The artistic expressions of movements for social change come to life in dramatic traveling poster exhibitions from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics. The Center is an educational archive that collects, preserves, documents and circulates domestic and international political posters relating to historical and contemporary movements for peace and social justice.
The Center's growing collection, with approximately 35,000 posters, demonstrates the importance of the political poster as art, and the importance of art to social commentary. Each 75-80 piece exhibition is self-contained, ready-to-hang and fully annotated. Center For The Study Of Political Graphics Executive Director, Carol Wells, is also available to speak in conjunction with any of the exhibitions.
Poster Exhibits Include:
• Women Hold Up Half the Sky: Posters of the International Women's Movement celebrates the accomplishments of women and examines the contemporary issues where struggle continues. Beginning with International Women's Day, the posters highlight the common bond of sisterhood while underscoring sexism, racism, women's control over their bodies, violence against women and discrimination.
• Courageous Voices: Posters on Racism, Sexism and Human Rights presents a wide range of human rights issues, both past and present, domestic and international. Racism and sexism are emphasized because they are too often overshadowed as central human rights issues.
• Earth, Wind & Solar: International Ecology Posters - Global Warming. Arsenic in drinking water. Pesticide Poisoning. Environmental Racism. Nuclear Waste Disposal. Irradiated and Genetically Modified Food. The list is endless. Where pollution is concerned, the world is a global village where no continent, country, or neighborhood is safe. Multinational corporations' insatiable need for new markets and greater profits consistently overrides environmental concerns, and few governments oppose them. But these posters convey an increasing sense of urgency, as international artists continue to use the power of graphics to organize a frontline of defense against rapidly escalating pollution.
• Can't Jail the Spirit: Political Prisoners in the United States includes posters that bear witness to decades of political prisoners ñ from the early 20th century (Joe Hill, Sacco and Vanzetti, Ricardo Flores Magon), the McCarthy era (Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, the Hollywood Ten), the Puerto Rican independence movement, the protest movements of the 1960s and 70s, and those political prisoners still incarcerated today like Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier. The posters rally for freedom, against capital punishment and warn that such injustices do occur.
• All Power to the People: Graphics of the Black Panther Party features Black Panther Party posters and newspaper graphics produced in the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition highlights the artistry of Emory Douglas, and documents the Panthers' involvement with a broad array of causes, including opposition to the Viet Nam War and solidarity with the United Farm Workers movement. The social programs of the Panthers and the powerful images of armed party members had a strong impact on the public consciousness of the time, and their efforts to combat the oppression of racism and poverty still resonate today.
• ¡Viva la Huelga!: Heritage and Legacies of the United Farmworkers includes a broad and innovative array of posters depicting the reasons for and targets of the grape and lettuce boycotts and topics including racism, child labor, immigrant rights and pollution.
• No Human Being is Illegal! Myths and Realities of the Immigrant Experience - Whether the reason for migration is to escape war, seek asylum from persecution, or pursue better economic opportunities, leaving one's family, friends, and home is never easy, and these posters present the human side of this wrenching experience.
• Race, Lies and Stereotypes: Posters on Racism and Anti-Semitism explodes the myths, presenting powerful international and domestic graphics that penetrate the experience of discrimination. The exhibition illustrates historical and current events on the world stage and explores efforts to combat stereotypes. By showing the pervasiveness of bigotry and discrimination, this exhibition emphasizes that intolerance can be avoided by the active involvement of individuals to ensure that the past is not repeated.
• Sex, Lies and Stereotypes: Posters on Sexism and Homophobia juxtaposes old and new posters in dramatic and bold visual styles in order to document the ongoing international struggle to secure freedom from gender-role discrimination. The purposeful exposure of these controversial issues is intended to stimulate thought and debate and to show the importance of art in communicating both problems and potential solutions.
Other Exhibits Include:
• Solidarity Forever: Graphics of the International Labor Movement
• The Anti-War Show: Interventions Since WWII
• Our Sisters' Voices: From Africa to the Americas Posters about African and African American Women
• Che Guevara: Icon, Myth and Message
• We Shall Not Be Moved: International Posters on Gentrification and Homelessness
• Globalize This! International Graphics of Celebration and Dissent!
Contact Speak Out for a full listing of current exhibits.
Custom exhibits are also available.
