Poster House

Curatorial Tour of The Utopian Avant-Garde: Soviet Film Posters of the 1920s
2022-03-16 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
Join Chief Curator Angelina Lippert for a deep dive into the museum’s latest exhibition The Utopian Avant-Garde: Soviet Film Posters of the 1920s, on view through August 21. Explore the highs and lows of the golden age of Soviet graphic design with one of the foremost experts on poster history. Featuring posters by Alexander Rodchenko, the Stenberg brothers, and many more of the most influential Russian graphic artists of their time, this virtual tour is not to be missed!
This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. ASL interpretation is available upon request — please email access@posterhouse.org to request interpretation services. A recording of this event will be made available for all registered attendees. Questions about accessibility? Please contact Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at salvador@posterhouse.org.

Vibrant Verbal Description Tour: Ethel Reed
2022-03-17 16:00 - 17:00
Every month, Poster House offers virtual Vibrant Verbal Description Tours specifically for community members who are blind or have low vision.
In order to reach a wide, art-loving audience around the world, we offer our description tours online through Zoom. These tours are led by our Chief Curator, allowing you intimate access to the items in our current shows and permanent collection.
This tour will focus on the posters of Ethel Reed featured in the current exhibition Ethel Reed: I am My Own Property.
Please email access@posterhouse.org or call 917.722.2439 x413 by March 15 to sign up for this event. You will be emailed poster images for reference as well as information about accessing Zoom the morning of the virtual tour.
Tours start promptly and will last approximately 70 minutes with questions.
For a complete list of our accessibility tours, click the Accessibility 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.

Poster Kids: Women in Posters
2022-03-20 09:15 - 10:15 | Poster House, 119 West 23rd Street, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for a special edition of Poster Kids in honor of Women’s History Month. Together, we’ll tour Poster House’s exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property and learn about one of the most famous female poster designers of all time. Then, inspired by Reed’s figures and lettering, we’ll create posters celebrating the influential women and girls in our own lives!
Materials:
Black permanent marker
Water colors, paint brush, cup of water and paper towels
Large piece of watercolor paper, cardstock or other heavy paper
Paper and pencil

This online event will be hosted on Zoom. Closed Captioning will be provided. Poster Kids will not be recorded due to the presence of minors. Questions about accessibility? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at salvador@posterhouse.org.

Poster Kids: Women in Posters
2022-03-20 10:30 - 12:15 | Poster House, 119 West 23rd Street, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Join us for a special edition of Poster Kids in honor of Women’s History Month. Together, we’ll tour Poster House’s exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property and learn about one of the most famous female poster designers of all time. Then, inspired by Reed’s figures and lettering, we’ll create posters celebrating the influential women and girls in our own lives!
Materials:
Black permanent marker
Water colors, paint brush, cup of water and paper towels
Large piece of watercolor paper, cardstock or other heavy paper
Paper and pencil

This event is in person at Poster House, with masks required. Poster House operates in compliance with the Key to NYC mandate. All museum visitors older than 12 must show proof that they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccination records and IDs will be checked upon entry. Proof of vaccination may include:

NYC COVID Safe app: Android | iOS

Excelsior Pass

CDC Vaccination Card (or photo of card)

NYC Vaccination Record

An official immunization record from outside New York City or the United States.

Valid ID includes your name accompanied by a photograph such as:

Driver’s license

Government ID card

IDNYC card

Passport

School ID card

Constructivist Letterforms in Early Soviet Movie Posters
2022-03-22 18:30 - 19:30
Poster House is excited to welcome Misha Beletsky for an evening exploring the Cyrillic hand-lettering in The Utopian Avant-Garde: Soviet Film Posters of the 1920s. Moderated by Chief Curator Angelina Lippert, this talk will examine how designers incorporated a variety of lettering styles into their dynamic movie posters, using them as both a means of communication and as graphic elements within the compositions. Questions about Russian lettering, typography, and poster history are strongly encouraged!
Misha Beletsky is the Art Director at Abbeville Press and the President of the Typophiles. He curated Russia Rising, an exhibition of protest posters at SVA (with Steven Heller), and I Make Posters Every Day, an exhibition of work by Peter Bankov at Type Directors Club. He often speaks on design and typographic history, including Russian Avant-Garde Books at The New School and on Russian Political Poster at TDC.
This program is presented in partnership with the Type Directors Club.
This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. ASL interpretation is available upon request — please email access@posterhouse.org to request interpretation services. A recording of this event will be made available for all registered attendees. Questions about accessibility? Please contact Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at salvador@posterhouse.org.

