Photography gallery thrives at Columbia
Museum touts only all-photo exhibit in Midwest

By Jamie Murnane
Staff Writer

As students fight the cold Chicago wind and hurriedly turn the corner of Harrison Street and Michigan Avenue, they often overlook the Museum of Contemporary Photography.

The museum, which resides on the first and second floors of the Alexandroff Campus Center, 600 S. Michigan Ave., has been there for nearly two decades and still many people are unaware of its significance.

Established by Columbia in 1984 in place of the college's Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography of 1976, it is the only museum in the Midwest dedicated solely to photography. MOCP is also among the 750 out of approximately 16,000 museums nationwide that are accredited by the American Association of Museums.

According to Natasha Egan, the associate director of the museum who has worked at the institution since 1995, the MOCP was first accredited in 1988 and again in 2000. She said that accreditation, which is valid for a 10 year period, is the highest honor a museum can receive.

A statement on the American Association of Museums' website, www.aam-us.org., reads "accreditation affirms a museum's excellence in public service and accountability, and signals a commitment to continuing institutional improvement and change."

Though the museum was established and is still run by Columbia, it is not just a college art museum. The MOCP's physical home may be on Columbia's campus, but it fits snuggly into the larger scheme of the art world by working with photographers and communities not just in the city, but also all around the country and the world.

"It made sense that the museum be in Chicago where we have the Chicago Historical Society, which has a great collection of artifacts, the Art Institute, which focuses more on the history of photography and the Museum of Contemporary Art that has a very small amount of artists using photography," Egan said. "There was really a niche in Chicago [for the Museum of Contemporary Photography] because photography was exploding as an art medium. In the '90s, it basically took over the art market."

Though the museum exhibits work by artists all over the world, the permanent collection of nearly 7,000 photographs focuses primarily on contemporary American photographers.

Over the years, Egan said the museum has been attempting to show more work by Illinois residents than it has in the past.

Aside from exhibiting first-class photography, the museum also collaborates with Columbia's Office of Community Arts Partnerships to run an afterschool program for Chicago high schools and prints many award-winning publications.

"The museum's primary goal is education. In the six years that I have worked here, we have worked hard to ensure that our educational resources-our collections, exhibitions and experienced staff-are very accessible to Columbia students and faculty and to the wider public that we serve," said Corinne Rose, manager of education at the museum.

For more information on current and upcoming exhibits, visit the Museum of Contemporary Photography's website at www.mocp.org.