A black and white photograph showing posters hung from the ceiling of the Books & Printing section of the Britain Can Make It Exhibition, 1946. Taken from the Design Council Archive housed at the University of Brighton Design Archives.

On Friday 1 March Curatorial Director of the University of Brighton Design Archives, Catherine Moriarty, is speaking at a V&A conference about posters. The event considers how poster collections are re-presented and re-displayed for contemporary audiences. The University of Brighton Design Archives holds several thousand posters among its collections and their care and stewardship present particular challenges and opportunities.

Catherine’s presentation explores the framing strategies employed through various sites of re-presentation, from exhibitions of actual posters to reproduction in publications and finally, within electronic environments. It considers the place of the frame in these reconfigurations and the consistent elements of re-presentation that we can track over time and across different media. How do they inform our understanding of the poster, both as an object of study and of stewardship?

The University of Brighton Design Archives is a member of the Arts Council-supported Subject Specialist Network for Posters. The network aims to promote knowledge exchange within and beyond the museum, archive and library community. There is great potential for a higher volume and quality of public engagement with such materials if the networks for information exchange and project collaboration are developed.

For more information about the network:

https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/brightondesignarchives/2015/05/05/poster-subject-specialist-network/

To book a place at the conference:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/2216/posters-creation-collection-and-context-3490/

Image: Posters hung from the ceiling of the Books & Printing section of the Britain Can Make It Exhibition, 1946.