Poster House

Poster House
Map
Established2015 (2015)
Location119 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011
Coordinates40°44′36″N 73°59′37″W / 40.74335°N 73.99349°W / 40.74335; -73.99349
TypeArt museum
DirectorAngelina Lippert[1]
PresidentVal Crosswhite
ArchitectLTL Architects
Public transit accessNew York City Bus:
M7, M20, M23 SBS, M55
New York City Subway: Port Authority Trans-Hudson: HOB-33, JSQ-33 (via HOB), or JSQ-33 to 23rd Street
Websiteposterhouse.org Edit this at Wikidata

Poster House is the first museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to posters.[2][3] Located in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City, on 23rd Street between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, the museum opened to the public on June 20, 2019.

History

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Poster House was incorporated in 2015 and opened to the public on June 20, 2019.[4][5] Its logo was designed by Paula Scher of Pentagram.[6] The museum space, which formerly housed an Apple products repair store by the name of Tekserve, was redesigned by LTL Architects and Lumen Architecture.[7][8]

Collection

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When Poster House opened in 2019, its permanent collection contained approximately 7,000 posters from 100 different countries.[6] This included 3,000 pieces related to the 2017 Women's March as well as 98 Subway Series posters.[6][9] The Subway Series donation was made by the School of Visual Arts. It includes works by Milton Glaser, Louise Fili, and Paula Scher.[9]

The museum's collection contains works ranging from the late 1800s through present day.[4] The contemporary works are contained in a living archive that Poster House adds to on a regular basis.[10][11] The museum draws from both its historic and contemporary collections to stage exhibitions focused on a particular artist, movement, or theme.[10]

Select exhibitions

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Poster House's first exhibition, in June 2019, featured more than 80 posters by the Czech graphic designer Alphonse Mucha.[5] A February 2020 exhibition called The Swiss Grid examined influential Swiss design and typographic style.[12]

In April 2021, Poster House held an exhibition featuring the work of Julius Klinger.[13] In September 2021, the museum opened You Can't Bleed Me, which displayed posters and marketing materials from notable Blaxploitation films such as Slaughter and Coffy.[14] That same month, it opened an exhibition containing over 200 posters from the New York-based design and illustration firm Push Pin Studios.[15]

In March 2022, Poster House opened Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Person, a show featuring poster and magazine cover illustrations Reed designed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[16][17]

Black Power to Black People, an exhibition featuring the history, art, and branding of the Black Panther Party, began in March 2023.[18] That month also marked the opening of Made in Japan, which focused on World War II and Post-War Era Japanese poster art.[19] Other 2023 exhibitions included Art Deco: Commercializing the Avant-Garde, a 53-piece show examining the use of Art Deco in mid-century advertisements, and We Tried To Warn You!, which featured environmental movement posters and advertisements from the 1970s through the 2000s.[20][21]

Special projects

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In April 2020, Poster House and Print collaborated on a public safety campaign called #CombatCOVID. The campaign employed graphic designers including Jessica Hische, Maira Kalman, and Edel Rodriguez, who created a series of posters communicating public safety guidelines and encouraging sentiment to New York City residents.[22][23] These posters were displayed on approximately 1,700 digital advertising spaces across the five boroughs.[23]

Poster House also partnered with food writer and historian Grace Young to create Coronavirus: Chinatown Stories, a video series in which Young documented the difficulties small businesses in Manhattan's Chinatown were experiencing during the pandemic.[24][25] Young received the 2022 Julia Child Award, in part due to her work on the series.[26] The award was presented to her by Poster House's Julia Knight.[27]

