Poster Project

Poster Project. Canal side commerce, briefcase, balloon, umbrella, echos of past steps. This building was originally a dry goods store typical of those along the Erie Canal. The south side of the building, opening onto Water Street, featured a storefront, while the north side served to unload goods arriving by the canal. The building now serves the storage needs of the Erie Canal Museum. , In keeping with the building's history and to mark the canal's 2017 bicentennial, the Museum teamed up with the Syracuse Poster Project to install three poster panels in the second story windows. The installation was funded by a grant from Tomorrow's Neighborhoods Today. , Founded in 2001, the Poster Project brings together poets and Syracuse University artists to create an annual series of illustrated poetry posters for the kiosks of downtown Syracuse. , The Project enlivens downtown, strengthens the city's sense of place, and reaches the larger community by selling poster prints, note cards, and poetry booklets. Among the 16 posters for 2017, the Project produced one special poster to mark the canal's bicentennial. For this it commissioned an illustration by graduate student Tong "Amy" Su. Poets then wrote haiku to complement the image. Ross Getman submitted the winning haiku. , Order poster products or locate stores at: www.posterproject.org. , Ross Getman Poet , I have been for the past few years first mate on a canal boat called the Eriecuse. But then due to the capsizing of a rowboat that was overloaded, the captain demoted me to boat poet. But actually that's somewhat of a made up story. , My brother-in-law built this canal boat called Eriecuse, made it in a garage, and it's just been a wonderful experience. After the rowboat incident, I was actually promoted by my mother-in-law to safety commissioner. So now anything I say, goes. If we're on the water, and I tell people to put on their lifejackets, they have to comply. , As for the haiku, I don't want to over interpret it. I mainly want to seize the wonderful opportunity of promoting the Erie Canal, given its bicentennial and the upcoming World Canals Conference., Tong "Amy" Su Artist , I'm from Chang Sha, from the southeastern part of China, in Hunan Province. I was familiar with the canal because in my high school we had global geography class, and they mentioned the Erie Canal as the second longest canal in the world. The longest one is the Jing-Hang Canal, from Beijing to Hangzhou. , So I was aware of the Erie Canal, but didn't really know that it goes through Syracuse. When I researched it, I saw that it went through Clinton Square, and that it really influenced people's daily life. So for the poster, I just imagined how people lived with the canal around them, and I tried to convey their emotional connections. I used a perspective that looks down on the canal, because the water itself can show passion, can show its own beauty. I wanted to present it like a face, so you see it face to face.