This university is known for many things - its winning sports teams, its Research I status, and the many high-tech facilities and programs on campus. However, there is a budding right-brained side to complement this left-hemisphere campus. The UA is home to a diverse and dynamic arts community, a resource every bit as important as the musty stacks of the Main Library.

Many of the arts resources on campus are located in the Arts Complex, a cluster of buildings at the northwestern corner of campus, near East Speedway Boulevard and North Park Avenue. The Arizona Museum of Art is an excellent place to start.

The museum houses a large permanent collection, ranging from medieval masterpieces to contemporary and faculty works of art. From sculpture to spray paint, the eclectic collection has a few big names (Picasso, Rothko, etc.) as well as many diverse pieces that are rotated on a regular basis. The permanent collection is upstairs; downstairs, in the Main and North galleries, as many as half a dozen shows a year are on display. The annual MFA and faculty exhibitions are an excellent way to observe our school's impressive collection of talent and see cutting-edge works of art.

Across from the museum is the Joseph Gross Gallery, which functions as a venue for students, faculty, alumni and occasionally as an annex to the museum's larger shows. The work in the Gross tends to be extremely contemporary, showcasing artwork in a large space that favors installations. In the same building as the Gross, the Student Gallery hosts dozens of shows a year of undergraduate and grad talent, with many group shows and collaborations.

Across from the museum building is the Center for Creative Photography, an unassuming building that houses one of the most unique and priceless collections of photographs in the world. The only museum of its kind, the CCP is a research and collecting museum that strives to preserve the entire "archives" of historically and artistically significant photographers - their photographs, negatives, and notes, as well as personal effects, diaries, and even equipment. The Center's collection includes photos by such legends as Ansel Adams, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Avedon and Annie Leibowitz. The most unusual aspect is the print-viewing program, which allows anyone to personally curate a show of photographs from the center's collection, for free. Imagine seeing Adams and Edward Weston not as shoddy posters taped to your wall, but as the original prints, velvety and crystal clear.

The CCP also houses an amazing library of photographic works and books on photography, searchable through SABIO. Next door, the Architecture library houses an equally impressive collection of rare and hard-to-find volumes.

There are even galleries in the Student Union itself, placing the Arts at the center of campus life. The Union Gallery, between the main entrance and the Gallagher theater, is home to a continuously rotating collection of student art, alumni shows and Arizona artists. Directly upstairs, the walls have been transformed into the Rotunda Gallery, with a cool and quiet atmosphere for easy viewing.

The humming banks of terminals at the Computer Center may be an impressive resource, but no student experience would be complete without a trip through the galleries - the showcase for the UA's impressive talents, and the cultural center of Tucson.

For more information: Museum of Art, 621-7567; Center for Creative Photography, 621-7968; Joseph Gross Gallery, 621-1251.