Brockport ends MFA program through VSW 

[
      {
        "name": "500x250 Ad",
        "insertPoint": "5",
        "component": "15667920",
        "parentWrapperClass": "",
        "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
      }
    ]

The current crop of master’s degree students at Visual Studies Workshop, who stand to graduate in 2024, will be the last.

The program, which has been available through a deal with The College at Brockport since 1985, is ending, the workshop announced in a recent newsletter to its alumni and supporters. Brockport made the call to discontinue the program, citing low enrollment.

A statement provided by the university said its relationship with VSW has been a strong and positive one, but that it decided to redirect its resources to other opportunities for its students.

While the closure of the program is disappointing, the decision felt fair and mutual, said VSW’s longtime executive director, Tate Shaw, who acknowledged that the workshop’s program through Brockport has had trouble staying competitive with other MFA programs.

“It became clear that without additional resources and tuition assistance for students, the MFA program could not be sustained,” Shaw explained.

Visual Studies Workshop offered students the ability to earn an MFA in visual culture studies without being enrolled at one of the area’s universities.

The ivy-covered stone building at the corner of Prince Street and University Avenue looks the part of a stately academic institution, and for decades has offered rigorous, graduate-level coursework that incorporated history, theory, criticism, and practice for students of photography, book arts, film, video, and digital media.

When the 2024 class of MFA candidates graduates, they will join a roster of more than 500 alumni. No new students are being accepted.

Since its founding in 1969 by the late photographer, educator, writer, and curator Nathan Lyons, Visual Studies Workshop has evolved from an indie school located on Elton Street that offered an MFA — initially through SUNY Buffalo — into a respected academic institution with a DIY-ethos.

Partially designed as a graduate program for the George Eastman Museum, the workshop became a “small but effective” institution that offered “an intensity of resources” to its students, Lyons told CITY in 2009, when VSW celebrated its 40th anniversary.

Those resources include an in-house research collection and art library with over 1 million still and moving images and 40,000 books for artists, critics, and the general public to explore, research, and reuse.

Over the decades, VSW became an established and respected institution while still maintaining the vibe of a space run by avant-garde cool kids.

Today, the workshop is a local creativity powerhouse that publishes artists’ books through its VSW Press, offers rich arts programming and a competitive artist residency that attracts people from around the world, and provides a space for experimental arts and music as well as community discussions about social justice issues.
While the academic leg of VSW’s journey may be ending, the workshop has a busy future, according to Shaw. He said the workshop will focus on supporting artists and the Rochester community.

“The workshop’s artist programs are stronger now than they have been in decades, which is providing solid evidence that VSW will thrive despite the obvious loss of a key program,” Shaw said. “Our mission, vision, and values remain the same — we still exist to serve and support makers and interpreters of images, and our community.”

The conclusion of the academic program comes with a change in the workshop’s leadership.

Because he is a SUNY faculty member, Shaw stepped down from his role as executive director at the end of June, making way for Jessica Johnston, VSW’s curator of collections, to step into the role. Shaw had been the workshop’s director since 2008, and originally came to VSW as a student in 2003, drawn from Missouri for the rare opportunity to study artists books at the graduate level. He will stay on at VSW as the director and editor of VSW Press.
Johnston moved to Rochester in 2005 to finish graduate work in photographic preservation and collections management at the George Eastman Museum. After graduation, she worked for eight years as an assistant curator in the photography department at the museum, and regularly attended exhibitions, artist book symposia, and artist talks at VSW. In 2014 she became VSW’s curator of collections.

“As the incoming director of VSW I am committed to work with the VSW staff and board to continue our mission-driven mandate to support artists and to preserve their work and share it with our community,” Johnston wrote in an email while traveling. “I feel privileged to be able to work with such a dedicated and energized group of people and I am confident VSW will thrive and grow in its leadership role in the arts.”

Johnston said that VSW will build on its education legacy with the launch of a new workshop program in the fall through which it will offer in-person and online classes in the evenings. Kicking off that program in October is a workshop on how to create virtual reality works.

Visual Studies Workshop also recently added a video digitization lab both to preserve its unique collection of early art and documentary videos and to better serve its role as a regional video archive. It plans to launch a community digitization service for activists, grassroots organizations, and the public, to help preserve aging media collections from throughout Rochester.

“VSW has been a dedicated champion and supporter of often under-recognized artists making experimental or challenging work in media arts, artists’ books, and non-traditional photography since its founding in 1969,” Johnston said. “Our core programs, VSW Salon, Project Space Artist Residencies, and VSW Press will continue to offer this crucial support to contemporary visual artists into the future.”

Rebecca Rafferty is CITY's life editor. She can be reached at [email protected].