme that consider the uniquely American contribution to the development of photography. Subjects to be featured include daguerreotypists Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes (1840-1870); color advertising from the 1930s and 1940s, including work from Victor Keppler and Nikolas Muray; and Lewis Hine and the New York Photo League.

Shared exhibitions include the ICP exhibition Weegee's World: Life, Death, and the Human Drama at the Eastman House Oct. 14, 2000 through Jan. 7, 2001, and a future exhibition titled James Nachtwey: Testimony in 2003. Eastman House exhibitions The Photographs of Alfred Stieglitz: Georgia O'Keeffe's Enduring Legacy and Inside Out: 50 Years of Collecting are traveling to ICP in the future.

ICP and the Eastman House have already raised $120,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources for joint educational programs. This educational collaboration will break new ground in providing collection access and curricular materials to teachers, academics, students, and the general public on the World Wide Web. The joint Web site, to be launched in spring 2001, will include 10,000 images from the two museums' collections; a chronology of photography; biographical information on photographers; sample Eastman House and ICP curricula for use in the classroom; and digital projects designed by artists for the site. In April 2001, links to the ICP/Eastman House Web site will be posted on the homepages of the member museums (www.eastman.org and www.icp.org).

To enhance the ease of sharing collections, the Eastman House and ICP will license the same collection management software and develop an easy-to-use public access Web site that provides multiple ways of looking at and searching among thousands of photographs. The museums will develop searching and browsing tools to explore the Web site if the user does not know a photographer's name, career dates, or other specific information. With these tools, users will be able to search for images according to their general subject or thematic content. For example, in response to a query, the system will display images linked with the query words or phrases supplied displaying all uses associated with the particular photograph, derived from exhibitions, publications, or commercial applications of the image.

Finally, the two museums have begun to survey all aspects of photographic picture-making to create a series of triennial exhibitions, highlighting contemporary works. The First International Photography Triennial is tentatively scheduled for summer 2003, and will be jointly organized by the staffs of ICP and the Eastman House.

The Eastman House was founded in 1949 and is the world's oldest photography museum. ICP, founded in 1974, is the only museum dedicated exclusively to photography in New York City. Both institutions celebrated important anniversaries last year: George Eastman House marked its 50th anniversary, while ICP celebrated 25 years.

A joint mission statement adopted by the two museums reads: "In a cooperative alliance, the International Center of Photography and George Eastman House will share resources to enhance interpretive programming for photography and related media, while increasing public access to collections and information. The two organizations will share their expertise to build more ambitious programs and projects, while increasing funding and maintaining efficiency."

Electronic images are available via ftp at the following address: ftp://209.105.164.122

If you have any problems retrieving or downloading the images, please contact Gary Brandt at George Eastman House at [phone] ext. 347, or by e-mail at [e-mail]

Images available at the ftp address include exterior images of George Eastman House and ICP, as well as headshots of museum directors Bannon (Eastman House) and Hartshorn (ICP), and two images from the upcoming ICP exhibition Daguerreotypomania! (1839 Giroux Daguerreotype camera and 1844 Daguerreotype of Daguerre, both from the Eastman House collections). Images of Bannon at Photokina " making the announcement of the alliance at the Kodak press dinner "will be available later today via this ftp address.