The Syracuse Poster Project brings together community poets and Syracuse University illustration students to create an annual series of posters for the city’s poster panels. The 16 posters feature an illustrated poem about downtown, the city, or surrounding countryside. The project enlivens downtown, strengthens the city’s sense of place, and reaches the larger community by selling small prints of the large posters. The Syracuse Poster Project was founded in 2001 by Jim Emmons and Roger DeMuth.
Roger DeMuth, a professor at SU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, makes the project a fall assignment for advanced illustration students. Each of some 30 students creates an illustrated poster, using a haiku of the student’s choice. By the September deadline, the project typically has 75 poems by more than 30 contributors.
From these posters, the best 16 are selected and are displayed for a year in downtown poster panels along Warren and Salina Streets.
The 2010 Syracuse Poster Project Selections are:
Elisabeth Anderson (poet) & Eric Johanni (artist)
Claire Bobrycki (poet) & Catherine LaPointe (artist)
Herm Card (poet) & Rebecca Benedict (artist)
Jane Cassady (poet) & Danny Schwartz (artist)
Cynthia DeKing (poet) & Sarah Chalek (artist)
Elizabeth Dunn (poet) & Tang Dao (artist)
Jennifer Groff (poet) & Matthew LeClair (artist)
Catherine Landis (poet) & Andrew Slezak (artist)
Peggy Liuzzi (poet) & Alec Acevedo (artist)
Michael McAnaney (poet) & Hee Soo Cho (artist)
Wendy Moleski (poet) & Gina Kim (artist)
William Padgett (poet) & Eun Joo Choi (artist)
U.V. Ray (poet) & Jessie Zehr (artist)
Michele Reed (poet) & Casey Landerkin (artist)
Leora Sapon-Shevin (poet) & Hannah Madigan (artist)
Bryan Wilbur (poet) & Sojean Estelle Kim (artist)
Images of the posters, as well as biographies of the poets and artists can be viewed here
11x17-inch prints of the posters can be purchased online or at the Downtown Copy Center at 131 South Salina Street. All proceeds help the project become self-sustaining.
Jim Emmons can be reached at (315)424-8099 or jim@posterproject.org. Roger DeMuth can be reached at (315)415-8599 or rdemuth@syr.edu.
Visit www.posterproject.org for more information on the Syracuse Poster Project.

2010 posters depicting scenes of downtown Syracuse