The Victorian Letterforms of Ethel Reed
2022-03-23 18:30 - 19:30
Explore the Victorian-era hand-lettering featured in Poster House’s latest exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property with type historian Patricia Childers. Take a close look at the letterforms this pioneering graphic artist used in her poster designs and the modern typefaces they’ve inspired, and hear about the processes and techniques used to marry the hand-lettering in seamless composition with Reed’s captivating illustrations. Questions about hand-lettering and the evolution of typography are strongly encouraged!
Patricia Childers, a NYC-based educator and designer, teaches graphic design, theory, and typography. She is an adjunct professor in the Communication Design Department of the New York City College of Technology, (CUNY,) and serves with Paul Shaw as co-director of Tipo, Cibo, Vino, a letterpress workshop in Cornuda Italy. Her practice, P Childers Design, specializes in typography, visual identity, and publication design.
This program is presented in partnership with the Type Directors Club.
This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. ASL interpretation is available upon request — please email access@posterhouse.org to request interpretation services. A recording of this event will be made available for all registered attendees. Questions about accessibility? Please contact Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at salvador@posterhouse.org.

Ethel Reed & Victorian Lettering with Paul Shaw
2022-03-24 18:30 - 19:30
Join Paul Shaw at Poster House for an in-depth exploration of the hand-lettering featured in the museum’s latest exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property. Take a close look at the letterforms featured in the show, and learn more about Victorian-era hand-lettering processes. Explore the classic letterforms and learn about the process of transforming the hand-drawn lettering into posters and other graphic materials. Questions about hand-lettering and typography strongly encouraged!
Members receive 20% off by entering their email at checkout!
This program is presented in partnership with the Type Directors Club.
This event is in person at Poster House, with masks required. Poster House operates in compliance with the Key to NYC mandate. All museum visitors older than 5 must show proof that they have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccination records and IDs will be checked upon entry. Proof of vaccination may include:

NYC COVID Safe app: Android | iOS

Excelsior Pass

CDC Vaccination Card (or photo of card)

NYC Vaccination Record

An official immunization record from outside New York City or the United States.

Valid ID includes your name accompanied by a photograph such as:

Driver’s license

Government ID card

IDNYC card

Passport

School ID card

First Friday
2022-04-01 10:00 - 21:00
Join Poster House on the First Friday of every month for free admission and extended hours! Explore the museum’s latest exhibitions and get in on the fun by attending a tour, workshop, or activity throughout the day. Every First Friday is different, offering unique opportunities to engage with rotating exhibitions and the permanent collection. Check back soon for a complete list of activities!
Available All Day: Kids Activity Kits
Bringing your young ones with you to First Friday? Stop by the Info Desk and ask for a kids activity kit! This self-led, hands-on activity kit is intended for kids ages 5-12 to respond to the exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property.
12:30-2:30 Center for Book Arts Workshop-$30
Join Center for Book Arts for this in-depth linoleum printing workshop inspired by the printing techniques in Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property. In this course lead by artist and printmaker Elizabeth Castaldo, students will learn the basics of relief carving and printing. Using speedy carve blocks—an easy to carve material—we will practice carving techniques using linocut tools. Each student will create their own block with their own original image. We will then learn to print the blocks by hand using water based inks on paper. The instructor will cover methods for transferring an image to the block, various carving techniques, inking the block, and printing. Students will leave the workshop with a block they can continue to print from at home. Members receive 20% off by entering their email at checkout!

4pm Ethel Reed Curatorial Tour
Chief Curator Angelina Lippert gives guests an inside look at Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property, on view through August 21. Learn about this pioneering graphic designer, one of a handful of American women to make a name for herself in the field at the turn of the 19th century. Delve deeper to explore the dark and oftentimes defiant thread that ran just beneath the surface of her otherwise cheerful compositions, and get familiar with how this edgy artist’s complicated biography influenced her work.

6pm Utopian Avant-Garde Tour
Join Chief Curator Angelina Lippert for an exciting tour of The Utopian Avant-Garde: Soviet Film Posters of the 1920s, on view through August 21. Explore the highs and lows of the golden age of Soviet graphic design with one of the foremost experts on poster history. Featuring posters by Alexander Rodchenko, the Stenberg brothers, and many more of the most influential Russian graphic artists of their time.

