The legacy of actor/director/producer Philip Seymour Hoffman is a  point of pride for those in his hometown, who will soon be able to enjoy a memorial erected in  his honor at George Eastman Museum, outdoors near the Dryden Theatre. On Saturday, May 28,  a bronze life-size sculpture will be unveiled that depicts Hoffman appearing to be walking  toward the movie theater.  

The George Eastman Museum will present the 6th Nitrate Picture Show from June 2 to 5, 2022, at the Dryden Theatre in Rochester, NY. The Nitrate Picture Show, the world’s only festival of film conservation, returns after a two-year hiatus for the sixth edition with a new lineup of nitrate prints on screen, the Nitrate Touch workshop, and two concerts on Thursday, June 2: the first on the George Eastman’s grand piano and the second on the Eastman’s Aeolian pipe organ.

The George Eastman Museum received a grant award of $20,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works program to preserve two 35mm nitrate film prints: The Rich and the Poor (American Film Manufacturing Co., US 1911) and The Inevitable Retribution (Biograph, US 1915). The NEA announced awards totaling more than $30 million as part of the its first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2017.

The George Eastman Museum will present the 3rd Nitrate Picture Show this spring. The festival will be held May 5–7, 2017 at the Dryden Theatre, the George Eastman Museum’s historic venue for film exhibition in Rochester, NY. Festival passes for the Nitrate Picture Show, the world’s festival of film conservation, will go on sale at 12:01 a.m. (EST) on Monday, December 12, 2016. Passes will be available for purchase through the museum’s website at eastman.org/nps. 

The George Eastman Museum will present its recently acquired, brand-new 35mm print of the roadshow version of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), complete with the music meant to be heard before the film’s beginning, during the intermission, and at the end. Writer and director Stanley Kubrick’s visionary sci-fi masterwork will be shown at the museum’s Dryden Theatre on Thursday, January 19, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. The film’s star, Keir Dullea, who played astronaut Dave Bowman, will introduce the film and, after the screening, will share stories and insights about its making. Dullea will also sell and sign photographs before the screening and following the discussion. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. 

The George Eastman Museum will open Richard Renaldi: Manhattan Sunday on January 21, 2017, in the Project Gallery. Exhibited at a museum for the first time, photographer Richard Renaldi’s new series consists of portraits, urban still lifes, and streetscapes made in the wee hours of Sunday morning, when post-bacchanalian characters join early-morning workers in New York City’s nooks and crannies. Richard Renaldi: Manhattan Sunday will be on view through June 11, 2017. 

The George Eastman Museum will host contemporary artists this fall and winter to speak about their work. Los Angeles–based photographer Elena Dorfman and Armenian-American photographer Diàna Markosian will speak as part of the museum’s Wish You Were Here lecture series, and Chicago-based artist Jason Lazarus will discuss his Too Hard to Keep (T.H.T.K.) project, an installation of which is on view in A Matter of Memory: Photography as Object in the Digital Age.

The George Eastman Museum will kick off the holiday season on November 4, when the annual Sweet Creations—the exquisite display of dozens of cleverly designed and deliciously decorated gingerbread houses­—opens to the public. As one of the Greater Rochester community’s most beloved holiday traditions, the display will be on view through December 14. 

The George Eastman Museum has launched a new platform that allows public online access to more than 250,000 objects from its world-class collections at eastman.org/collections-online. Objects from the museum’s photography, technology, and George Eastman Legacy collections are now searchable, and more objects from the museum’s vast holdings are being added on an ongoing basis. Objects from the moving image collection will become accessible in the coming months.

The George Eastman Museum will open a new rotation in its History of Photography Gallery on October 29. This installation, curated by Heather Shannon, assistant curator in the Department of Photography, provides an overview of the history of photography through photographs made in Mexico by artists, photojournalists, and archaeologists, as well as unidentified tourists and studio photographers from Europe, the United States, and Mexico. The installation begins with a daguerreotype that dates to 1839, the year the invention of photography was announced, and ends with a triptych from contemporary Mexican artist Alejandro Cartagena’s critically acclaimed series Carpoolers (2011–12).

