Rochester, N.Y., March 3, 2023—Gallery Obscura, George Eastman Museum’s newest exhibition space, is set to open on Saturday, March 4. The inaugural exhibit will be produced in collaboration with the Flower City Arts Center, which will run through June 1.

Rochester, N.Y., February 16, 2023—The George Eastman Museum will present the seventh edition of the Nitrate Picture Show in late spring. The world’s only festival entirely dedicated to nitrate film will be held June 1-4, 2023 at the Dryden Theatre, the George Eastman Museum’s historic venue for film exhibition in Rochester, N.Y. Festival passes are currently available for purchase through the museum’s website at eastman.org/nitrate-picture-show.

ROCHESTER, N.Y., February 9, 2023 – The George Eastman Museum, in collaboration with the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, recently announced the first-ever museum exhibition dedicated to longtime photographer Marcia Resnick. Following presentations at Bowdoin and in Minneapolis, the exhibition opens at the George Eastman Museum Saturday, February 11.

ROCHESTER, N.Y., February 7, 2023— The legacy of actor/director/producer Philip Seymour Hoffman will continue to be celebrated at the George Eastman Museum. A life-size bronze sculpture of the actor, created by David A. Annand, has been donated to the museum. Erected on the sidewalk in front of the museum’s Dryden Theatre in May 2022, the sculpture was initially on loan.

Rochester, N.Y., February 3, 2023—The George Eastman Museum will bring an early dose of spring to Rochester this February with its annual Dutch Connection floral show. The display will open to the public on February 10 and will remain on view for two weeks. The annual show is a welcome treat in the midst of winter, with thousands of tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, amaryllis, and spring annuals in various vibrant shades filling areas of George Eastman’s historic mansion.

Rochester, NY, March 25, 2022—The George Eastman Museum will present a benefit film screening on Sunday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m. in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. In Spring (Navesni; Vesnoi, Mikhail Kaufman, USSR [Ukraine] 1929, 65 min., 35mm) is a seminal work of Ukrainian cinema as well as a hymn to the miracle of life. The fact that it was filmed in and around Kyiv makes it particularly poignant today. The silent film was directed by filmmaker Mikhail Kaufman and will be accompanied by Dr. Philip C.

Rochester, NY, January 27, 2022—The George Eastman Museum has appointed Phil Taylor as an assistant curator in its Department of Photography. He will be based primarily in New York City. His role will include participating in collection development, curating exhibitions at the Eastman Museum in Rochester, and authoring or contributing to accompanying publications and other scholarly books. 

Rochester, N.Y., May 12, 2021—The George Eastman Museum will open the major new exhibition Joshua Rashaad McFadden: I Believe I’ll Run On in its main galleries on Friday, November 5, 2021. The exhibition is an early-career survey of the Rochester-based artist’s work, in which McFadden critically examines the racism and anti-Black violence that Black Americans have experienced from slavery to the present.

Rochester, N.Y., April 23, 2021—The George Eastman Museum will present To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults, a photographic exhibition on view from June 19, 2021 through January 2, 2022. This interdisciplinary project is a collaboration between photographer Jess T. Dugan and social worker Vanessa Fabbre, an associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis whose research focuses on the intersection of LGBTQ issues and aging.

Rochester, N.Y., March 18, 2021—The Dryden Theatre will reopen to the public with a screening of Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, US 1941) on Friday, April 2, followed by Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, US 1954) on Saturday, April 3. All films will begin at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 6:45 p.m.).

Rochester, N.Y., March 11, 2021—One of the landmark projects of the George Eastman Museum’s Moving Image Department was the preservation of Orson Welles’s 1938 comedy, Too Much Johnson. The film, once thought lost, can be viewed at eastman.org/TooMuchJohnson. The digitized version of the film includes new recorded voice-over commentary by Anthony L’Abbate, preservation manager, and Caroline Yeager, associate curator, of the George Eastman Museum.

Rochester, N.Y., March 8, 2021—The George Eastman Museum is launching a new series of virtual talks, Future/Present, featuring early- to mid-career photographers and artists who are exploring some of the most pressing issues of our time and pushing the boundaries of image-making and visual culture today. The series will kick off online with visual artist and storyteller Citali Fabián on March 18 at 6 p.m. The event is free for museum members and $10 suggested ticket for non-museum members.

Rochester, N.Y., December 3, 2020—The George Eastman Museum recently received a grant award for $65,350 from the National Film Preservation Foundation to preserve three severely endangered nitrate feature films from the museum’s collection. The prints of His Last Race (US 1923), Payroll Pirates (US 1920), and When Betty Bets (US 1917) are likely the only versions of the films that still exist. Due to severe nitrate decomposition in all three films, this is the last chance to save these unique prints.

Rochester, N.Y., November 16, 2020—The George Eastman Museum was recently awarded the Frances Smyth-Ravenel Prize in the 29th annual Museum Publications Design Competition, presented by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). This “Best in Show” honor was given to the museum for its David Levinthal: War, Myth, Desire (2019) publication.

Rochester, N.Y., October 16, 2020—The George Eastman Museum will host a virtual artist’s talk with Kota Ezawa in conversation with Bruce Barnes, Ron and Donna Fielding Director of the George Eastman Museum, on Thursday, October 22 at 6 p.m. The talk is free, and registration via Zoom is required as space is limited.