7pm Isometric Exhibition Design Tour
Ever wonder what goes into making a museum exhibition? Join Isometric Studio for an in-depth tour on how they designed Poster House’s two new shows, taking inspiration from the posters to create engaging and unique installations.

First Friday: Center for Book Arts Workshop
2022-04-01 12:30 - 14:30
Join Center for Book Arts for this in-depth linoleum printing workshop inspired by the printing techniques in Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property. In this course lead by artist and printmaker Elizabeth Castaldo, students will learn the basics of relief carving and printing. Using speedy carve blocks—an easy to carve material—we will practice carving techniques using linocut tools. Each student will create their own block with their own original image. We will then learn to print the blocks by hand using water based inks on paper. The instructor will cover methods for transferring an image to the block, various carving techniques, inking the block, and printing. Students will leave the workshop with a block they can continue to print from at home. Members receive 20% off by entering their email at checkout!

First Friday: Ethel Reed Curatorial Tour
2022-04-01 16:00 - 17:00
Chief Curator Angelina Lippert gives guests an inside look at Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property, on view through August 21. Learn about this pioneering graphic designer, one of a handful of American women to make a name for herself in the field at the turn of the 19th century. Delve deeper to explore the dark and oftentimes defiant thread that ran just beneath the surface of her otherwise cheerful compositions, and get familiar with how this edgy artist’s complicated biography influenced her work.

First Friday: Utopian Avant-Garde Tour
2022-04-01 18:00 - 19:00
Join Chief Curator Angelina Lippert for an exciting tour of The Utopian Avant-Garde: Soviet Film Posters of the 1920s, on view through August 21. Explore the highs and lows of the golden age of Soviet graphic design with one of the foremost experts on poster history. Featuring posters by Alexander Rodchenko, the Stenberg brothers, and many more of the most influential Russian graphic artists of their time.

First Friday: Isometric Exhibition Design Tour
2022-04-01 19:00 - 20:00
Ever wonder what goes into making a museum exhibition? Join Isometric Studio for an in-depth tour on how they designed Poster House’s two new shows, taking inspiration from the posters to create engaging and unique installations. Questions strongly encouraged!

Curatorial Tour of Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property
2022-04-05 18:30 - 19:30
Join Chief Curator Angelina Lippert for an inside look at the museum’s newest exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property, on view through August 21. Learn about this pioneering graphic designer, one of a handful of American women to make a name for herself in the field at the turn of the 19th century. Delve deeper to explore the dark and oftentimes defiant thread that ran just beneath the surface of her otherwise cheerful compositions, and get familiar with how this edgy artist’s complicated biography influenced her work.
This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. ASL interpretation is available upon request — please email access@posterhouse.org to request interpretation services. A recording of this event will be made available for all registered attendees. Questions about accessibility? Please contact Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at salvador@posterhouse.org.

Posters & Cocktails: Pussy Galore
2022-04-12 19:00 - 20:30
MEE-OWW! Posters & Cocktails is back to delight guests around the world! Move over man’s best friend, there’s a new four-legged pussy in town. Join everyone’s favorite poster-loving duo, Poster House Chief Curator Angelina Lippert & Nicholas Lowry of Swann Auction Galleries, as they pounce through the sassy world of cat posters. Keep your saucer nearby as Don Spiro of The Green Fairy Society shows you how to mix the purrfect cat-inspired cocktail.
Cocktail Recipes:

LION’S TAIL
1/2 ounce allspice dram
1/2 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed
1 teaspoon simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Garnish: orange twist
coupe or cocktail glass.
TABBY CAT
2 Ounces Dubonnet Rouge
1 Ounces Orange flavored Vodka
2 Dash(es) Regan’s Orange Bitters
Lemon twist
Garnish: orange twist
coupe or cocktail glass.
RELUCTANT TABBY
1 1/4 ounces Dubonnet Rouge
1/2 ounce Pallini limoncello
1/4 ounce Laphroaig 10-year-old single-malt Scotch
Lemon twist, for garnish
Wine goblet
PINK PUSSYCAT
1 1/2 ounces vodka (or gin)
2 ounces Pineapple juice (or grapefruit juice)
1/2 ounce grenadine
Highball glass
Posters & Cocktails is generously sponsored by Don Lebowitz & Claudia Wagner.
This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. ASL interpretation is available upon request — please email Salvador@posterhouse.org to request interpretation services. A recording of this event will be made available for all registered attendees. Questions about accessibility? Please contact Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at salvador@posterhouse.org.

