Poster House is a museum in the heart of the Chelsea neighborhood with a collection of approximately 7,000 posters from more than 100 countries around the world, entirely dedicated to the poster as a form of art and visual communication. At the same time, the poster museum does not have a permanent exhibition in the traditional sense. Instead, it regularly presents temporary exhibitions focusing on specific artists, movements, or themes.
Interesting Facts About Poster House
- Poster House is the first museum in America entirely dedicated to posters.
- The museum’s architecture has received an award: its interior received an Honors Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA New York).
- The museum’s logo was designed so that the words Poster House look like a frame.
- The museum was previously home to Tekserve, a famous Apple repair shop in New York.
- The museum has a Poster Making Machine.
- Admission is free every Friday.
Exhibitions at Poster House
“The Changing Face of Fascist Italy”
The exhibitions at the museum change every few months. Currently, through February 22, the museum is presenting a temporary exhibition titled “The Future Was Then: The Changing Face of Fascist Italy.”
To be honest, this is a somewhat shocking exhibition because the Italian posters created from the late 1920s through 1943 combine two things that seem almost impossible to reconcile: the terrifying power of Mussolini’s fascist project and its extraordinary style and graphic appeal.
The exhibition shows how the regime used bold design, vivid colors, and modernist imagery to shape a sense of national identity. Corporations adopted this visual language as well, from Fiat advertising posters to posters for national fairs, thereby “democratizing” the aesthetics of state propaganda.
Visually, it is an extremely powerful experience. I recommend visiting, especially because the issues of militarism, aggression, and fascism have not disappeared in our time.
“Blazing A Trail: Dorothy Waugh’s National Parks Posters”
In the basement of Poster House, there is a smaller but equally beautiful exhibition dedicated to posters for America’s national parks, titled “Blazing A Trail: Dorothy Waugh’s National Parks Posters.” Most of the posters were created by artist Dorothy Waugh between 1934 and 1936, during the Great Depression.
Starting in 1933, she worked as a landscape architect for the National Park Service, but she was also an artist. Dorothy actively advocated for the National Park Service to create its own poster campaign. The result was a series of posters, and it was the first time the government commissioned such an ambitious project from a single designer, especially a female modernist.
At the exhibition, we were happy to come across a poster by Ben Shahn, whom we have already written about.
Café at Poster House
Café des Affiches (French for “poster café”) is a small, stylish café located right inside the poster museum. The creators were inspired by the sidewalk cafés of early 20th-century Paris, the golden age of poster art. You will find fresh pastries, desserts, coffee, and tea, as well as light snacks such as sandwiches.
This is one of those rare museum cafés in New York that you can actually visit simply as a standalone coffee shop. The café offers free Wi-Fi, making it a great place for meetings or working.
Poster Machine at Poster House
The museum has a Poster Machine, where you can create your own poster like a designer, either using the touchpad or directly on the museum’s website. Try creating your own poster for propaganda, an advertisement, or a movie.
Poster House Shop in New York
Poster House Shop is a gift shop located right inside the museum. It sells poster reproductions, from vintage to contemporary designs, books on graphic design and poster history, postcards, stationery, and various cool designer items. The selection is often connected to the current exhibitions, so you can take home a piece of a particular exhibition.
Importantly, this is not simply a gift shop for the sake of having a gift shop. All purchases support the museum itself and its programs. They also have an online shop, so you can order posters and books separately from your visit.
History of Poster House
Poster House was founded in 2015 and opened to the public on June 20, 2019. Its logo was designed by Paula Scher of the major design firm Pentagram.
The museum’s space, which previously housed an Apple repair workshop called Tekserve, was redesigned by the architectural firms LTL Architects and Lumen Architecture.
