Poster House

Poster Kids: Stamp Out Hate!
2021-03-28 10:00 - 11:00 (America/New_York) | NY
Join Poster House on the last Sunday morning of every month, from 10–11am for a family-friendly, interactive, virtual poster tour and a related art-making experience. Admission is free; advanced registration is required in order to receive link access and a list of suggested materials. See below for details.
Save the earth! Live in peace! Create art! These are just some of the very important themes in our show Freak Power. After an interactive virtual tour of the exhibition, we’ll participate in a workshop on creating stampable symbols that represent our own hopes and dreams for the world.
Materials:
-cardboard squares 2×2 inches (four for each family member who is participating)
-scissors
-gluestick
-paper
-stamp-pad

The Evolution of PSAs with Poster House
2021-03-25 18:30 - 20:00
Dating back to the 1870s, Public Service Announcements (PSAs) have been used to communicate messages to the public on a variety of topics. Over the past 150 years, PSAs have ranged from calls to action to unite the public on war efforts, to messages conveying safety concerns when riding public transportation. Many factors are considered when creating PSAs, including design and placement, for efficient and effective dissemination of information.
Join us after-hours with the New York Transit Museum Associate Curator Jodi Shapiro and Chief Curator of Poster House Angelina Lippert as they explore a general history of PSA posters. Learn more about how PSA messaging has evolved since the late 1800s, how New York City’s buses and subways have functioned as places where PSAs communicate to straphangers, and what the future looks like for the medium.

Lippert & Lowry: Fireside Chats
2021-03-24 20:00 - 21:00
Join everyone’s favorite blazer-loving poster duo for a Fireside Chat on Instagram Live!
Angelina Lippert, our Chief Curator, and Nicholas Lowry, Director of Swann Auction Galleries, are two of the biggest personalities in the poster world. And they also happen to be best buddies! So why not spend your evening hanging out with them? There’ll even be a real fireplace!
Ask questions, chime in, make requests, play along—no poster is off limits for these two!
Keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle, because tonight they’ll be going over work incentive and work safety posters!
Just follow @posterhousenyc and @swanngalleries and tune in at 8pm for the best poster entertainment on the internet!
*This event has passed. Watch archived Fireside Chats on the “Our Friends” Highlight on our Instagram page!

Behind the Scenes with Melissa Walker
2021-03-23 18:30 - 19:30
Did you know that Poster House has over 10,000 posters in its permanent collection? Join Collections Manager Melissa Walker as she takes us on a behind-the-scenes look at posters from around the world! Take a glimpse of our Living Archive, see live unboxings of recent acquisitions, and get a sneak peek of posters for upcoming exhibitions. From vintage posters to contemporary advertising and everything in-between, you don’t want to miss this rare opportunity for unbridled access to Poster House’s expansive collection!
This virtual event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided.
Questions about access? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at Salvador@posterhouse.org

Interwar Neon: Commercial Illumination in Weimar-Era Germany
2021-03-22 18:30 - 20:00
Historic photographs of the nocturnal landscape in Berlin and other cities are all that survive to hint at the uniquely inventive work of electric sign makers in Germany in the years before the country’s descent into authoritarianism, ethnic cleansing, and war. In this program, design historian Thomas Rinaldi will explore these images and what they tell us about the sophisticated approach to electric signs that coincided with Germany’s brief period of free artistic expression in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Thomas Rinaldi is the co-author of the book Hudson Valley Ruins: Forgotten Landmarks of an American Landscape, published by the University Press of New England in 2006, and the author of New York Neon, published by W.W. Norton in 2012. His photographs have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The New York Observer, Westchester Magazine, CNN Online, and elsewhere, and have been exhibited at the Municipal Art Society of New York and at the New York State Museum in Albany.