Vibrant Verbal Description Tour: Soviet Film Posters
2022-04-21 16:00 - 17:00
Every month, Poster House offers virtual Vibrant Verbal Description Tours specifically for community members who are blind or have low vision.
In order to reach a wide, art-loving audience around the world, we offer our description tours online through Zoom. These tours are led by our Chief Curator, allowing you intimate access to the items in our current shows and permanent collection.
This tour will focus on posters featured in the exhibition The Utopian Avant-Garde: Soviet Film Posters of the 1920s.

Please email access@posterhouse.org or call 917.722.2439 x413 by April 19 to sign up for this event. You will be emailed poster images for reference as well as information about accessing Zoom the morning of the virtual tour.
Tours start promptly and will last approximately 70 minutes with questions.
For a complete list of our accessibility tours, click the Accessibility 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.

PH x Teens: Posters in Couture
2022-04-22 16:30 - 18:00
Drawing inspiration from Poster House’s fashion-forward exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property, PH x Teens: Posters in Couture invites young adults ages 13 to 18 to explore their unique passions and interests through the creation of a mirrored poster. Using diverse materials, from glass chips to reflective vinyl, teens will create their own image of the world that both literally and figuratively reflects them, as Ethel Reed did over 100 years ago.
PH x Teens: Posters in Couture is a drop-in program for young adults ages 13 to 18. Advanced registration is required but participants are not expected to stay the entire time; guests should plan to spend about an hour on this interactive, self-guided activity.

Poster Kids: From Photomontage to Collage
2022-04-24 09:15 - 10:15 | Poster House, 119 West 23rd Street, New York, NY, 10011, United States
This month’s Poster Kids will focus on the many meanings of “cut and paste.” Together, we’ll look at posters that use photomontage and paste-up techniques, and then create our own collaged story cubes inspired by our gallery explorations.
Materials:
Colorful, patterned and magazine paper
Glue stick
Scissors
Small cardboard box (ie: mug box, jewelry box, or other box of appx. 4x4x4 inches)
Pencil and paper

This online event will be hosted on Zoom. Closed Captioning will be provided. Poster Kids will not be recorded due to the presence of minors. Questions about accessibility? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at salvador@posterhouse.org.

Poster Kids: From Photomontage to Collage
2022-04-24 10:30 - 12:15
This month’s Poster Kids will focus on the many meanings of “cut and paste.” Together, we’ll look at posters that use photomontage and paste-up techniques, and then create our own collaged story cubes inspired by our gallery explorations.

Join Poster House on the select Sunday mornings from 10:30am–12:15pm for a family-friendly, interactive poster tour and a related art-making experience at Poster House. Admission is free; advanced registration is required.
This program invites children 5-11 years old and their adults to collaborate (siblings are welcome!). This is not a drop-off program.

