This past Thursday, MFAD first years students toured Poster House as part of the guest lecture series. Poster House is the first museum in America to be exclusively dedicated to the art of posters. Students were greeted at the museum by Chief Curator, Angelina Lippert.

Angelina walked students through current exhibit, Baptized by Beefcake: The Golden Age of Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana. The exhibit showcases the work of hand-painted and highly dramatized Ghanaian interpretations of 1980-90’s American movie posters. Amongs the familiar titles were: King Kong, Basketcase and Captain America. Angelina explained that the posters reflected deep-rooted local and Pentecostal beliefs. This fascinating dynamic was, perhaps, best embodied in the depiction of Daryl Hannah as the mermaid heroine of Splash–Hannah’s face had been worn out as locals rubbed the poster in a sign of reverence for Mami Wata, a female deity associated with water.

Angelina also gave students an overview of the other exhibits. In exhibit: 20/20 InSight: Posters from the 2018 Women’s March, students learned from Angelina that Poster House is the only non-profit institution that collects unfiltered political posters. Additionally, students were eager to explore the poster generator where visitors are able to make their own posters by selecting a combination of colors, mood and periods in design history.

Students left Poster House buzzing and energized by the possibilities of the poster as a medium.