Director’s Note: A Vibrant Year, with Your Support
Our members and donors are essential to the vitality of the George Eastman Museum. With your support, we have accomplished so much together, which is reflected in all that we offer our community.
In February 2023, we opened the Gallery Obscura, a space for exhibitions that we present in collaboration with community organizations. Our first partnership — with the Flower City Art Center — was so successful that we are working together again on another exhibition of photographs by seventh and eighth graders from the Rochester City School District. Our current exhibition in the space showcases a creative exploration of an early animation technique by students at the Rochester International Academy.
In the first half of 2023, attendance at our film screenings reached 90 percent of its 2019 level. We are heartened that our audience appreciates the immersive experience of movies at the Dryden Theatre. Every screening is preceded by an introduction, and we are more frequently featuring postfilm discussions — which have been very well received.
We have completed the restoration of the pergola and the replanting of the flower beds in the Schuyler C. Townson Terrace Garden, which reopened this spring. Thanks to the generous support of Bud and Joan Rusitzky, the Library Garden has been replanted and will be maintained as part of our core landscape program.
After a necessary hiatus, our Garden Vibes concert series returned to the East Lawn with popular performances. Because of weather, we were only able to hold two concerts this summer. Total attendance was higher this year than for the two Garden Vibes concerts in 2019. We plan to host three concerts next summer.
We have begun reintroducing public tours, starting with tours of George Eastman’s mansion, which we held on weekends in October. We are deeply grateful to our volunteer docents, who give their time and share their knowledge with the public. We are working to reestablish docent tours of our gallery exhibitions.
The Upstairs/Downstairs tours have returned, giving museum members the ability to participate in docent-led tours of parts of George Eastman’s mansion — the third floor, attic, and basement — that are not open to the public. Recent tours have been sold out.
Our programming calendar is busier than ever, including in-person and virtual programs, and recordings of almost all of our programs. In November, we present an In Focus talk on the magic of motion picture film projection, as well as a community conversation in the Dryden Theatre — organized in collaboration with the Frederick Douglass Institute — about the impact of racism against Black people in Western New York since 1950, and the resilience of the Black community in response.
We once again welcome visitors to our annual Sweet Creations gingerbread event (free to members, of course), on view from November 11 through December 31. Other year-end events include A Holiday Musical Cocktail Party, arranged by the Eastman Museum Council (reservations required); our annual Holiday Homecoming (free to members); and a Rochester International Children’s Film Festival screening (free to all).
Our gallery exhibitions are strong and wide-ranging. The powerful Gillian Laub: Southern Rites exhibition is on view through December 31. In the Project Gallery, Gregory Halpern: 19 winters / 7 springs presents the artist’s personal depiction of the idea of Buffalo and Western New York through enigmatic and lyrical photographs. The new exhibition of photographs in Selections from the Collection is especially impressive, as we anticipate our 75th anniversary.
We are tremendously pleased that museum membership has reached its pre-pandemic level. We hope that you will visit us soon and enjoy the George Eastman Museum to its fullest.
Bruce Barnes, PhD
Ron and Donna Fielding Director
November/December 2023 Bulletin