This virtual event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. Questions about access? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at Salvador@posterhouse.org

Remote Vibrant Verbal Description Tour: Vera List & The Posters of Lincoln Center
2021-03-18 16:00 - 17:30
Every month, Poster House offers Vibrant Verbal Description Tours specifically for the low vision and blind community. Explore one of the museum’s shows with an experienced educator trained in the art of verbal description and learn more about the history of printed posters.
In order to reach a wide, art-loving audience around the world, we offer our description tours online through teleconference. These tours are led by our Chief Curator, allowing you intimate access to the items in our current shows.
This tour will focus on Vera List & The Posters of Lincoln Center, an exhibition which features the early artist-designed posters commissioned by Lincoln Center at the time of its opening.
Please email access@posterhouse.org or call 917.722.2439 x413 by March 16 to sign up for this event. You will be emailed poster images for reference as well as information about accessing the teleconference the morning of the virtual tour.
Tours start promptly and will last approximately 90 minutes with questions.
For a complete list of our Access Tours, click the Access filter at the top of our Events page, call 917.722.2439 x413 or email access@posterhouse.org. Poster House will also strive to accommodate any outside accessibility tour requests given two week’s notice.

Effortless & Balanced: Julius Klinger & The Art of Humor
2021-03-17 18:30 - 19:30
Poster House is delighted to partner with Karen Etingin, author of The Life and Art of Julius Klinger, for an evening of merriment and posters! Join us as Karen explores the role of humor in European advertising in the early 20th century, with particular emphasis on Klinger’s magnificent oeuvre.

Karen Etingin is the owner of the iconic Montreal vintage poster gallery L’Affichiste. Karen has been collecting posters for over thirty years, has taught university-level courses about posters, and works with public and private institutions, as well as with individual collectors around the world. She was also consulted during the creation Julius Klinger: Posters For A Modern Age.

College Night: Behind the Scenes Exhibition Walkthrough
2021-03-16 18:30 - 20:00
We’re taking you behind the scenes of Poster House through a virtual tour of the installation process for our two newest exhibits: Freak Power and Julius Klinger: Posters For A Modern Age! Join us over Zoom on Tuesday, March 16, at 6:30pm to hear from our Exhibitions and Operations teams as they show us how both exhibitions come to life through vinyl installations, white-glove art hanging, wall text screenprinting, casework layout, mural touch-ups, lighting, and more! Student Outreach Intern, Yeji Kim, will also be onsite to virtually walk us through the finished shows and take questions!

The Political Posters of Thomas W. Benton
2021-03-16 18:30 - 20:00
Poster House is thrilled to welcome Daniel Joseph Watkins for a discussion on the powerful anti-war and pro-environment beliefs of the artist Thomas W. Benton.
Watkins’s talk will highlight Benton’s collaborations with Gonzo Journalist Hunter S. Thompson as well as the larger body of political posters Benton created in the 1960s and 70s. Watkins’s first book, Thomas W. Benton: Artist/Activist, illuminated the breadth of Benton’s artistic output with a focus on powerful graphic posters created by the talented silkscreen printmaker. From protests against the Vietnam War to the celebration of the first Earth Day in 1970, Benton catalogued important movements during this pivotal period in America’s history.

Daniel Joseph Watkins is a writer, producer, and director based in Aspen, Colorado. Watkins runs the publishing company Meat Possum Press and serves as director of the Gonzo Gallery where he has curated over fifty shows and manages traveling museum exhibitions.

This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. Questions about access? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at Salvador@posterhouse.org

Grolier Club Online Lecture with Nicholas Lowry and Angelina Lippert
2021-03-15 18:00 - 19:30
Expand your literary poster horizons on a wild ride through advertising history, with poster experts Nicholas Lowry from Swann Galleries and Angelina Lippert, chief curator at New York’s Poster House, opened in 2019 as the nation’s first museum devoted to the poster. They will explore how books have been advertised in posters since the late 1800s. The dazzling compositions promoted literacy as well as little-known literary gems.
This will be a live online event, via Zoom, and attendees will receive an email with the Zoom link prior to the event. For those unable to join us for the session, the lecture will be recorded and made available a few weeks after the event on the Grolier Club’s Vimeo page.

