The Centre for Contemporary Photography (CCP) has today announced the appointment of Adam Harding as its new director.

Harding will replace Naomi Cass and will continue to build on her legacy of growing CCP as a leading exhibition space with a tight-knit creative community of artists and supporters.

Harding brings extensive arts experience to the role. After beginning his training at the Geelong Art Gallery in 1998, he spent seven years as the assistant curator at the Warrnambool Art Gallery. In 2007 he moved to the Horsham Regional Art Gallery (HRAG) as a curator, and in February 2009 he was appointed director.

At HRAG, he continued to strengthen Horsham’s commitment to community engagement while reinterpreting the Gallery’s collection and its installations to focus on the Gallery’s three main areas of collecting; artworks and images of Horsham and the Wimmera, the Mack Jost Collection of Australian Art, and its nationally significant collection of Australian photography.

Harding said that the role will allow him to continue to lead and influence contemporary photographic practice in Australia.

“During my directorship of HRAG, I have had the pleasure in sharing CCP’s exhibitions with the communities of the Wimmera, and I would like to personally congratulate Naomi Cass on what she has achieved at CCP. As a passionate advocate for lens-based arts, it’s a great honour to join the team and I’m looking forward to working with the Board, staff and stakeholders to lead the organisation into its new period of growth,” said Harding.

“Over the last nine years I have been building a nationally significant photography collection, and I’m excited to be moving to a place that allows the artists’ voice to be heard, their concerns shared, and their work presented ready to be collected and celebrated,” Harding continued.

CCP chair, Jane Hodder, said that she is looking forward to working with the new director to ensure that CCP continues to play a pivotal role in contemporary lens-based arts in Australia.

“We’re delighted to be working with Adam and build on the momentum and legacy we have generated in photographic arts. Adam’s experience and vision make him the perfect choice to lead CCP through its next exciting chapter and will open up exciting possibilities to engage the public and expand the context of lens-based arts.”

For over 32 years, CCP has been dedicated to nurturing the development of photographic arts and is one of the leading contemporary arts spaces in Australia dedicated to photography, video and related fields.

Exhibiting and promoting work by local, national and international artists, CCP is a not-forprofit membership based organisation that was established in 1986 by the photographic community.

The announcement comes during the Architecture Makes Us exhibition which is running at CCP until September 9. The show is a major mid-career survey of the cinematic video works of Australian artists Sonia Leber and David Chesworth, and offers a rich exploration into the way society is impacted by geography, technology and architecture.