Founded in 1969, VSW celebrates fifty years of non-conforming this year with a host of events including an alumni reunion, exhibitions, and screenings.
January 25-June 9: Nathan Lyons: In Pursuit of Magic, a retrospective of VSW founder Nathan Lyons (1930-2016) at George Eastman Museum. Go January 24, 6pm for the Curator’s remarks and buy the book of the same title published by University of Texas Press and George Eastman Museum.
February 22-April 13: Sequential Considerations, an exhibition of photo-bookworks and graphic novels to study differing perspectives on visual sequence named for a 1975 lecture by Lyons. Go February 22, 6pm for a talk by one of exhibition’s author/photographers, Brenda Ann Kenneally, on her monumental book Upstate Girls: Unraveling Collar City.
March 21: Sequence Symposium at VSW, an afternoon of artist and critic conversations on sequence at 2pm followed at 6pm at George Eastman Museum: a tour of the Nathan Lyons exhibition by the person who knows his work best, artist and publisher Joan Lyons.
May 11-June 29: Chronology: a People’s Ordering of Events at VSW, an exhibition attempt at illustrating the fifty years of activities and people who passed through VSW.
May 31: 12-5pm VSW Alumni Reunion events with opportunities to record oral histories and panels during the day; 5pm alumni reception; and a 7pm screening of the recently preserved 1972 film About Us made by VSW students and Robert Frank.
Registration information and schedule available at the Bookstore.
June 1: VSW Alumni Reunion events with a 12pm panel on Visual Literacy at George Eastman Museum’s Dryden Theater. An alumni picnic at 2pm at Ellison Park, Rochester.
Throughout the year the VSW Film Series will be screening selections from its Portable Channel video archive out in the community, check vsw.org for updates.
More information about publications and other events are to come. Sign up for the VSW emailer here to receive updates.