The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago (MoCP) have held their annual benefit auction, the DARKROOM, on Thursday, February 27. The event was hosted at the new Columbia College Chicago Student Center. The auction helped raised over$255,000 to support the museum. The museum’s exhibitions, collections, and community engagement initiatives in 2020 will be critically supported through the funds raised at DARKROOM.

The highlights of the event included a VIP hour conversation between MoCP curator of academic programs and collections Kristin Taylor and Silver Camera Awardee Kenneth Josephson about his photographic contributions. Other points of the event included honoring Josephson with the Silver Camera Award.

The Silver Camera Award, sponsored by Related, honors the people who have made a significant contribution to the medium of photography. A live auction and a rousing Raise the Paddle followed the presentation. Those helped raised over $14,000 to support MoCP education initiatives, including expanded teen programs and a bus subsidy program aimed at bringing more Chicago Public School students to the museum from under-served communities.

DARKROOM was co-chaired by Cheryl Sandner and Ann Thompson with honorary co-chairs Jeremy Efroymson, Elissa Hamid Efroymson, and Adnaan Hamid. DARKROOM had hosted over 300 guests. The guests enjoyed an elegant evening celebration of photography while supporting the Museum of Contemporary Photography.

The Museum of Contemporary Photography is the only museum of its kind in the region. The Museum is grateful to all those who helped make the event possible especially the DARKROOM 2020 sponsors.