Sign Museum's new show trades its neon for the big top
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo: Courtesy of the American Sign Museum
The American Sign Museum is turning down the neon with its new exhibition — just a little.
The Camp Washington museum, best known for its towering vintage signs, is temporarily swapping glowing storefronts for hand-painted circus banners in showcasing "Freaks & Sideshows: American Circus Banners 1920-1970."
Driving the news: Opening Thursday, the exhibit features more than 25 larger-than-life banners that once lured fairgoers with bold artwork and promises of the strange and spectacular.
- The banners spotlight a forgotten form of American advertising.
The intrigue: Unlike the museum's famous neon collection, these signs were painted entirely by hand, often by artists racing against the clock as traveling circuses moved from town to town.
- Because they weren't meant to last, few survived in good condition, Erin Holland, the museum's director of education and engagement, tells Axios.
The exhibit also explores the sensational — and sometimes exploitative — world of traveling sideshows, where the banners were often as captivating as the acts themselves.
- Collector Dave Waller will give a talk about the banners on Aug. 20.
Beyond the neon: Museum leaders say the show is part of a broader effort to highlight different chapters of American signmaking beyond neon and give visitors new reasons to return. More special exhibitions are already in the works.
What they're saying: "Special exhibitions let us explore the more unique and rare types of signmaking," Holland says. "This collection is an excellent way to explore this type of signage and the painters who made them."
If you go: "Freaks & Sideshows" runs through Oct. 4 and is included with regular museum admission.
- There's an opening reception Thursday from 5-8pm.