References

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  1. ^ Heller, Steven (October 3, 2024). "The Daily Heller: This Fall, Poster House has Three New Shows and One New Director". PRINT Magazine. Retrieved October 11, 2024.
  2. ^ Hsu, Hua (July 1, 2019). "A Critic at Large: How Posters Became Art". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
  3. ^ Katz, Brigit (June 21, 2019). "The U.S. Is Now Home to Its First Poster Museum". Smithsonian. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
  4. ^ a b Samaha, Barry (June 6, 2019). "Poster House Hopes to Stick Around in Chelsea". Surface. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  5. ^ a b Sayej, Nadja (May 28, 2019). "'A focal point, not an accessory': behind New York's first poster museum". The Guardian. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
  6. ^ a b c Loos, Ted (June 20, 2019). "Graphic, Grabby and Democratic: Posters Get Their Own Museum". New York Times. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
  7. ^ Graver, David (July 9, 2019). "Poster House Museum Celebrates the Historic, Influential Medium". Cool Hunting. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
  8. ^ Medina, Samuel (April 29, 2020). "Lighting Adds to the Graphic Quality of New York's Poster House". Metropolis Magazine. Retrieved March 7, 2024.
  9. ^ a b Ferguson, Maeri (June 19, 2019). "SVA Donates Nearly 100 Subway Series Works to Newly Opened Poster House Museum". School of Visual Arts. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
  10. ^ a b Edquist, Grace (June 25, 2019). "Can Posters Stop Being the Black Sheep of the Art World?". Vanity Fair. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  11. ^ Barbanes Richter, Barbara (August 2020). "Poster House Museum Acquires Significant Archive from Designer Paula Scher". Fine Books & Collections. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  12. ^ Graves, Cassidy Dawn (February 25, 2020). "Art This Week: The Power of Posters, Light-Activated Paintings, and More". Bedford + Bowery. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  13. ^ Heller, Stephen (April 1, 2021). "The Daily Heller: Julius Klinger Commands Poster House's Current Exhibition". Print. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  14. ^ McClinton, Dream (September 16, 2021). "'They created a new blueprint': the legacy of Blaxploitation film posters". The Guardian. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  15. ^ Tucker, Emma (September 23, 2021). "A new exhibition celebrates Push Pin's gloriously anti-minimalist aesthetic". Creative Review. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  16. ^ Heller, Stephen (March 17, 2022). "The Daily Heller: Ethel Reed, Poster Woman". Print. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  17. ^ Escalante-De Mattei, Shanti (February 28, 2022). "The Daily Heller: Ethel Reed, Poster Woman". ArtNews. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  18. ^ Culgan, Rossilynne Skena (March 3, 2023). "This new exhibit at NYC's Poster House explores the Black Panther Party". TimeOut. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  19. ^ Williams, Megan (March 17, 2023). "The Evolution of Poster Art in Post-War Japan". Creative Review. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  20. ^ Kahn, Eve M. (August 31, 2023). "When Advertisements Were Art". New York Times. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  21. ^ Gottehrer-Cohen, Zach; Stewart, Alison (October 18, 2023). "New exhibit at Poster House shows 'failed' efforts to warn humanity about climate change". Gothamist. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  22. ^ Holmes, Helen (April 17, 2020). "Artists Collaborated on a Coronavirus PSA Campaign That You'll See All Over NYC". Observer. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  23. ^ a b Brewer, Jenny (April 20, 2020). "Milton Glaser and Paula Scher among the graphic designers making PSA posters for New York's billboards". It's Nice That. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  24. ^ Hiufu Wong, Maggie (July 14, 2022). "Meet Grace Young, the wok guru fighting to save America's Chinatowns". CNN. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  25. ^ Peters, Terri (September 14, 2023). "An insiders' guide to Grant Avenue, one of the oldest streets in SF's Chinatown". SFGate. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  26. ^ Kellerhals, Jenny (September 14, 2023). "Inside cookbook author Grace Young's work to revitalize Chinatown businesses hit by pandemic: 'The most meaningful work I've ever done'". Yahoo. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  27. ^ "National Museum of American History To Host Eighth Annual Smithsonian Food History Weekend and Gala in Person Oct. 13–14". SI.edu. October 6, 2022. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
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