Today I visited the Maryland Institute College of Art Print Shop in Baltimore and the Globe Poster Collection which is housed in the Letterpress studio at MICA. The entire printmaking department has its own building, called Dolphin Building, and contains three floors that are filled with everything print. MICA has individual classrooms dedicated to litho, silkscreen, and letterpress, with intaglio and relief sharing a huge studio. On the top floor I found a super rad paper-making classroom, a handful of senior studios, and a digital computer lab outfitted with a big printer for outputting films, all which was very impressive.
The hidden gem however, was The Globe Poster Collection, a massive assortment of wood type, woodcuts, and day-glow gig posters showcasing everyone from James Brown to Hello Kitty. Globe is iconic because of the role it played in American entertainment and music, creating posters for all the big names in entertainment starting all the way back in 1929. When the Globe Poster Printing Corporation closed in 2010, it was acquired by MICA where new posters are still being made today. I was able to meet with Allison Fisher, who is in charge of archiving and protecting the collection as well as the design and printing of new posters. She showed me some of the original cuts and type used to create these images and gave me an extremely thorough history of the collection. Overall it was a very cool experience and I learned a lot about the history of art and print in Baltimore.
If you want to learn more about the Globe Collection at MICA, check out this link here.
The hidden gem however, was The Globe Poster Collection, a massive assortment of wood type, woodcuts, and day-glow gig posters showcasing everyone from James Brown to Hello Kitty. Globe is iconic because of the role it played in American entertainment and music, creating posters for all the big names in entertainment starting all the way back in 1929. When the Globe Poster Printing Corporation closed in 2010, it was acquired by MICA where new posters are still being made today. I was able to meet with Allison Fisher, who is in charge of archiving and protecting the collection as well as the design and printing of new posters. She showed me some of the original cuts and type used to create these images and gave me an extremely thorough history of the collection. Overall it was a very cool experience and I learned a lot about the history of art and print in Baltimore.
If you want to learn more about the Globe Collection at MICA, check out this link here.