Lippert & Lowry: Fireside Chats
2021-03-10 20:00 - 21:00
Join everyone’s favorite blazer-loving poster duo for a Fireside Chat on Instagram Live!
Angelina Lippert, our Chief Curator, and Nicholas Lowry, Director of Swann Auction Galleries, are two of the biggest personalities in the poster world. And they also happen to be best buddies! So why not spend your evening hanging out with them? There’ll even be a real fireplace!
Ask questions, chime in, make requests, play along—no poster is off limits for these two!
This week, they will be highlighting masterpieces in cinematic history with the best of film posters!
Just follow @posterhousenyc and @swanngalleries and tune in at 8pm for the best poster entertainment on the internet!
*This event has passed. Watch archived Fireside Chats on the “Our Friends” Highlight on our Instagram page!

Posters & Cocktails Takes To The Skies
2021-03-09 19:00 - 21:00
Our Posters & Cocktails parties have amassed a huge following, so we are keeping the momentum going by bringing this edition to new heights! That’s right: it’s a night of aviation posters and mile-high drinks!
Our Chief Curator will once again be hosting Nicholas Lowry of Swann Auction Galleries and Don Spiro of The Green Fairy Society over Zoom as they soar through all things aviation-related.
After Don gets us off the ground with our first cocktail, Nicholas will soar through posters for air shows, air meets, and even a few races! As our glasses empty, Don will pilot us through a few more beverages to keep us well-lubricated for the graphic design journeys ahead in the second-half of Nicho’s talk.
Tickets:
Early Bird (purchased before February 17): Free!
General Registration: $3
Members: Free!
If you would like to drink along with us, please see an ingredients list below:
Aviation Cocktail
Maraschino Liqueur
Crème de violette
Fresh Lemon Juice
Lemon Peel (garnish)
Cocktail Glass
Flying Tiger Cocktail
Bacardi Gold
Grenadine
Angostura Bitters
Sugar
Cocktail Glass
Airmail
Lime Juice
Honey Syrup
Gold Rum
Dry Champagne
Highball Glass
Pan-American Clipper
Rye Whiskey
Lemon (muddled)
Simple Syrup
Jet Pilot from The Luau (c. 1958)
Fresh Lime Juice
Fresh Grapefruit Juice
Sark Jamaican Rum
Gold Puerto Rican Rum
151-proof Demerara Rum
Angostura Bitters
Absinthe or Pernod
Cinnamon Syrup
Falernum (a hard to find spicy ginger, lime, almond liqueur)
Crushed ice or Blender w/ Ice

College Night: MURALs and Mocktails
2021-03-02 18:30 - 20:00
Designing digital art and sipping a custom-crafted beverage is a great way to kick off our Spring 2021 College Night season! We’ll spend the evening with Maya Varadaraj, Master Educator, and Yosmerilyn Rodriguez, Gallery Assistant and Access Coordinator, exploring three product posters and the designers who made them. Taking inspiration from these images, we will create a product poster for our fancy drinks using the digital whiteboard software, MURAL! Not familiar with MURAL? No worries—we will teach you!
This event will take place on Tuesday, March 2, at 6:30pm over Zoom. Participants will have a chance to win one of our exciting raffle prizes—we’re giving away a student membership, a Poster House tote bag, and your choice of an exhibition poster from our shows opening in March: Freak Power and Julius Klinger: Posters For A Modern Age!
Blackberry Basil Mocktail with Blood Orange & Vanilla
Ingredients:
8 blackberries
8 fresh basil leaves
1 blood orange juice, freshly squeezed (or citrus of your choice)
½ tsp vanilla
16 oz Sparkling Water
1 tbsp granulated sugar (or substitute)
1 tbsp ginger basil simple syrup (or sweetener of your choice)

To Make Ahead of Time (Can substitute honey or maple syrup)
Basil Ginger Simple Syrup
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed basil leaves
2-3 ounces fresh ginger (approx 8 inches)

Peel the ginger root with a vegetable peeler, and chop.
Bring the sugar and water to a boil over medium high heat.
Add the chopped ginger and basil, bring the mixture to a simmer.
Remove from heat and allow to steep for at least 30 minutes (covered).
Strain syrup through fine mesh. Discard ginger.
Keep the syrup for up to two weeks refrigerated in an airtight container.