The George Eastman Museum has announced its 2017 schedule of photography workshops, including programs in making ambrotypes, tintypes, wet and dry collodion negatives, 35mm motion picture film, and digital negatives. In addition to the workshops being held at the museum, an excursion workshop in dry plates is also being offered in New York’s Letchworth State Park (named the best state park in a survey by USA Today last year).

Catherine Opie: 700 Nimes Road will be on view at the George Eastman Museum on October 1, 2016, through January 8, 2017. The exhibition presents recent work by Los Angeles–based artist Catherine Opie, one of the essential figures in contemporary photography. Opie’s photographs of the rooms, closets, shoes, clothing, and jewelry of Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) create an indirect yet intimate portrait of a life defined by wealth and fame. 

The George Eastman Museum has announced the fall lineup for its Wish You Were Here photography lecture series. The series will begin on Thursday, September 22 at 6 p.m., with photographer and RIT visiting professor Sean McFarland. His talk, Glass Mountains, Echoes, and Pictures of Us, will be followed by a book signing. McFarland’s work examines history, photography, and the representation of landscape to reveal how our perception of the earth is ever changing. His work is on view through October 2 in the museum’s exhibition Photography and America’s National Parks. The museum’s galleries will be open until 8 p.m.

The George Eastman Museum has received a grant to support its project Passages: The Gabriel Cromer Collection in the amount of $148,079 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the Museums for America program. The grant will allow the museum to catalog, digitize, and provide online access to its Gabriel Cromer Collection of early French photography, which includes photographs, lithographic prints, albums, books, cameras, lenses, and early motion studies. 

The George Eastman Museum announced today that it has been awarded a grant of $5,000 from The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences through its FilmWatch program. Grant funds will support live musical accompaniment for 20 curated silent films to be screened in the museum’s Dryden Theatre as part of the 2016-2017 Silent Cinema Tuesdays program. 

As part of the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival, the George Eastman Museum will be screening the rarely seen documentary by Bernard Shakey (aka Neil Young) Muddy Track (1987) on Sunday, September 18 at 2 p.m. The screening will be held in the museum’s Dryden Theatre, located at 900 East Avenue. 

A major new exhibition, A Matter of Memory: Photography as Object in the Digital Age, will be on view at the George Eastman Museum from October 22, 2016, through January 29, 2017. 

The Dawn of Technicolor, 1915–1935, published by the George Eastman Museum, has been awarded the 2016 Henry Allen Moe Prize for Catalogs of Distinction in the Arts from the New York State Historical Association. This award recognizes excellence in exhibitions- and collections-based publishing by museums in New York State. Selection was by a committee of scholars and museum administrators. 

George Eastman House will host two events on Sunday, September 20 as part of the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival. The Company Stores, a folk fusion band from Charleston, West Virginia, will perform at 11 a.m. (tickets $10). Vivien Leigh: The Last Press Conference, a play produced by Screen Plays Theater will be presented at 2 p.m. (tickets $15). Both performances will be held in the Dryden Theatre, 900 East Avenue. Tickets can be ordered in advance at eastmanhouse.org.

The sixth annual George Eastman Museum PhotoFinish 5K will take place on Saturday, October 1, at 8 a.m. With a scenic course through Rochester’s Neighborhood of the Arts, the run/walk is open to everyone, including wheelchair users, and raises funds for local nonprofit organizations that make Rochester a great place to live and work. Individuals and teams can register now at eastman.org/5k.

The George Eastman Museum is hosting a community forum on Monday, July 11, at 6 p.m. to share information about its historic mansion restoration program and update community members about the next phase. 

Nearly forty years after the idea was born, The Photographers Cookbook has been released. In the late 1970s, the George Eastman Museum approached a group of photographers to ask for their favorite recipes and food-related photographs to go with them, in pursuit of publishing a cookbook. The concept grew from the idea that a photographer’s talent in the darkroom likely translated into special skills in the kitchen. Dozens of photographers sent submissions, but editor Deborah Barsel left the museum before preparations were complete, and the planned publication never came to fruition—until now. The book, co-published by the George Eastman Museum and Aperture, includes an essay by Lisa Hostetler, curator in charge of the Department of Photography at the museum.

