About Who We Are

Visual Studies Workshop nurtures experimental and expansive approaches to photography and media arts, and builds community among artists and the public through exhibitions, publications and residencies.

VSW envisions a society that values the human need to create and share ideas.

  • Outside facade of 36 King Street VSW building.
Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) is a nonprofit community arts organization dedicated to photography and media arts. We own and occupy an 8,000-square-foot building in Rochester’s Susan B. Anthony neighborhood, where we bring artists and audiences together.

Our community programs include exhibitions of contemporary photography and media art, and a residency where artists come to VSW to make new work. We offer classes and workshops for people 17 and up, and our theater is home to public screenings, artist talks, performances, and lectures.

VSW is also a living archive. We preserve collections of books, photographs, videos, and films for the community to research and enjoy. In our media digitization lab, trained professionals transfer video and film for the public and help preserve our own collections for the future.

Visual Studies Workshop envisions a society that values the human need to create and share ideas, and we work toward that vision every day. Whether you come to see an exhibition, join a workshop, or use the archive, you are welcome at VSW. We invite you to visit, to make something, to learn, and to become part of our community.

VSW was founded in 1969 in Rochester, New York by photographer, educator and curator Nathan Lyons (1930–2016). For more information about the history of VSW visit our timeline.

  • Address

    Visual Studies Workshop

    36 King Street

    Rochester, New York 14608

    (585) 204-0077

  • Gallery

    Wednesday – Friday: 11am-6pm

    Saturday: 12-4pm

    First Fridays: 11am-9pm

  • Nathan Lyons Research Center

    Tuesday–Friday: 10am–5pm (By appointment contact Mary Lewandowski — marylewandowski@vsw.org)

     

  • We would like to acknowledge that we are on the ancestral home of the Seneca people of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Today, Rochester has been – and is – home to many indigenous people.

    We would like to take a moment to consider the many legacies of violence, displacement, genocide, and migration that bring us together here today, and to build an ongoing awareness of our responsibility to actively participate in healthy reciprocal relations.