NEW VSW DIRECTOR.

Christopher Burnett has been named Director of the Visual Studies Workshop (VSW). VSW was founded by Nathan Lyons in 1968 as a work, exhibition and teaching space. VSW now encompasses a research library with an extensive artists book, periodical and photography collection; a media center that offers equipment rental, editing suites and workshops; a computer lab and artist book printing facility; several galleries; a traveling exhibitions program; an auditorium for community performance events and screenings; a Masters program in Visual Studies accredited by the State University of New York at Brockport; and Afterimage.

Burnett has been teaching in the Photography and New Media Department at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) since 1991. He holds a BFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design, an MFA in Art and an MA with Distinction in Art from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Burnett's teaching experience also includes serving as Electronic Visiting Professor at the University of Connecticut and Head Section Teacher, Looking at America at Harvard University. His publication credits include journals such as Visual Resources, Views and Afterimage.

Bumett's own photographic work has been exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions at venues including Kansas City and-Art Forum, in St. Louis, Missouri; The Fuller Art Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts and the Eye Gallery in San Francisco, California. As a photographer and a scholar, he has received such awards as an Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Fellowship, a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Fellowship, a Logan Grant for New Writing in Photography Award and recently, in collaboration with sculptor Michael Rees, a grant from Creative Capital.

Burnett's vision as VSW Director is to continue with the initiatives that have made VSW a leading exponent of interdisciplinary approaches in the media arts. Visual culture is changing with new media and technology," Burnett stated. "Photography is the original new media but I want to make sure we're not a place that looks at photography reactively as new media-we want to maintain a critical outlook and get involved with its other forms."