Rochester, N.Y., October 8, 2020—The George Eastman Museum officially cut the ribbon to open its new Thomas Tischer Visitor Center this morning at a 10 a.m. press conference. The Thomas Tischer Visitor Center includes the ESL Federal Credit Union Pavilion, which will serve as the museum’s new main entrance, located next to the Dryden Theatre.

Rochester, N.Y., October 2, 2020—The George Eastman Museum is installing a reproduction of a Colorama image adjacent to its new Thomas Tischer Visitor Center. The public opening of the Tischer Visitor Center and the Colorama will be on Saturday, October 10.

Rochester, N.Y., September 21, 2020—The George Eastman Museum has received a grant award of $249, 517 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through its Museums for America grant program. This is the largest grant program of IMLS. The Eastman Museum’s initiative to conserve 1,004 South Asian films in its collection was one of 109 projects that received part of the more than $19 million in grants awarded.

Rochester, N.Y., September 9, 2020—The George Eastman Museum has been awarded $135,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) CARES Act grant program to support essential operations of the museum that have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The grant funds will allow the museum to sustain, expand, and institutionalize the museum’s digital programs. The Eastman Museum was one of 317 cultural organizations selected to receive a grant award through this highly competitive program.

Rochester, N.Y., August 25, 2020—The George Eastman Museum premiered Gathering Clouds: Photographs from the Nineteenth Century and Today on July 26 in the museum’s main galleries. Gathering Clouds illustrates the key role that clouds played in the development and reception of photography from around 1850 to 1920. Bringing cloud photography into the present by way of Alfred Stieglitz’s Equivalents (1923–34), the contemporary works in the exhibition forge new artistic paths while responding in various ways to the history of cloud photography.

Rochester, N.Y., August 6, 2020—The George Eastman Museum has received two grant awards, of $35,000 each, from Art Bridges. The grant awards are funded through the Bridge Ahead Initiative—a nearly $6 million commitment from Art Bridges to assist its partner museums that have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rochester, N.Y., July 15, 2020—The George Eastman Museum has announced that the public reopening of the museum has been delayed one week because of construction work on the Thomas Tischer Visitor Center. The museum will now reopen to the public on Sunday, July 26, at 11 a.m. The museum will be open for museum members only on Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., before opening to the general public on Sunday, July 26.

Rochester, N.Y., July 9, 2020—The George Eastman Museum has announced it will reopen to the public on Sunday, July 19, at 11 a.m. The museum, which has been closed since March 13 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was unable to open when Phase IV began in the Finger Lakes due to the ongoing construction of the Thomas Tischer Visitor Center. The museum will be open for museum members only on Friday, July 17, and Saturday, July 18, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., before opening to the general public on Sunday, July 19.

Rochester, N.Y., June 24, 2020—The George Eastman Museum has announced that it will begin its series of George Eastman Bike Tours on Saturday, July 18 at 10 a.m. The two-hour tour is led by Jesse Peers, archivist in the George Eastman Legacy Collection and certified bike educator. Peers will guide participants on the relaxed pace, 6.5-mile tour that begins and ends at the Eastman Museum.

Rochester, N.Y., June 16, 2020—The George Eastman Museum is continuing to expand its online offerings through Eastman Museum at Home. The museum is working with Yelp Rochester to offer new virtual programs from baking to crafting, the events will be held on June 18 and June 30 through Yelp Rochester online. The museum has also rescheduled its Portrait of Jennie: The Rarest Cinematic Experience of All Time webinar to June 25, and the Curator’s Gallery Talk with Bea Nettles to June 26.

Rochester, N.Y., May 26, 2020—The George Eastman Museum has announced it will host a virtual discussion on the film Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle, 1948) on Thursday, June 4 at 1 p.m. with members of its Moving Image Department. The museum’s 6th Nitrate Picture Show was originally scheduled to kick off with a screening of Portrait of Jennie on June 4, 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum made the decision to postpone the festival to June 3–6, 2021.

Rochester, N.Y., May 14, 2020—The George Eastman Museum has recently announced that the formerly postponed artist’s talks with Alejandro Cartagena (Mexican, b. Dominican Republic, b. 1977), originally scheduled for March 27 and March 28, have been rescheduled as virtual conversations.

Rochester, N.Y., May 12, 2020—Following the success of its first two virtual lectures, the George Eastman Museum has announced a third lecture on Friday, May 15 at 1 p.m. (EST).  The free Focus 45 talk will center on George Eastman’s historic gardens, and will be led by Kathy Connor, Curator of the George Eastman Legacy Collection at the George Eastman Museum.

Rochester, N.Y., April 1, 2020—The George Eastman Museum may be temporarily closed, but the museum is still offering its audiences around the world an opportunity to explore collections and educational offerings. The museum officially launched Eastman Museum at Home, a repository for activities, online resources, tutorials, and tours to keep people engaged in learning about photography, film, and the legacy of George Eastman.

Rochester, N.Y., February 28, 2020—One hundred years ago, George Eastman was entering what would be his final full decade—and his most productive as well. The George Eastman Museum has recently opened One Hundred Years Ago: George Eastman in 1920, a display exploring aspects of Eastman's life through artifacts. Objects on view include an album of photographs from the construction of the Eastman Theatre, newspaper articles, the first issues of Kodak Magazine, and souvenirs from his trip to Japan.