In solidarity with the victims of the atrocity in Orlando and with the entire LGBTQ community, the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum presents Summer of Solidarity—a film series that includes seven landmark films dealing with LGBTQ themes. This film series is organized by the George Eastman Museum in partnership with the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley, ImageOut: The Rochester LGBT Film Festival, and The MOCHA Center/Trillium Health. Admission to all screenings is free. All of the films are from the George Eastman Museum archives.

The George Eastman Museum will honor actor Michael Keaton with the George Eastman Award this evening at a sold-out event. The Eastman Award is the museum’s highest honor in motion pictures and recognizes Keaton’s distinguished contribution to the art of film. The award ceremony begins at 8 p.m. in the Dryden Theatre. More than 500 people will attend the ceremony, which will feature a video compilation of his work and a conversation with Keaton, followed by a reception in the museum.

It’s been said that if you say the word “Beetlejuice” three times, he will appear. Well get ready, Rochester! The George Eastman Museum has announced that Golden Globe Award winner, Academy Award nominee, and America’s favorite Batman—actor Michael Keaton—will introduce a screening of Beetlejuice (Tim Burton, 1988) at the Dryden Theatre on Wednesday, June 8, at 8 p.m.

The George Eastman Museum has announced an extensive schedule of programs in conjunction with its new exhibition, Photography and America’s National Parks, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the formation of the National Park Service and opens on June 4, with a special preview party scheduled for June 3.

The George Eastman Museum announced today that it is now offering online access to finding aids for the manuscript collections of independent filmmakers Douglass Crockwell, Leo Hurwitz, James Reese, and Lothar Wolff. These research tools provide scholars, students, and the public with the means to discover the contents of these four filmmakers’ unique collections. The finding aids are accessible at eastman.org/finding-aids.

Renowned film scholar David Bordwell will present the annual James Card Memorial Lecture at the George Eastman Museum’s Dryden Theatre on Sunday, May 29 at 2 pm. The legacy of James Card, who was the museum’s first curator of motion pictures and is credited for helping to establish it as a leader in the fields of cinema and film preservation, is honored each year with a visiting lecture and film showing from his personal collection.

The George Eastman Museum will open the exhibition Sight Reading: Photography and the Legible World on June 18 in the Project Gallery. Organized in partnership with the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City, the exhibition of photographs is drawn primarily from the Eastman Museum’s rich holdings, supplemented by works from the Morgan and a private collector. It will be on view through September 18.

New York–based contemporary artist Erica Baum will be at the George Eastman Museum on Thursday, May 26 at 6 p.m. to discuss her work, which simultaneously operates as photograph and poem. Using the printed page as her primary subject, Baum fuses together photographic fragments of profound language, transforming the decontextualized words into messages that permeate everyday life.  

Carrying on its record of innovation in preserving and re-creating historical photographic processes, the George Eastman Museum today announced that its conservation department has reverse-engineered and replicated the making of early motion picture film—creating the first sensitized, processed strip of black-and-white 35mm motion picture film outside of a commercial manufacturing environment.

The Garden Vibes summer concert series at the George Eastman Museum is back for its 23rd year. The outdoor concerts will take place on the following Wednesday evenings: June 15, July 13, and August 17. Bring a picnic, BYOB, relax with friends, and enjoy family activities in the museum’s historic Townson Terrace Garden and the surrounding grounds. Concerts are from 6 to 8 p.m.

Garden Vibes 2016

The George Eastman Museum will welcome author and photographer Penny Wolin to discuss her newly released book, Descendants of Light: American Photographers of Jewish Ancestry on Thursday, May 12. For the past 25 years, Wolin has used photographic portraiture with oral interviews to research Jewish civilization in America. She will be speaking at 6 p.m. in the Dryden Theatre, and will be available for a book signing following the audiovisual conversation.