• The complete VSW Moving Image Collection catalog is currently being built. Please check back for updated records.

    For more information

    To request material or begin a search of the collections, please fill out the Collections Inquiry Form

    For further collection-related inquiries, contact Mary Lewandowski, Collections Associate or Tara Merenda Nelson, Curator

     

    To view a PDF of the entire 16mm (film) collection inventory, click here.

    To view a PDF of the entire magnetic media (video) collection, click here.

    To view a PDF of the Axlegrease video collection, click here.

    To see the eHive catalog of the NYSCA early video collection, click here

    To see a showcase of early Portable Channel Videos preserved through a Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), made possible by funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. click here

     

     

     

     

  • The VSW Film Archive contains over 5,000 16mm films, some of which were donated by the Rochester Public Library Reynolds Audio/Visual Department, the Audiovisual/Technical Services Division at SUNY Brockport, and the University of Rochester.

    The 16mm film titles span several decades and a wide range of categories including educational, animation, feature length, documentary and experimental. VSW hosts several public screenings of films from the collection throughout the year.  For more information on how to access the VSW Film Collection, contact Tara Nelson, Curator, taranelson@vsw.org.

  • The VSW Video Archive houses more than 5,000 videos from the early 1970s to the early 2000’s. Video formats in this collection include VHS, BETA, U-matic ¾ inch, 1/2 inch,, 1″ and 2″ open reel formats. The majority of the content originates from artists, activists, and public access programming from the greater Central and Western New York regions as well as significant early experimental artists’ video productions. This historcal video collection includes tapes from the New York State Council on the Arts, Axlegrease, Raindance, VideoFreex, Synapse, Portable Channel, Experimental TV Center, Ithaca Video Festival and Woodstock Community Video. It contains work by noted artists Bill Viola, Nam June Paik, William Wegman, Joan Jonas, Sanja Ivekovic and Dalibor Martinis, and Steina & Woody Vasulka, Tony Conrad, Brigid Polk, Vibeke Sorenson, Wendy Clarke and many more.

    The VSW video collection is currently being cataloged and digitized in our in-house Media Conversion Lab, which will be opening to the public in Fall, 2022.