Visual Studies Workshop has been a fixture of the Neighborhood of the Arts since 1978. But come spring 2025, the creatively expansive arts organization will begin a new chapter in a new location.
Staff announced today (Nov. 19) that VSW, which has been located at 31 Prince Street for 46 years, will move to a new home at 36 King Street in the Susan B. Anthony Neighborhood on the city’s west side. The move will occur over the winter, with plans to publicly open the new space next spring.
Jessica Johnston, VSW’s executive director, said the relocation also serves to make the organization more accessible and to keep building community through its work.
“I’ve heard from people over the years that (31 Prince Street) is an intimidating space, and it is also a historically white space,” Johnston said. “It’s hard sometimes for people to come here.”
The 25,000-square foot, castle-like building at 31 Prince Street, built in 1912, contains multiple levels and many stairs, she continued, providing potential obstacles for community connection.
VSW bought the new 8,000 square-foot space — located a short walk from the Susan B. Anthony Museum & House — in part because it is one level with wide hallways. It initially opened in 2009 as the Frederick Douglass Resource Center but shut its doors in 2018.
“The King Street space is much more inviting,” Johnston said. “It’s a much friendlier building, I think, and it’s warm and inviting for the community.”
There are plans to renovate. When it opens in 2025, the King Street building will boast a new gallery, a theater, studios and workspace for artists, archival storage space and a research library.
“This new home is an important step in our mission to support expansive photographic and media arts, and to build community through exhibitions, publications and residencies,” reads a statement on VSW’s Instagram announcing the move.
The new facility features “improved HVAC systems to better care for our collections,” another post specifies.
The location shift will also allow VSW to present exhibitions for much longer periods of time, Johnston said. The first of these in the new space, an experimental arcade called “SEQUENCEBREAK//,” is set to open in the new space on Mar. 6.
“We’re really looking forward to having exhibitions that are up for several months,” Johnston said. “That gives the community time to come experience the art and makes it more accessible for people, because if we only have an event that’s one night, it limits your audience.”
VSW put its 31 Prince Street building on the market in June 2023 and sold it earlier this fall, Johnston said. The organization closed on its new location on Nov. 18.
VSW began as the Photographic Studies Workshop in 1969, founded by photographer and educator Nathan Lyons. The organization was initially based in a warehouse located at 4 Elton Street. In December 1977, VSW purchased 31 Prince Street and moved its operations there the following year.
Over the course of its 55 years of existence, the organization has launched VSW Press, which has published more than 500 artists books, and programs like the Project Space Residency, which has granted 100 artists unlimited studio time and access to VSW’s archives.
In a statement, Mayor Malik Evans called VSW’s move “a significant boost to the city’s cultural landscape.”
“This relocation aligns with our vision for a thriving, inclusive community where art and history intersect and inspire in every neighborhood,” he said.
Patrick Hosken is an arts reporter for CITY. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Nov 1-30, 2024.