First Friday
2022-05-06 10:00 - 21:00
Join Poster House on the First Friday of every month for free admission and extended hours! Explore the museum’s latest exhibitions and get in on the fun by attending a tour, workshop, or activity throughout the day. This month, the museum is thrilled to partner with Welcome to Chinatown for a series of programming that celebrates the culture, community, and resilience of Chinatown. Stop by and learn more about Welcome to Chinatown and how you can support the organization’s recovery efforts.
12–2pm
Block Printing with Optimism
In this workshop led by artist Emily B. Yang, participants will learn to block print with a sense of optimism. Emily’s images have been exhibited at galleries, posted around Chinatown, and printed on signs for rallies protesting AAPI hate and the New York City Chinatown mega jail. Her work is personal, referencing characters, stories, and attitudes from her own life.
In this hands-on workshop, attendees will use soft rubber carving blocks to create an image with a message that is unique to them. Whether referencing a part of their own story or representing a cause that they believe in, the image will be carved along with a short phrase. Participants will learn techniques for carving, inking the block, and transferring it onto paper. Students will get to keep the block they created in class.
Each participant will create their own original block print. At the end of class, participants will be encouraged to take part in a small print exchange, so that they will walk away from the class with not only their own print but messages of optimism from all attendees. All proceeds from this workshop will support Welcome To Chinatown’s recovery and resiliency efforts.
3pm
Made in Chinatown: Designing for Our Own Communities
For the past year, AAPI designers have seen an exponential growth in demand for their creative work. There is finally interest in their lived experience, shared memories, and culture in contemporary design. While AAPI designers are asked to design for the masses, what does it mean to design for their own communities? This panel features three designers from the Made in Chinatown program who will talk about their experiences working with Chinatown businesses. They will also reflect on what it means to create work for their community. This panel is moderated by Faidat Fahm, Product Designer and will feature Harry Trinh, Head of Creative at Welcome to Chinatown, Eden Lew, Interdisciplinary Designer, and Kasey Coffey, Designer, Illustrator, and Tom Yum Enthusiast.
6:30pm
Cinema on Paper Book Signing
Join author and collector Dwight M. Cleveland for a signing of his book Cinema on Paper: The Graphic Genius of Movie Posters. Featuring more than 100 lobby cards and posters from Cleveland’s vast collection, Cinema on Paper is a celebration of the fantastic history of movie advertising. After the signing, be sure to check out Experimental Marriage: Women in Early Hollywood—an exhibition drawn entirely from Dwight’s collection—and learn about how women shaped the early film industry. Questions strongly encouraged!
7:30pm
Blockchain & Chinatown: Thoughtfully Designing Technology
Welcome to Chinatown and its collaborators are working towards bringing a digital loyalty program to Chinatown. The intention is to have a community-defined loyalty program that incentivizes more visitors to the neighborhood and equips small businesses with analytic data to further their business planning. What are the needs of the Chinatown small business owners and what do currently-existing loyalty programs fail to provide? What are the benefits of a blockchain-based loyalty system? How did they incorporate their learnings from an NFT launch into the program?
All day long, stop by a pop-up shop at the 24th Street entrance to peruse a selection of products directly from Welcome to Chinatown’s Made in Chinatown line. The Made in Chinatown moniker is deliberate—it’s our way of subverting traditionally negative connotations of “Made in China” products and redefining what “Made in Chinatown” is: made by the community, uplifting our community. Our popular merchandise program provides our small business partners with a new revenue stream to establish their brand presence. We pair a business owner with a passionate, talented artist to create merchandise with zero overhead costs. Profits benefit both the small business and the artist.

First Friday: Block Printing with Optimism
2022-05-06 12:00 - 14:00
In this workshop led by artist Emily B. Yang, participants will learn to block print with a sense of optimism. Emily’s images have been exhibited at galleries, posted around Chinatown, and printed on signs for rallies protesting AAPI hate and the New York City Chinatown mega jail. Her work is personal, referencing characters, stories, and attitudes from her own life.
In this hands-on workshop, attendees will use soft rubber carving blocks to create an image with a message that is unique to them. Whether referencing a part of their own story or representing a cause that they believe in, the image will be carved along with a short phrase. Participants will learn techniques for carving, inking the block, and transferring it onto paper. Students will get to keep the block they created in class.
Each participant will create their own original block print. At the end of class, participants will be encouraged to take part in a small print exchange, so that they will walk away from the class with not only their own print but messages of optimism from all attendees. All proceeds from this workshop will support Welcome To Chinatown’s recovery and resiliency efforts.
Poster House members receive 20% off all in person events-remember to enter your email address in the code section before checkout!

First Friday-Made in Chinatown: Designing for Our Own Communities
2022-05-06 15:00 - 16:00
For the past year, AAPI designers have seen an exponential growth in demand for their creative work. There is finally interest in their lived experience, shared memories, and culture in contemporary design. While AAPI designers are asked to design for the masses, what does it mean to design for their own communities? This panel features three designers from the Made in Chinatown program who will talk about their experiences working with Chinatown businesses. They will also reflect on what it means to create work for their community. This panel is moderated by Faidat Fahm, Product Designer and will feature Harry Trinh, Head of Creative at Welcome to Chinatown, Eden Lew, Interdisciplinary Designer, and Kasey Coffey, Designer, Illustrator, and Tom Yum Enthusiast.

First Friday: Cinema on Paper Book Signing
2022-05-06 18:30 - 19:30
Join author and collector Dwight M. Cleveland for a signing of his book Cinema on Paper: The Graphic Genius of Movie Posters. Featuring more than 100 lobby cards and posters from Cleveland’s vast collection, Cinema on Paper is a celebration of the fantastic history of movie advertising. After the signing, be sure to check out Experimental Marriage: Women in Early Hollywood—an exhibition drawn entirely from Dwight’s collection—and learn about how women shaped the early film industry. Questions strongly encouraged!