Poster Kids: Posters and Performances
2021-02-28 10:00 - 11:00
Join Poster House on the last Sunday morning of every month, from 10–11am for a family-friendly, interactive, virtual poster tour and a related art-making experience. Admission is free; advanced registration is required in order to receive link access and a list of suggested materials. See below for details.
Do you love movies, plays, and concerts? Then this is the program for you! Posters advertising entertainment are some of the most fun in history, and during this program we’ll be exploring the very best in the genre! In our interactive virtual tour, we’ll listen to tunes, watch video clips, and explore iconic posters. In our workshop, we’ll design sculptural characters to be the stars of our very own performances.
Materials:
Cereal box, pasta box, or other small cardboard box
Glue stick
Scissors
Colorful paper such as construction paper
Magazine

Mucha at Poster House: Designs That Dazzled a New Age
2021-02-26 12:00 - 13:00
Join Angelina Lippert, chief curator at Poster House, for a virtual look at the work of one of the most significant artists in the form, as seen in the recent exhibition Alphonse Mucha: Art Nouveau / Nouvelle Femme.
Mucha arrived in Paris in 1887, living in relative poverty as an obscure illustrator. That changed in late 1894, when he created his first poster for a play featuring the world’s most famous actress, Sarah Bernhardt. The work captivated Paris, launched his design career, began a friendship and professional collaboration with Bernhardt, and helped him become one of the most celebrated graphic designers of the Art Nouveau era.
Lippert covers Alphonse Mucha’s rise to fame, his career as a commercial designer, his unique artistic style, and his profound influence on future poster designers. She also examines how his designs helped elevate women as they joined the budding 20th-century world with a new independence and social agency.

Genius on Display: Tré Seals
2021-02-25 18:30 - 20:00
Poster House is excited to partner with Tré Seals of Vocal Type Co for the second event in our Genius on Display series, a platform for spotlighting the expertise of BIPOC artists and designers within the context of Poster House’s exhibitions and permanent collection. Tonight, Tré will share timely and thought-provoking work in typeface design in relation to our recent exhibition The Swiss Grid.
Tré Seals is the founder and type director of Vocal Type, the preeminent type foundry inspired by the lack of diversity in the graphic design industry. Each typeface highlights a piece of history from a different underrepresented race, ethnicity, or gender—from the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Argentina to the Civil Rights Movement in America and beyond.
Since its founding in 2016, VTC fonts have traveled around the world: from street murals and protest signs to census, voting, and brand campaigns for companies large and small.
This program series is sponsored by CMYK Council, Poster House’s working advisory board of BIPOC creatives, designers, educators, and museum staff.
This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. Questions about access? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at Salvador@posterhouse.org

Lippert & Lowry: Fireside Chats
2021-02-24 20:00 - 21:00
Join everyone’s favorite blazer-loving poster duo for a Fireside Chat on Instagram Live!
Angelina Lippert, our Chief Curator, and Nicholas Lowry, Director of Swann Auction Galleries, are two of the biggest personalities in the poster world. And they also happen to be best buddies! So why not spend your evening hanging out with them? There’ll even be a real fireplace!
Ask questions, chime in, make requests, play along—no poster is off limits for these two!
Tonight will be extra special for this sartorial duo since they’ll be focusing on their favorite fashion posters!
Just follow @posterhousenyc and @swanngalleries and tune in at 8pm for the best poster entertainment on the internet!
*This event has passed. Watch archived Fireside Chats on the “Our Friends” Highlight on our Instagram page!

