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.

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

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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