First Friday–Blockchain & Chinatown: Thoughtfully Designing Technology
2022-05-06 19:30 - 20:30
Welcome to Chinatown and its collaborators are working towards bringing a digital loyalty program to Chinatown. The intention is to have a community-defined loyalty program that incentivizes more visitors to the neighborhood and equips small businesses with analytic data to further their business planning. What are the needs of the Chinatown small business owners and what do currently-existing loyalty programs fail to provide? What are the benefits of a blockchain-based loyalty system? How did they incorporate their learnings from an NFT launch into the program? This panel is moderated by Vic Lee of Welcome to Chinatown and will feature Nikhil Kumar of Solana Labs, Creative Technologist Cy Kim, and Justin Ng & Rhea Jiang of SPACED AGENCY.

Poster Kids: 100 Years of Film Posters
2022-05-15 09:15 - 10:15
Everyone loves movie posters! This month, join us in exploring works from each of our current exhibitions to learn about more than 100 years of film poster history. Then, we will create film reel style artwork inspired by movies we know and love.
Materials:

Black and white paper
Scissors
Gluestick
Colorful pencils or thin colorful markers

This online event will be hosted on Zoom. Closed Captioning will be provided. Poster Kids will not be recorded due to the presence of minors. Questions about accessibility? Please email Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at salvador@posterhouse.org.

Poster Kids: 100 Years of Film Posters
2022-05-15 10:30 - 12:15 | Poster House, 119 West 23rd Street, New York, NY, 10011, United States
Everyone loves movie posters! This month, join us in exploring works from each of our current exhibitions to learn about more than 100 years of film poster history. Then, we will create film reel style artwork inspired by movies we know and love.
Join Poster House on select Sunday mornings from 10:30am–12:15pm for a family-friendly, interactive poster tour and a related art-making experience. Admission is free; advanced registration is required.
This program invites children 5-11 years old and their adults to collaborate (siblings are welcome!). This is not a drop-off program.

Vibrant Verbal Description Tour: Women in Early Hollywood
2022-05-19 16:00 - 17:00
Every month, Poster House offers virtual Vibrant Verbal Description Tours specifically for community members who are blind or have low vision.
In order to reach a wide, art-loving audience around the world, we offer our description tours online through Zoom. These tours are led by our Chief Curator, allowing you intimate access to the items in our current shows and permanent collection.
This tour will focus on lobbycards featured in the exhibition Experimental Marriage: Women in Early Hollywood.
Please email access@posterhouse.org or call 917.722.2439 x413 by May 17 to sign up for this event. You will be emailed poster images for reference as well as information about accessing Zoom the morning of the virtual tour.
Tours start promptly and will last approximately 70 minutes with questions.
For a complete list of our accessibility tours, click the Accessibility 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.

Members-only Tour of Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property
2022-05-19 18:00 - 20:00
Poster House is delighted to invite you and a guest to a private, Members-only tour of the museum’s current exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property, led by Chief Curator Angelina Lippert. Learn about this pioneering graphic designer, one of a handful of American women to make a name for herself in the field at the turn of the 19th century, and explore the dark and oftentimes defiant thread that runs through her work and life. Reservations are required.

Fashioning The Self: I Am My Own Property
2022-05-26 18:00 - 20:00
The exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property highlights the artist’s masterful use of fashion and her appearance to control her own narrative and that of her work. Of course, Reed wasn’t the only person of her time to leverage fashion to her advantage. How were Black people—whether free, freed, or enslaved—leveraging sartorial freedoms to construct and project new narratives? Join fashion historians Jonathan Michal Square and Elizabeth Way for an evening exploring the turn-of-the-century fashions of African Americans. Questions strongly encouraged!
Jonathan Michael Square is the Assistant Professor of Black Visual Culture at Parsons School of Design. He is also currently a fellow in the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He founded and runs the digital humanities project Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom, which explores the intersection between histories of enslavement and the fashion system.
Elizabeth Way is an Associate Curator at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her exhibitions include Global Fashion Capitals (2015), Black Fashion Designers (2016), Fabric In Fashion (2018), and Head to Toe (on view now). Way’s personal research focuses on the intersection of African American culture and fashion, and she edited the book Black Designers in American Fashion (2021).