Genius on Display: Rush Jackson
2021-02-23 18:30 - 20:00
Poster House is thrilled to partner with Rush Jackson of Onyx Self-Imaging Labs for the inaugural event in our Genius on Display series. Genius on Display is a platform for spotlighting the expertise of BIPOC artists and designers within the context of Poster House’s exhibitions and permanent collection. Tonight, Rush will share their innovative work in publication and brand identity design in relation to our recent exhibition The Swiss Grid.
Rush Jackson (they/them) is an artist and independent graphic designer living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Moving fluidly between art and design-oriented practices, Jackson is invested in expanding the Black cultural lexicon through collaborative methods of production, such as graphic design and publishing, while maintaining an independent studio practice consisting of printed matter, painting, video, and installation.
In 2020, Jackson created Onyx Self-Imaging Labs, a full service, independent graphic design and art direction studio working with clients/collaborators in the arts and culture spheres, as well as prioritizing design for grassroots organizing and advocacy contexts. Recent and notable design projects include publication design for The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art & Fashion, To The Front: Black Women & The Vote, and The PhotoBook Review Issue 18, published by Aperture Foundation.
This program series is sponsored by CMYK Council, Poster House’s working advisory board of BIPOC creatives, designers, educators, and museum staff.
This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. Questions about access? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at Salvador@posterhouse.org

Remote Vibrant Verbal Description Tour: Amos Kennedy
2021-02-18 16:00 - 17:30
Every month, Poster House offers Vibrant Verbal Description Tours specifically for the low vision and blind community. Explore one of the museum’s shows with an experienced educator trained in the art of verbal description and learn more about the history of printed posters.
These virtual tours are led by our Chief Curator, allowing you intimate access to the items in our collection.
This tour will focus on Amos Kennedy, a Black letterpress printer based in Detroit who was recently given a solo exhibition at Poster House.
Please email access@posterhouse.org or call 917.722.2439 x413 by February 16 to sign up for this event. You will be emailed poster images for reference as well as information about accessing the teleconference the morning of the virtual tour.
Tours start promptly and will last approximately 90 minutes with questions.
For a complete list of our Access Tours, click the Access filter at the top of our Events page, call 917.722.2439 x413 or email access@posterhouse.org. Poster House will also strive to accommodate any outside accessibility tour requests given two week’s notice.

Black Label: A Very Black Posters & Cocktails
2021-02-17 19:30 - 21:00
Join Poster House for this extra-special Black History Month edition of our Posters & Cocktails series led by DC-based restaurateur Andra ‘AJ’ Johnson! Explore the true history of Black drinking culture in contrast with popular representations of Blackness in alcohol posters over the past 120 years. Throughout the evening, AJ will mix up some of her favorite cocktails featuring Black-owned alcohol and spirits.
Andra ‘AJ’ Johnson is a 19-year restaurant industry veteran who has worked every position from dishwasher to managing partner. Whether fast casual or fine dining, AJ has found her place and enriched her journey through this industry at some of DC’s mainstays such as Open City & The Diner, Le Diplomate, and Mussel Bar by Robert Weidmaier. She continues to renew her commitment to providing exemplary service and thoughtful cocktails each day at Serenata/Zumo in La Cosecha Latin Market in Northeast, Washington, DC. The need for diversity and representation in the Washington, DC restaurant scene has inspired her forthcoming book “White Plates, Black Faces” that continues her work of telling the stories of people of color in the restaurant industry. She is also a co-founder of DMV Black Restaurant Week, established in 2018, and Back to Black Cocktail Pop Up that uplifts restaurant industry professionals to use their skills to raise awareness and support for charities in the Washington, DC area.
If you would like to drink along with us, please see the ingredients list below. Even better, consider purchasing your ingredients from a Black-owned liquor store on our list or in your neighborhood!
Tools Needed: Shaker Tin, Strainer, Ice, Mixing Glass, Bar Spoon, Peeler, Paring Knife, Cutting Board, Lighter
Something Worth Fighting For
1.5 oz Dusse Cognac
.75 oz St. Germain
.5 oz Lemon Juice
.5 oz Simple Syrup
.5 oz Egg White
Edible Flowers
Glassware: Martini or Coupe Glass
Paradise Lost…& Found
1.5 oz Ten to One Dark Rum
.75 oz Raspberry Liqueur
.75 oz Lime Juice
.5 oz Coconut Water
.5 oz Velvet Falernum
Shredded Coconut
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Behind Every Story
1.5 oz Uncle Nearest 1856
.75 oz Averna Amaro
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
2 dashes Orange Bitters
.75 oz Apricot Liqueuer
Whole Orange
Glassware: Martini or Coupe Glass
This virtual event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided.
Questions about access? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at Salvador@posterhouse.org

