About George Eastman Museum
Founded in 1947, the George Eastman Museum is the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the largest film archives in the United States, located on the historic Rochester estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography. Its holdings comprise more than 450,000 photographs, 31,000 motion picture films, the world’s preeminent collection of photographic and cinematographic technology, one of the leading libraries of books related to photography and cinema, and extensive holdings of documents and other objects related to George Eastman. As a research and teaching institution, the Eastman Museum has an active publishing program, and its L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation’s graduate program (a collaboration with the University of Rochester) makes critical contributions to film preservation. The George Eastman Museum is supported with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Current Press Releases
George Eastman Museum showcases work of In Control teen workshop artists
The George Eastman Museum presents the exhibition Evoke: A Youthful Expression, on view through March 9, 2025, showcasing the work of student artist participants of In Control, a program of Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York.
George Eastman Museum celebrates 75th anniversary with new exhibition exploring history of photography
Goldie Hawn to Receive George Eastman Award
The George Eastman Museum will honor actor Goldie Hawn with the George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of cinema on Tuesday, October 22.
George Eastman Museum to present the work of Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa in October
The George Eastman Museum is delighted to announce the forthcoming exhibition, Scene at Eastman, which will open on October 25, 2024 and close on April 20, 2025. The exhibition will comprise a set of photographs and sculptures made in aluminum, glass, concrete, paper, tin, and other materials. The photographs and sculptures in Scene at Eastman (“the works”) describe various acts and instances of apprehension, of address, of attendance to the presence of others. Some objects are original, others appropriated. The viewer’s own practice of looking is solicited by the works.
George Eastman Museum receives $98,220 grant from Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s Frankenthaler Climate Initiative
The George Eastman Museum has received a grant award of $98,220 from the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s Frankenthaler Climate Initiative—the largest private national grantmaking program to support climate change action at cultural institutions and the first nationwide program of its kind for the visual arts. The grant supports the installation of a new LED lighting system in the museum’s Main Galleries and adjacent exhibition spaces.
George Eastman Museum to unveil rare screen test of Adele Astaire
To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the birth of American dancer, actor, singer, and choreographer Fred Astaire, the George Eastman Museum is pleased to announce the online publication of a unique piece of film history: a 1936 screen test of Astaire’s sister Adele, a Broadway legend in her own right. This is the only known footage of her acting and singing. Unseen for nearly ninety years, it will now be accessible to the public, going live at eastman.org/dark-victory-test on Wednesday, May 8, 2024.
George Eastman Museum to present candid exhibition on the life and impact of George Eastman
The George Eastman Museum has announced the next phase of a multiyear project to create a new exhibition on George Eastman’s life and legacy. The George Eastman Story Lab, which will open on Saturday, May 18 in the mansion’s second-floor Sitting Room, will offer visitors the opportunity to provide feedback on the direction of the future exhibition.
A rare nitrate film screening of D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916) ushers in the 8th Nitrate Picture Show
To kick off the eighth annual Nitrate Picture Show, the George Eastman Museum will screen a unique tinted nitrate print of D.W. Griffith’s silent masterpiece Intolerance (1916) on Thursday, May 30 at 6:30 p.m. The Nitrate Picture Show is the first festival in the world entirely dedicated to screening original nitrate prints from the 1910s to the 1950s, from silent cinema to Technicolor spectacles. The full program of film titles being shown this year will be announced at a press conference at 10 a.m.
George Eastman Museum appoints Michelle Finn as Curator of the George Eastman Collection
The George Eastman Museum has appointed historian and curator Michelle Finn, PhD, as curator of the George Eastman Collection, with responsibility for George Eastman’s 35,000‑square-foot mansion, its contents, and archival materials comprising more than 200,000 items. Finn will start in the position on April 15.
New Directions: Recent Acquisitions photography exhibition opens at the George Eastman Museum
The George Eastman Museum continues its 75th anniversary celebration with the opening of the exhibition New Directions: Recent Acquisitions on Saturday, March 16 in the Project Gallery. New Directions features work acquired by the museum over the past five years, and showcases significant developments in photographic practice.
New exhibition Crashing into the 60s: Film Posters from the Collection opens at the George Eastman Museum
The George Eastman Museum begins the celebration of its 75th anniversary with a visual journey back to the 1960s. The museum’s newest exhibition, Crashing into the 60s: Film Posters from the Collection, opens Friday, February 2 in its Main Galleries and Potter Peristyle. This exhibition features film posters from the extensive George Eastman Museum collection. In addition, a film series connecting to and expanding upon many of the posters displayed in the exhibition will run in the Dryden Theatre through the exhibition’s run in September.
The George Eastman Museum’s Wish You Were Here lecture series returns on January 25
The George Eastman Museum has announced the winter/spring lineup for its Wish You Were Here lecture series. For over 20 years, this popular photography lecture series has brought artists and photojournalists to Rochester to share their stories and photographs from around the world. The 2024 series will kick off on Thursday, January 25 at 6 p.m., with photographer Gregory Halpern.
Bronze sculpture honoring Philip Seymour Hoffman to be unveiled May 28 at George Eastman Museum
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 Nitrate Picture Show returns June 2–5, 2022
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.
