Visual Studies Workshop

The mission of Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) is to support makers and interpreters of images through education, publications, exhibitions, and collections. VSW is an independent, non-profit organization was found in 1969 by photographer, writer, curator and educator, Nathan Lyons. VSW is artist-run and an educational and support center for photography and other media art. Though it is associated with the New York State University at Brockport, VSW is located the Neighborhood of the Arts in Rochester, NY.

Education

Visual Studies Workshop provides a visual studies Master of Fine Arts program. The MFA program encompasses two and a half years with a conclusion thesis that is presented to the public. This program especially carries a focus for expanding the potential for books as an art form. MFA candidates are joined into a community of producers in which differs from a traditional class academic setting. Candidates also enter from range of backgrounds than is not exclusive to visual arts.

Research Center

The Visual Studies Workshop maintains both archival and research collections of media art of the collection focuses primarily on photography, independent film and video, electronic imaging, visual books and the publication arts. The Research Center hosts the Independent Press Archive which is one of the largest collections of artists’ books in the northeast with around 27,000 prints from 19th century vernacular images to contemporary experimental works. The Soibelman Picture Agency Archives is also present with around 40,000 international press images from the 1920s and 30s. The collection also contains Joseph Selle’s Fox Movie Flash Archive with an estimated 800,000 images of people on the streets of San Francisco in the 1940s to the 1960s. VSW also holds the archives of Lejaren à Hiller who was an American illustrator and photographer and who is widely known for American photographic illustration. The Research Center Catalog is online and on an ongoing development basis.

Afterimage

Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism is the bi-monthly publication produced by Visual Studies Workshop. Afterimage has been in publication for the last forty years, The publication features a unique, high quality issue of visual arts, photography, independent film, and video, new media and alternative publishing. It covers topics of issues and debates within art history visual and cultural studies and related fields. Afterimage also features articles, conference and festival reports, book and exhibition reviews, artist’s books, and exhibition catalogs. Afterimage's presence is also online featuring online-exclusive reports, reviews, artists’ portfolios and videos, and over three hundred free notices for jobs, calls-for-work, exhibitions, and screenings.

VSW Press

VSW Press was found by Joan Lyons in 1971. It is one of the only institutional publishers of artists book in the United States. In 1984, Lyons edited the first anthology of critical essays and sources for the field of artists' books. In the beginning, VSW first provided printing presses for artists to experiment with. VSW then began employing professional pressmen to run a Heidelberg offset press to produce publications that artists, staff, and students had constructed. The process of publication was then switched to digital means with the addition of a computer lab. Most of the books are now made during the artist's residences. The VSW Press also maintains Afterimage, helps develop the VSW research collection, Independent Press Archive, online bookstore, a tumblr page, and alternative book fairs.

Exhibitions

Art exhibition typically run two months at a time. The Visual Studies Workshop also host traveling exhibitions as well. Current and past exhibitions are all sourced online on the VSW website. VSW also hosts exclusive online exhibitions on their website.