Behind the Scenes with Melissa Walker
2021-02-16 18:30 - 19:30
Did you know that Poster House has over 10,000 posters in its permanent collection? Join Collections Manager Melissa Walker as she takes us on a behind-the-scenes look at posters from around the world! Take a glimpse of our Living Archive, see live unboxings of recent acquisitions, and get a sneak peek of posters for upcoming exhibitions. From vintage posters to contemporary advertising and everything in-between, you don’t want to miss this rare opportunity for unbridled access to Poster House’s expansive collection!
Tonight’s Behind the Scenes with Melissa Walker will be moderated by David Jon Walker, a member of Poster House’s CMYK Council. David Jon Walker is a Graphic Designer and Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. He is also principal of Rhealistic Design, a design consultancy that is active locally and nationally. As a highly sought-after Black creative, Mr. Walker works with national political candidates, PACs, non-profits, governmental entities, and varying businesses lending his talents to their marketing efforts to increase awareness and further campaigns. His award-winning works have been recognized by Graphic Design USA, Campaigns and Elections, the International Association of Business Communicators, AIGA and the College Media Association.

This virtual event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. Questions about access? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at Salvador@posterhouse.org

Letterpress Studio Tour with Dafi Kühne
2021-02-10 18:00 - 19:30
Join Swiss poster designer Dafi Kühne on a tour through his vast letterpress studio, where he designs and produces hand-printed cultural posters.
Dafi will open his studio doors, show us around, and talk about his process and his approach to making letterpress printed posters in the 21st century! This is an incredible opportunity to see one of the coolest letterpress printers in action. Questions welcome, curiosity required!
Dafi Kühne is a Swiss poster designer. In his studio babyinktwice he has collected more than 25 tons of letterpress equipment to produce all of his designs. His analog ways of designing and printing posters are unusual, definitively progressive, and the finished posters look anything but letterpress printed. Over the last decade he has developed many techniques for making blocks that he entertainingly documented in his educational video series The Dafi Kühne Printing Show™.
This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. Questions about access? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at Salvador@posterhouse.org

Free Healing Event for the Black Community: Afrofuturistic Visualization
2021-02-05 10:00 - 11:00
As part of our Black History Month programming, Poster House is proud to partner with Ethel’s Club for this public program centering Black wellness and healing. Lead by Iman Diarra, a creative technologist building at the intersection of neuropsychology and BIPOC healing, This hands-on workshop will tap into your power of self-creation. Leveraging guided visualization, journaling and scripting – we’ll design a life vision makes your soul sing, and draw a path towards it with intention, playfulness and consciousness. Bring some paper, a pen, and your beautiful Self.
Kindly note that is event is intended as a private healing space for the Black community, and we ask non-Black folks consider joining us for one of the many other free and exciting events in honor of Black History Month that are open to all.
This program is sponsored by CMYK Council, Poster House’s working advisory board of BIPOC creatives, designers, educators, and museum staff.

Lippert & Lowry: Fireside Chats
2021-02-03 20:00 - 21:00
Join everyone’s favorite blazer-loving poster duo for a Fireside Chat on Instagram Live!
Angelina Lippert, our Chief Curator, and Nicholas Lowry, Director of Swann Auction Galleries, are two of the biggest personalities in the poster world. And they also happen to be best buddies! So why not spend your evening hanging out with them? There’ll even be a real fireplace!
Ask questions, chime in, make requests, play along—no poster is off limits for these two!
Tonight, they’ll be covering the best in circus posters!
Just follow @posterhousenyc and @swanngalleries and tune in at 8pm for the best poster entertainment on the internet!
*This event has passed. Watch archived Fireside Chats on the “Our Friends” Highlight on our Instagram page!