George Eastman Museum to present benefit film screening in solidarity with the people of Ukraine on April 3
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. Carli on piano.
George Eastman Museum appoints Phil Taylor as curator in its Department of Photography
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.
George Eastman House Unveils New Photographic Process Video Series
George Eastman House announced today the official launch of its completed Photographic Process Videos project. The video series was funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services Museums for America Program. The complete series can be found on the museum's YouTube channel.
The University of Rochester and George Eastman House Announce Joint Master's Degree Program in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management
The University of Rochester and George Eastman House will jointly offer a new master’s degree in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management (PPCM) beginning in the fall of 2014. The program will be the only one in the United States dedicated to the study of the photograph as an object (the care and handling of photographs) as well as the related academic study of images (theoretical and historical context). Enrollment begins this month, with the first students beginning their courses in fall 2014.
George Eastman House receives Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services
George Eastman House has received a federal grant for its project, Opening Up Collections: Charting Technicolor’s History through New Technologies, in the amount of $48,254 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Museums for America Program. George Eastman House is one of 186 museums across the nation to be awarded the IMLS grant out of 707 that applied for funding.
George Eastman House receives grant from the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation
George Eastman House has received a $32,000 grant for its History Through the Lens of Photography educational program from the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation—“Engaging the Next Generation” initiative.
George Eastman House receives grant from Rochester Area Community Foundation to support Dawoud Bey: The Birmingham Project exhibition
George Eastman House has received a grant from the Rochester Area Community Foundation in the amount of $40,000 to support the exhibition Dawoud Bey: The Birmingham Project, which opened on Saturday, November 1 and will run through January 25, 2015.
George Eastman House Launches
George Eastman House announced today the launch of The Nitrate Picture Show, the world’s first archival festival of film conservation, showcasing vintage 35mm nitrate film prints made from the beginnings of cinema to the early 1950s. The inaugural edition of The Nitrate Picture Show: A Festival of Film Conservation will be held May 1–3, 2015 at the Dryden Theatre, George Eastman House’s historic venue for film exhibition in Rochester, NY. The Dryden Theatre—one of only a few archival venues in the world that can project nitrate film—is home to the museum’s ongoing program of past and present cinematic works from all countries.
Photographer David Pace and Filmmaker Siegfried Kühn Visit George Eastman House on Thursday, October 23
George Eastman House welcomes two visiting artists on Thursday, October 23—photographer David Pace and filmmaker Siegfried Kühn. Pace will be speaking as part of the museum’s Wish You Were Here lecture series at 6 p.m. in the Dryden Theatre. In a separate event, at 8 p.m., Kühn will be introducing his film Childhood before its screening in the Dryden, followed by a discussion with Eastman School of Music professor, Reinhild Steingröver.
Dawoud Bey: The Birmingham Project Opens at George Eastman House on November 1
Dawoud Bey: The Birmingham Project—organized by the Birmingham Museum of Art—makes its debut at George Eastman House on November 1. Chicago-based photographer Dawoud Bey’s The Birmingham Project is a reflection on the September 15, 1963, bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. This event resulted in the deaths of six African American adolescents, some of the youngest victims of the Civil Rights Movement: Addie Mae Collins (14), Denise McNair (11), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14), who were in the church at the time of the bombing, and Virgil Ware (13) and Johnny Robinson (16), who lost their lives as a result of the ensuing violence. The exhibition will be on view in the museum’s Project Gallery through January 25, 2015.
George Eastman House opens second installation in History of Photography gallery on Saturday
George Eastman House has dedicated its new History of Photography Gallery to rotating installations that trace photography’s historical path to the present through photographs and cameras from the museum’s collection. The gallery opened in May and the second rotation of photographs from its collection will be on display beginning Saturday, October 4. This installation of photographs was curated but Joe Struble, collection manager in the Department of Photography at George Eastman House.
George Eastman House receives digital laboratory from Eastman Kodak Company
George Eastman House announced today that it will operate a digital laboratory as part of its Moving Image Department, thanks to Eastman Kodak Company’s donation of state-of-the-art digital equipment. The gift will enhance George Eastman House’s in-house capabilities in film preservation, allowing broader access to the museum’s motion picture collection. The lab will be used for both digitizing select titles from the museum’s premier collection of more than 28,000 films, as well as preserving digitally-born works.
George Eastman House receives digital laboratory from Eastman Kodak Company
George Eastman House announced today that it will operate a digital laboratory as part of its Moving Image Department, thanks to Eastman Kodak Company’s donation of state-of-the-art digital equipment. The gift will enhance George Eastman House’s in-house capabilities in film preservation, allowing broader access to the museum’s motion picture collection. The lab will be used for both digitizing select titles from the museum’s premier collection of more than 28,000 films, as well as preserving digitally-born works.
George Eastman House appoints Jurij Meden as curator of film exhibitions
George Eastman House announced today that Jurij Meden will join its Moving Image Department as curator of film exhibitions. Meden comes to Eastman House after serving as head of the film programming department at the Slovenska Kinoteka—a member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)—in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Meden will start in his new role with George Eastman House this fall and will be responsible for developing and managing the film and media programming for the Dryden Theatre and other exhibition spaces at the museum.
