Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) nurtures experimental and expansive approaches to photography, film and media art, and builds community among artists and the public through exhibitions, publications and residencies. VSW was founded in 1969 in Rochester, NY by photographer and educator Nathan Lyons (1930–2016), and became one of the earliest independent, not-for-profit, artist-run media art spaces in the country. Since its inception, VSW has provided residencies to over 500 artists, produced more than 500 exhibitions, screened over 1,000 films and videos, and published more than 500 artists’ books through VSW Press. Additionally, we have educated over 1,000 students through workshops and our MA and MFA programs (1969–2022), and founded and published the periodical Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism (1972-2018). Our media collections include over a million photography and film-related objects, making our small organization unique in the field. 

 

Here are just some of the key moments in VSW history:

 

1968 – Nathan Lyons, Associate Director at George Eastman House (now the George Eastman Museum), developed a graduate education program in Visual Studies and the first 2 students,  Anne Tucker and Richmond Hare, arrived to study at the museum in a pilot program. 

 

1969 – Just months before the formal Master of Arts program was to begin, Lyons was forced to resign his position by the museum board of directors, ostensibly over a minor staff dispute, but in fact due to the Kodak-managed board’s displeasure over what they considered to be Lyons’ radical activities at the museum. 

Incoming students were sent a telegram to inform them of the split with the museum, and were invited to come early to help build the new school. A few months later Visual Studies Workshop opened at 4 Elton Street (as the Photographic Studies Workshop), an old woodworking warehouse off University Avenue, directly across the street from the museum. The first official cohort of students arrived to study through a SUNY Buffalo sponsored program. The workshop was founded as a work, teaching, and exhibition space. Over the next 55 years those core activities were facilitated by the 1000’s of students who came to study at VSW in the MFA and Workshop programs. 

Lyons began to build the Workshop’s collections and research center library to support the organization’s activities. 

The Visiting Artist program began at VSW. This program invited artists to come to VSW for 1-3 month terms to make work and teach workshops to VSW graduate students. Some notable participants over the years include Robert Frank, Dave Heath, Dawoud Bey, The Videofreex, Stan VanDerBeek, John Wood, and Carrie Mae Weems.

 

1970 – The first formal space devoted to exhibitions at the Workshop opened. The space was a small, slanted, hallway that was converted into an exhibition gallery called The Slightly Sloping Gallery. 

VSW traveling exhibition program began. VSW continued to run a traveling exhibition program until 2012 with over 50 exhibitions curated at VSW and then traveled to museums and art and cultural centers across the United States and internationally. 

 

1971 – VSW Press was founded by Joan Lyons, who almost immediately began a program that supported the production of books by artists. VSW Press goes on to publish over 600 artist books over the next 50+ years, many by women. VSW Press continues to support the publication of books by artists today with 2-3 publications  per year. 

 

 

1972 – Afterimage was founded and the first issue released in March of 1972. It was conceived by Nathan Lyons as a “monthly newspaper of photography, containing news, reviews, columns, classified ads, exhibition announcements and special features.” 

 

1973 – Weekly free film screenings began at VSW under the direction of Workshop student Scott Hammen with a focus on experimental and documentary films. Film and video screenings will continue to be a core activity of the Workshop for the next 50+ years.

 

1975 – The Main Gallery at VSW opened and 100’s of exhibitions were displayed over the next several years. See VSW’s exhibition history for more information. 

 

1978 – VSW’s first move! In late December 1977 VSW purchased a new building and moved from 4 Elton Street to 31 Prince Street. Exhibitions resumed in late 1978 and continued to be a core VSW activity for the next 40+ years.

Chuck Hagen, editor of Afterimage and Arthur Tsuchiya, Media Center coordinator, develop and manage a new residency program. Residents included Marjorie Keller, Tony Conrad, Steina and Woody Valsulka, Jack Goldstein, Gene Youngblood, and Constance DeJong. Residencies that support artists working in photography, film and media art continue to be a strong core Workshop program into the current day.

 

1985 – VSW Press published the seminal artist book reference, Artists Books: A Critical Anthology and Sourcebook, Joan Lyons, ed., VSW and Peregrine Smith Books, multiple editions printed.

 

 

1989 – Portable Channel donates their video tape collection of over 900 tapes to VSW. Portable Channel was one of the first small-format video centers to have an ongoing relationship with a local PBS affiliate, WXXI, in Rochester. This collaboration resulted in the regular broadcast of Homemade TV, a series featuring videotapes by staff, interns, workshop members, and guest artists.

 

1993 – VSW hosts Montage ’93: The International Festival of the Image. A month long city wide festival of photography and media art with over 20 local organizations participating. 

 

1994 – The NYSCA electronic media and film tape collection is donated to VSW. Today VSW preserves over 6,000 video tapes with an emphasis on artist works, and citizen activist documentaries including the tape archives from Portable Channel, Squeaky Wheel, and Rochester’s Metro Justice. 

 

2001 – Nathan Lyons retires as director of Visual Studies Workshop and Chris Burnett becomes director until 2007.

 

2004 – Joan Lyons retires from VSW Press.

 

2008 – Tate Shaw becomes director of VSW and Editor of VSW Press until 2022. 

 

2010 – VSW hosts the first Photo-Bookworks Symposium July 1- 3. The goal of the symposium was to expand the potential for the photo book-as-art within a new production generation—in an era with access to print-on-demand and desktop publishing—in order to educate on the distinctive time/space art of the photo-bookwork.

 

2016 – VSW Film Series (now part of the Salon Series), reinvented and programmed by VSW curator Tara Merenda Nelson, receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts which marks the start of a robust screening program that will bring over 50 experimental film and video artists to Rochester NY to present their work over the next 9 years. 

 

2017– The Project Space Residency is launched to honor VSW graduate and artist Rick Mckee Hock. Since 2017 VSW has hosted over 100 Project Space artist residents. This month-long residency continues to bring groundbreaking artists to Rochester to make new work. 

 

 

2018 – Afterimage is sold to UC Press. It continues today as a peer reviewed online media arts journal. Former editors of the journal include Nathan Lyons, Grant H. Kester, Catherine Lord, David Trend and Karen Van Meenen (current). 

 

2020 – VSW opens a media transfer lab to preserve VSW archives and outside public and private video and audio collections. VSW is awarded a prestigious Recordings at Risk grant to preserve and digitize over 200 video recordings made in the 1970s by local documentary group Portable Channel. 

 

2022 – SUNY Brockport discontinues MFA program and the last cohort of students complete their coursework in 2024. For a list of VSW MFA alumni by year visit https://www.vsw.org/education/alumni/. 

 

2022 – Jessica Johnston becomes director of VSW.

 

2023 – VSW adopts a refreshed mission and vision: 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. VSW embarks on a strategic plan to rightsize collections and buildings for future sustainability and to establish an endowment to support VSW into the future.

 

2024 – VSW moves to 36 King Street in the Susan B. Anthony neighborhood.