Breaking the Swiss Grid with Letterform Archive
2021-02-02 16:00 - 17:30
Poster House is excited to partner with Stephen Coles of Letterform Archive for an afternoon deconstructing the Swiss grid. What happens when designers break the rules of what typically constitutes good design? This wide-ranging talk will explore grid-breaking examples from Letterform Archive’s impressive collection, including Emigre magazine, the letter- and mind-bending posters of psychedelia, and both antique and contemporary irregularly-shaped typesetting.
Stephen Coles is the Associate Curator and Editorial Director of Letterform Archive, a San Francisco based nonprofit center for inspiration, education, publishing, and community in graphic design. The Archive holds physical and digital artifacts in a variety of formats, including books, periodicals, posters, sketches, original art for reproduction, and related ephemera, as well as a robust reference library. Stephen also publishes the websites Typographica and Fonts In Use.
This event is a collaborative effort between Letterform Archive and Poster House! We have loved working together and hope to again in the near future. Our efforts were shared, and your donations will be also. All contributions from this event will be split evenly between Letterform and Poster House. By signing up for this program, you agree to be added to Letterform Archive’s mailing list.
This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. Questions about access? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at Salvador@posterhouse.org

Poster Kids: Grids and Grins
2021-01-31 10:00 - 11:00
Join Poster House on the last Sunday morning of every month, from 10–11am for a family-friendly, interactive, virtual poster tour and a related art-making experience. Admission is free; advanced registration is required in order to receive link access and a list of suggested materials. See below for details.
Shapes, colors, and grids, oh my! During our interactive virtual tour of The Swiss Grid, we’ll explore the iconic Swiss grid system and discover just how influential it remains today. In our corresponding workshop, we’ll play with geometric forms to create mathematical collages of our own.
Materials:
-white paper
-colorful paper
-magazine
-scissors
-glue stick
-black marker

Representations of Blackness in Chinese Popular Culture
2021-01-28 19:00 - 20:30
In this intimate conversation, scholars on contemporary Chinese culture will share a series of case studies to illuminate how depictions of Black identity in Chinese popular culture have evolved throughout the last century.
Spanning depictions of the American Civil Rights movement in posters from the 1960s to more recent Chinese popular culture, panelists will explore how globalization and both domestic and international political movements have impacted the way that representations of Blackness have been constructed and perceived in China.

Through this conversation, we hope to unpack how ideas of race and identity are transmuted across cultures with an eye towards new considerations and approaches for the future.
This event is presented in partnership with Gung Ho Projects. Featured panelists include:
Michael Leibenluft, an Obie Award winning theater and film director, is the Artistic Director of Gung Ho Projects, a platform for cultural exchange and performance in the United States and Asia. Recent bilingual projects include the folk musical Flood in the Valley and Salesman之死 by Jeremy Tiang, set to premiere at Target Margin Theater in Brooklyn. For more, visit: gunghoprojects.com and leibenluft.com.
Wenxuan Xue 文轩 is a graduate student in Theatre & Performance Studies at Tufts University. He is a theatre maker, scholar, and writer. He was a volunteer teaching artist at an NGO advocating for educational equity in rural China. He’s interested in topics around Chineseness, queerness, migration, empire, and collective futurity through performances.
Dr. Keisha A. Brown is an Assistant Professor of History at Tennessee State University in the Department of History, Political Science, Geography, and Africana Studies. Dr. Brown is an Asian studies scholar with a regional focus on East Asia specializing in modern Chinese history. Her research and teaching interests include comparative East Asian histories, postcolonial theory, transnational studies, world history, and race and ethnic studies. She is currently extending her research on Sino-African American transnational relations to examine ideas of race and ethnicity and Afro-Asian diasporic connections.
Dr. Claire Conceison (康开丽) is Quanta Professor of Chinese Culture and Professor of Theater Arts at MIT. Her teaching and research include contemporary Chinese theater, Asian American theater, cross-cultural performance, play translation, and sport as performance. Her books include Significant Other: Staging the American in China, exploring representations of Americans on the Chinese stage. Other publications include the introduction to the recent Chinese publication of Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun (translated by Wu Shiliang in 1963).
Faye Lu is a PhD student in Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA. Her research focuses on Chinese and Sinophone literature and popular culture at the intersections of the Cold War and global decolonization. She has also translated scholarly and literary work on Taiwan’s indigenous communities.
This virtual event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. Questions about access? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at Salvador@posterhouse.org

