EXHIBITIONS
Seeing & Being Seen:
LGBTQ+ Visions of Rochester
May 17 – October 26, 2025
About the Exhibition
While LGBTQ+ arts and culture have achieved more mainstream visibility in recent decades, our collective struggles for acceptance, freedom, equal rights, and equitable treatment persist. Activism, advocacy, and organizing for civil and human rights, including the Queer and Trans liberation movements, are woven deeply into the fabric of Rochester, New York. It is home to a large LGBTQ+ population, where diverse people, businesses, and organizations constitute vibrant LGBTQ+ communities with rich histories. Though the region has been recognized as a safe haven destination where Queer and Trans folx thrive, we acknowledge that, even today, many still struggle to be welcomed, affirmed, and merely allowed to exist authentically and survive.
Seeing & Being Seen: LGBTQ+ Visions of Rochester celebrates the diverse, intersectional identities and experiences within the Greater Rochester LGBTQ+ community and spotlights both our shared and unique Queer and Trans existence, from celebration to struggle. With this exhibition, ImageOut and the George Eastman Museum honor the strength and resiliency of LGBTQ+ people, showcasing their unique individualism and enduring bravery. The exhibition is composed of submissions from regional artists and juried by a diverse panel of local LGBTQ+ arts professionals.
On display May 17 – October 26, 2025 in Gallery Obscura at George Eastman Museum.
View the exhibition press release here.
About ImageOut
Founded in 1993, ImageOut is a premier local LGBTQ+ not-for-profit organization, primarily serving the Greater Rochester community. Its mission is to present and support LGBTQ+ arts and cultural experiences showcasing films, creative works, and artists to promote awareness, foster dialogue, and build community. ImageOut produces spring and fall film festivals, as well as single screenings, art exhibitions, literary events, and other local creative projects by and for LGBTQ+ community. ImageOut also organizes art-centered programs specifically serving LGBTQ+ teens and college students to provide supportive spaces for connection, education, and community care. The ImageOutArt committee works with local artists and organizations to collaborate on projects that promote LGBTQ+ pride, self-expression, and connection; and ImageOutWrite, which produces an LGBTQ+ literary journal and other literary and spoken word events. To learn more about the organization, check out upcoming events, offer financial support and/or get involved as a volunteer, visit imageout.org.
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, New York estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography. Its holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs, 28,000 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. For more information, visit eastman.org.
About Gallery Obscura
George Eastman Museum’s community gallery, the Gallery Obscura, features exhibitions created or presented in collaboration with regional institutions and school and/or youth programs, projects focused on Greater Rochester, and exhibitions from the museum’s collections that are thematically related to area events or that support other museum initiatives and programming.
Curated by ImageOut. Co-organized with George Eastman Museum.
2025 Gallery Obscura programming generously supported by George Eastman Museum sponsor ESL.
With generous exhibition support provided by 7Crest Financial Partners.
