By MEGAN HAMM
a&l editor
To begin its new season, Gannon University’s Schuster Art Gallery opens its new exhibit “The Movie Poster Project.”
The idea for the gallery was a collaborative process organized by Gannon professors.
Various organizations such as APB, the Schuster Art Gallery, Digital Graphics classes and Erie Chamber Orchestra will be working to bring these classic movies back to the public eye in different innovative ways.
Erie Chamber Orchestra, also known as ECO, will be incorporating “The Movie Poster Project,” into its season’s schedule with a showing of Alfred Hitchcock’s cinematic masterpiece “Psycho.”
Instead of just letting the music play over the speakers, the orchestra will perform the film’s original score live during the event. This occasion will occur at the Warner Theatre at 8 p.m. on Halloween.
Students currently taking the Digital Graphics class will also play a part in this cinema adventure.
The visual arts-based class will be drawing inspiration from the movie posters that appear in the Schuster Gallery.
As a class project, students will use Photoshop to recreate these timeless images.
Junior medical technology major Taylor Wolff, said that the films included in the gallery sparked her fascination and provided inspiration for the future. Wolff also said she is taking The Art of Film this semester with Douglas King, Ph.D, an associate professor in the English department.
“One thing he keeps reminding us is that using prejudices like ‘for that time’ and the like are pointless given that modern movie advances only really include CGI [Computer-Generated Imagery],” said Wolff. “It’s films like those included in this gallery that have brought us to where we are today.”
Many of the posters that are presented in the gallery are classics like “Psycho,” “Jaws,” “Citizen Kane,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Casablanca” and “Taxi Driver.”
These posters were originally created to be a form of advertisements that would promote the movies in an eye-catching way.
Even though their time playing at the cinema is long gone, they are still used to this day to showcase vintage forms of artwork that, in some ways, can still influence us to go out and watch these inspiring films.
“Posters just encapsulate memories and preserve creativity,” Wolff said. “I looked at the collection in the art gallery and felt inspired.
“I feel like this gallery isn’t bringing ‘old’ movies back to the surface, but rather educating students about the power that creative genius has over us. After all, isn’t it amazing the power that simple posters hold over us and our culture?”
The Schuster Art Gallery is located on the first floor of the Center for Communication and the Arts at 700 Peach St.
It is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and is free for anyone to visit.
“The Movie Poster Project,” exhibit will be on display until Nov. 1. For more information go to the Schuster Gallery page on Gannon’s main site.
MEGAN HAMM