Internship Q&A with Yeji Kim
2021-01-25 12:00 - 16:00
Poster House is thrilled to continue to host remote internships into 2021!
This winter, Yeji Kim was selected to be our Student Outreach Intern. Over the course of 27 weeks, she is working closely with our Communications and Education Departments to develop and support the Spring 2021 College Night series.
Starting at noon this Monday, she’ll be going live on our Instagram stories, answering all your burning questions about Poster House’s paid remote internship program. Afraid you’ll miss your chance? Email your questions early to internship@posterhouse.org.

Modernism is Not a Style: Vignelli, The Grid, & Beyond
2021-01-21 18:30 - 20:00
Poster House is delighted to partner with Waterhouse Cifuentes Design on this virtual lecture on their use of grid systems to organize information, and the partners’ experience as former associates of Massimo Vignelli for over fifteen years.
The talk will seek to dispel notions of the Swiss grid as a stylistic trend locked in place and time, and demonstrate why its use has endured to become a universal means of communication. It will also show how the grid’s flexibility has allowed it to be expressed over the years, with relevant case studies that include those of its origins and beyond.
Waterhouse Cifuentes Design is a multidisciplinary design firm based in New York with clients worldwide. Partners Beatriz Cifuentes and Yoshiki Waterhouse build on over fifteen years as former associates of Massimo Vignelli. In 2008, Vignelli, Cifuentes and Waterhouse built a new “Subway Diagram,” later adopted for digital use by the MTA. Their office has since adapted the design further, including printed and digital train diversion notices, and the official MTA map for the opening of the Second Avenue Subway line. Their work is now part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, including a permanent mural along the 5Av/53rd St Subway platform.
This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. Questions about access? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at Salvador@posterhouse.org

Democracy on Paper: Political Posters of the 1960s & '70s
2021-01-19 17:30 - 19:00
While TV and radio marketing campaigns surrounding American presidential election campaigns have been the subject of countless studies and critiques, the medium of posters — though just as impactful — has been largely overlooked. This is the story of the election, protest, get-out-the-vote, and satirical posters of the 1960s and ’70s that defined their generation — and shaped future ones.
Join New York Adventure Club as we explore political posters made in the 1960s and 1970s, and uncover their lasting legacy as illustration and historical documents — ones that tell a story about the future of American democracy.
Led by Poster House museum’s Collections Manager, Melissa Walker, our digital showcase of these incredible posters will include:

An examination of election posters for presidential candidates including Nixon, JFK, and Regan
A look at the connection between presidential administrations of the past and protest posters, which illustrate civic engagement from those eras
Tracing the evolution of past poster design to contemporary election and protest posters
A special feature of posters from Hunter S. Thompson’s run for sheriff of Aspen that can be seen in person at the upcoming Freak Power exhibition at Poster House — this show chronicles a little-known period in his life when he wrote prolifically about politics, the environment, drugs, and American values

Afterward, We’ll have a Q&A with Melissa — any and all questions about political posters are welcomed and encouraged!
Can’t make it live? Don’t worry, you’ll have access to the full replay for one week!
See you there, virtually!
*Immediately upon registering, you will receive a separate, automated email containing the link to join this webinar
**For the best possible viewing experience, please ensure you’re using the latest version of your internet browser — Google Chrome is the most compatible. Exact technical requirements and a webinar user guide will be shared in the automated confirmation email upon registration.
***A full replay of the experience will be available to all registered guests for up to a week
