The Annenberg Foundation will open a free 10,000-square-foot gallery space in Los Angeles next to its administrative office on the Avenue of the Stars. The Annenberg Space for Photography will open in the spring of 2009 with a group show by eight Los Angeles-based photographers.
The space will feature a new digital projection gallery along with a traditional print exhibit area. Once the facility opens, thousands of photographs will be readily accessible to the public in large, high-resolution formats. The original inspiration for the space came from the foundation's vice president and trustee, Wallis Annenberg, whose personal devotion to traditional gallery and museum photography led him to create this new, high-tech paradigm for presenting images to the public.
Local photographers who are scheduled to take part in the opening exhibit next year include John Baldessari, Catherine Opie, Greg Gorman, Douglas Kirkland, Tim Street-Porter, Julius Shulman, Lauren Greenfield and Carolyn Cole.
The Annenberg Space for Photography seeks to align itself with the mission of the Annenberg Foundation, which aims to improve the well-being of the community through the exchange of ideas and new ways of thinking.
Under the stewardship of the foundation's trustees, the Photography Space will focus on images that express the human condition, the aim of the foundation's philanthropic works. The trustees will work directly with guest curators throughout the year on all exhibits and programming.