NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 25 number 3 - Spring 2005

Pulitzer Prize Photography Exhibit Receives Regional Award

By Jan Kemp, Brickhaven Library

The NCSU Libraries won the 2004 Outstanding Library Program Award from the Southeastern Library Association for its 2003 exhibition covering Pulitzer Prize-winning photography as well as related programming. The award was announced in November 2004 at a joint conference of the Southeastern Library Association and the North Carolina Library Association.

The Pulitzer Prize Photographs: Capture the Moment exhibition and the library's outreach efforts to the public and university community were praised by the chair of the awards committee as "innovative programming that had a decided impact . . . and opened new avenues of discussion and insight."

The Pulitzer Prize Photographs: Capture the Moment is a major traveling exhibition developed by the Newseum, the interactive museum of news, located in Arlington, Virginia, in association with Business of Entertainment, Inc., of New York City. It consists of more than 125 photographs about world events that made front-page news from 1942 to the present. The exhibition, curated by NC State Distinguished Alumna Cyma Rubin, was on display at the D. H. Hill Library throughout the 2003 fall semester. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Libraries brought eight Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers to NC State for public events and presented a series of documentary films on issues related to photojournalism. The Libraries also published several related publicity items, including a striking poster, bookmarks, and informational handouts.

The award is not the first recognition bestowed on this exhibition. The Durham Herald-Sun called it one of the regional art community's ten best art exhibitions of 2003, and the weekly publication Independent said the Pulitzer exhibition was "the best traveling show to come through the Triangle in recent memory."