Stick More Bills: An Analysis of Indian Posters in Film, Politics, & Beyond
2022-05-31 18:30 - 19:30
Poster House is pleased to partner with Shiva Nallaperumal, Priya Prabhakar, and Somnath Bhatt for a wide-ranging panel discussion on regional posters from India. This conversation will explore the graphic elements within Indian posters, drawing from the museum’s permanent collection and the larger history of the genre. Particular attention will be paid to the typographic elements of these designs, as well as the cultural and sociopolitical contexts that inform these images, highlighting the regional and the plural. Questions are strongly encouraged!
Shiva Nallaperumal is a graphic designer, art director, and typeface designer and co-founder (with Juhi Vishnani) of the plural design practice November. Through November, he has created identity systems, printed matter, installations, and typefaces for a wide variety of clients from culture and commerce, including Apple Music, Uber, the New York Times, Bodice, NBA, etc. As a typeface designer, he has worked with Commercial Type, Typotheque, Bold Monday, Sharp Type, and Lost Type Co-op. In 2017, he was selected as one of Forbes India’s 30 under 30, and in 2019 inducted into the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI).
Priya Prabhakar is a tenant organizer, researcher, and filmmaker based in Oakland and originally from Chennai, India. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the perils of biometric surveillance in India and ways to counter techno-fascism. She has previously done curation for South Asia Art, highlighting poster design and visual insignia of radical street theatre in Delhi. She loves textiles, chess, and archives.
Somnath Bhatt is a designer, artist, and writer who lives between Ahmedabad and New York City. His work has been shown at MoMA PS1, Art Week Dubai, India Art Fair, ICA London, and Mécènes du Sud Montpellier-Sète, among other venues. Selected clients include Instagram, the New York Times, Reebok, HYEIN SEO, and the musicians Nicolás Jaar and Mitski. Currently he is an independent Art Director at Bloomberg. He also works as a contributing editor at MOLD Magazine and AIGA Eye on Design. Somnath believes in the power of the unseen, the chaos of myth, and that labor has the right to all it creates.

This online event will be hosted on Zoom with attendees cameras off. Closed Captioning will be provided. ASL interpretation is available upon request. Please email access@posterhouse.org to request interpretation services. A recording of this event will be made available for all registered attendees. Questions about accessibility? Please contact Salvador Muñoz, Public Programs Manager, at salvador@posterhouse.org.

First Friday
2022-06-03 10:00 - 21:00
Join Poster House on the First Friday of every month for free admission and extended hours! Explore the museum’s latest exhibitions and get in on the fun by attending a tour, workshop, or activity throughout the day. Every First Friday is different, offering unique opportunities to engage with rotating exhibitions and the permanent collection.
1pm Ethel Reed Artist’s Tour
Join Samanta Batra Mehta for an artist’ tour of Poster House’s acclaimed exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property. Explore the exhibition through her eyes and learn how the floral imagery in the exhibition resonates with her contemporary practice. Samanta’s unique perspective offers a fresh take on the exhibition that’s not to be missed. Questions strongly encouraged!
4pm In-person Archives Tour $25
Don’t miss this rare and exclusive opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at Poster House’s permanent collection! Led by Collections Manager Melissa Walker, this intimate tour will give 10 people the chance to explore highlights from the museum’s collection of over 10,000 posters from around the world. Catch a sneak preview of upcoming exhibition material, take a peek at recent acquisitions for the Living Archive, and get up close and personal with the museum’s growing collection. Members receive 20% off by entering their email at checkout!
5pm Utopian Collage Workshop $15
Join Isometric Studio, designers of two exhibitions on view, for this hands-on poster making workshop inspired by the exhibition The Utopian Avant-Garde: Soviet Film Posters of the 1920s. Participants will make their own posters based on the innovative techniques featured in the show, including collage and hand illustration. Materials will be provided and no preparation is necessary. People of all ages and abilities are welcome.
7pm Poetry Reading with viento & Ms. Boogie
Poster House is pleased to welcome viento and Ms. Boogie for an evening of poetry. These talented, multi-hyphenate artists are sure to impress guests with their moving and insightful approach to verse. Ms.Boogie is an Afro-Latina Brooklyn-based MC and activist. Sex appeal, independence, and the power of femininity are at the top of her agenda as an artist—all topics readily discussed in the exhibition Ethel Reed: I Am My Own Property. Meanwhile, viento izquierdo ugaz is a multidisciplinary artist who considers the effect of migration on the visual language of their lineage, topics close to the many displaced artists featured in The Utopian Avant-Garde: Soviet Film Posters of the 1920s.
