The philanthropic Annenberg Foundation plans to open a new exhibition space for photography in Century City, Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reports. Currently under construction, the 10,000-square-foot, one-story building will house a digital projection gallery, a traditional display area for prints, a classroom, a workshop, and a library.

The exhibition program will present the diversity of the medium, with an eye toward the foundation's mission "to improve the well-being of the community through the exchange of ideas and new ways of thinking." The foundation has no plans to acquire photographs or hire curators; it will invite guest curators to create exhibitions from works lent by artists and photojournalists as well as samplings from museum and media organization collections.

"For me, it's the fulfillment of a lifelong dream," said Wallis Annenberg, who helps oversee the foundation created by her late father, Walter H. Annenberg. "This will elevate photography to a new level and take it out of the academic realm of museums, with all their politics and trustees. Photography is one of the most accessible art forms, and this will be an accessible space."

"I love photography," she added. Annenberg, a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, recently demonstrated this with a gift to the museum that helped the institution acquire a major photo collection and create a new photography study room.

The first show in the foundation's new space will celebrate the organization's presence in L.A. by showcasing work by eight local photographers: John Baldessari and Catherine Opie, fine artists; Greg Gorman and Douglas Kirkland, from the film, television, and fashion industries; Julius Shulman and Tim Street-Porter, showing the architecture of the city; Lauren Greenfield, representing young women under the influence of Hollywood; and Carolyn Cole, an L.A. Times photographer, who will show the international aspect of the city.

The show was conceived from talks between foundation trustees and adviser Anne Wilkes Tucker, photo curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "The show might look broad, but we felt that for our first step it was best to reach for the diversity," Tucker said.