Innovation in the Imaging Capital to open at George Eastman House on September 20
For decades, Rochester was known as the imaging capital of the world. Innovation and invention by Rochester companies paved the way for the world we now live in, from medical testing to space exploration, digital capture and transmission, and more. On September 20, George Eastman House will open Innovation in the Imaging Capital, which highlights Rochester’s major contributions to the imaging story, showing technology made possible by inventions that were originated or developed locally.
Robert Burley: The Disappearance of Darkness Opens at George Eastman House on September 20
George Eastman House will open the exhibition Robert Burley: The Disappearance of Darkness on September 20. The exhibition examines both the dramatic and historical demise of film-manufacturing facilities and industrial darkrooms on an international scale, including corporations such as Kodak, Agfa-Gevaert, and Ilford. It documents the impact of the emergence of digital imaging technologies, which irrevocably changed photography and led to the abrupt and rapid breakdown of a century-old industry that embodied the medium’s material culture. The exhibition will be on view in the museum’s special exhibition galleries through January 4, 2015.
George Eastman House Welcomes Photographer Wayne Belger on September 4
In conjunction with his exhibition at ARTISANworks, photographer Wayne Martin Belger will be speaking at George Eastman House on September 4 at 6:00 p.m. Belger will be discussing his unique pinhole cameras and their intimate connection to the photographs he makes.
Filmmaker Rolf De Heer to Speak at Dryden Theatre on September 3
The Dryden Theatre at George Eastman House is bringing Dutch Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer to Rochester on September 3, 2104. De Heer will host a discussion about his own work and the experience of moviemaking in Australia’s Northern Territory, following the Rochester premiere of his film, The Tracker (2002).
George Eastman House receives highest national recognition
George Eastman House has achieved reaccreditation by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). The highest national recognition for a museum, accreditation signifies an institution’s excellence to the museum community, governments, funders, outside agencies, and the public. Out of the more than 35,000 museums in the country, George Eastman House is a part of the three percent that are accredited.
George Eastman House appoints Steven Schwartz as Chair of the Board of Trustees
George Eastman House has announced the appointment of Steven L. Schwartz, president and CEO of Tennis Corporation of America (TCA), based in Chicago, Illinois, as the new chair of its Board of Trustees.
George Eastman House to Host Google Art Talk
George Eastman House will host its second Google Art Talk on Thursday, June 12 at noon through the Google Art Project to discuss its Southworth & Hawes Preservation Project. Those interested in learning more about the museum’s collection of more than 1,200 daguerreotypes—the largest repository of work by Southworth & Hawes—and what Eastman House is doing to preserve it, can tune into the live lecture here: http://bit.ly/1hly6KB.
George Eastman House Photo Finish 5K community run/walk returns on September 27
The George Eastman House Photo Finish 5K hits the streets for its fourth year on September 27, with registration opening on June 4—National Running Day. After three successful years, raising money for more than 90 different organizations in the Greater Rochester area, this “philanthropy challenge” is looking to break the million dollar mark in 2014. This unique event allows dozens of organizations to raise funds for their own causes. More than 3,000 runners and walkers have participated since the inaugural run/walk in 2010, raising over $800,000 total for these organizations.
George Eastman House hires Virginia Dodier as associate librarian
George Eastman House announced today that Virginia Dodier has joined the museum as associate librarian for its Richard and Ronay Menschel Library. A specialist in libraries, archives and museums (LAM), she will maintain the research library and rare books collection of George Eastman House; serve as chief cataloger of the library’s collections and acquisitions; contribute to exhibitions, publications, and public programs developed by museum curatorial staff; and collaborate with other staff to provide an integrated approach to technology and other museum initiatives.
George Eastman House kicks off summer with Garden Vibes concert series on June 4
The Garden Vibes summer concert series at George Eastman House is back for its 21st year. The outdoor concerts will take place on Wednesday evenings, once a month from June through August. Bring a picnic, relax with friends, and enjoy family activities in George Eastman’s historic Townson Terrace Garden and the surrounding grounds. Concerts are 6 to 8 p.m.
Inaugural “A History of Photography” exhibition now open at George Eastman House
George Eastman House has dedicated its new History of Photography Gallery to rotating installations that trace photography’s historical path to the present through photographs and cameras from the museum’s collection. The photographs in the gallery will change approximately three times a year and the cameras once a year, continually refreshing the experience of visiting George Eastman House and offering regular opportunities to view the museum’s treasures.
“Mickalene Thomas: Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman” to open at George Eastman House on June 20
George Eastman House will feature the work of artist Mickalene Thomas in a new exhibition opening on June 20, Mickalene Thomas: Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman. In this exhibition, Thomas demonstrates her ongoing engagement with portraiture as a key to personal and cultural identity. Using her mother as her muse for the past decade, Thomas creates images that layer personal history with art history, revealing in the process the complex role of the mother-daughter bond for each woman’s sense of self. The exhibition will be on view in the museum’s Entrance Gallery through October 19.