Ms. Dammeyer collaborates with many non-profit organizations to tell their story. She helps non-profits get one step closer to communicating their unique messages. For example, a portrait easily conveys a child's mood and sometimes the human condition they are experiencing without the need for words.
“I’ve always wanted my images to have a purpose, and when combined with an emotional issue, both my inner and outer worlds come together, and I have a deep sense of purpose”
The Diane Dammeyer Gallery
The Diane Dammeyer Gallery inside the Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego creates a premier education teaching space for children and young adults with access to interactive technology and hands-on learning. Diane's work as a philanthropic photographer epitomizes the museum's mission in promoting visual literacy to the broadest possible audience, says Deborah Klochko, Executive Director, Museum of Photographic Arts.
The Diane Dammeyer Fellowship
The Diane Dammeyer Fellowship in Photographic Arts and Social Issues creates an opportunity for an engaged graduate student to develop and show a compelling body of work that speaks to the human rights and social issues the artist is most interested in exhibiting to the public. The Diane Dammeyer Fellowship in Photographic Arts and Social Issues, the first fellowship at Columbia, was established in 2014 by alumna Diane Dammeyer.
Past recipients (2015-2018) of the Diane Dammeyer Fellowship
2019-2021 Dammeyer Fellow: Jonathan Michael Castillo
The recipient of the 2021-22 Diane Dammeyer Fellowship in Photographic Arts and Social Issues is Melissa Ann Pinney.
Pinney, a Columbia alum and part-time faculty member, is well known for colorful documentary-style images of ordinary situations showing the social construction of the American female identity. She has work included in the permanent collections of museums, including The Art Institute of Chicago, J. Paul Getty Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Museum of Modern Art, among others. Pinney has exhibited her work nationally and internationally and has received numerous grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Melissa Ann Pinney is the seventh Dammeyer Fellow to develop a new body of work in partnership with Columbia's Photography department while immersing themselves within a Chicago community.
Diane Dammeyer Initiative
Under Columbia College Chicago's direction, the Diane Dammeyer Initiative connects more than one hundred local youths with cameras. It also prepares a primary education for students to learn what to expect while documenting life in their community. For one hundred days each year, the festival known as Eyes on Main Street, held in Wilson, North Carolina, exhibits a gigantic outdoor photo exhibition using images with a world view perspective. In addition, this program delivers many ways to interact with photography, including presentations, artists-in-residency, youth programming, workshops, and lectures.