Ephemera Events, News & Exhibitions

Bloomsbury Ephemera, Postcard & Book Fair

The fair will include all of the following: books, ephemera, maps, prints, posters, postcards, photographs and many unusual printed items across the whole of the Galleon Suite.

• Royal National Hotel
• Bedford Way
• London WC1H 0DG
• UK
•  
• More details
•  

Designed in Cuba: Cold War Graphics

Power to the People, 1971 © Rafael Morante Boyerizo, OSPAAAL, The Mike Stanfield Collection

Much of Cuba’s iconic graphic design is instantly recognizable the world over. But alongside the familiar image of Che Guevara, Cuban artists have produced uncompromising design and illustration to deliver Cuba’s revolutionary message around the world. These works have rarely been seen – until now.

The House of Illustration will open the first major exhibition of graphic design from Cuba’s ‘golden age’, which will bring together work distributed across the globe by OSPAAAL: Fidel Castro’s Organisation of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America, an organisation founded to promote cooperation between socialist countries and liberation movements.

OSPAAAL’s designers used the tools of the capitalist advertising industry to create compelling graphics for entirely opposite purposes. Their work – revolutionary in both style and substance – stands as a prime example of art for political persuasion. While originally distributed freely in editions of thousands, OSPAAAL posters and magazines are now rare and highly sought-after.

The works in the exhibition, drawn from a single UK private collection - The Mike Stanfield Collection - offer a rare insight into this defining period in Cuba’s design history.

•  
• House of Illustration
• 2 Granary Square
• London N1C 4BH
• UK
•  
• More details
•  

Ephemera 40: Women Challenging Expectations

The two-day Ephemera Fair is the premier fair of its kind in the USA.

Friday's lectures are followed by a packed weekend - a banquet, two auctions (silent and live), exhibits, the annual all-members meeting, and the justly famed Ephemera Show.

Ephemera 40 will focus on women's achievements around the world and over the centuries - contributions that are too often overlooked.

Countless women have challenged social expectations to accomplish great things in the arts, humanities, politics, science, sports, and the military. Speakers will cover an array of these contributions, using ephemera (advertisements, posters, menus, correspondence, tickets, etc.) to tell their stories.

•  
• Hyatt Regency Hotel
• Old Greenwich
• Connecticut
• USA
•  
• More details
•  

Two Last Nights! Show Business in Georgian Britain

Going to a show flourished as a popular pastime in the eighteenth century and as a result the entertainment industry saw rapid expansion: many theatres were built and music festivals began in both London and the provinces. These growing forms of entertainment contributed to the vast range of audience experiences we know today.

The exhibition explores key venues in London and the provinces, from the theatres of Drury Lane, Covent Garden and Richmond, to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens and the Foundling Hospital Chapel, as well as the provincial music festivals of other major cities in Britain.

Highlights for the ephemerist include caricatures and drawings of Georgian audience members, who came to see and be seen. Original advertising, programmes and tickets are displayed alongside information about how Georgian audiences purchased tickets and detail the development of the modern-day ‘box office’.

•  
• The Foundling Museum
• 40 Brunswick Square
• London WC1N 1AZ
• UK
•  
• More details
•  

325 years, 325 objects

An exhibition celebrating the Bank of England’s 325th anniversary through 325 objects featuring some notable ephemera.

From Roman relics to a nuclear fall-out calculator from the Cold War, the exhibition features a variety of fascinating artefacts to celebrate the Bank's 325th anniversary, the objects explore how money and the way we pay for things has transformed since the Bank of England was established in 1694.

• Bank of England Museum
• Bartholomew Lane
• London EC2R 8AH
• UK
•  
• More details
•  
• Image: Counterfeit bank note from 1857. © 2019 Bank of England

Art Deco By The Sea

This beautiful and exciting show will include around 120 works including paintings, posters, brochures, drawings, photographs, fashion, furniture, ceramics, glass and textiles, drawn from both public and private collections across the UK.

Image: detail from poster by Septimus Edwin Scott, ‘New Brighton and Wallasey’, 1923–1947, London Midland and Scottish Railway company. Courtesy National Railway Museum, York

•  
• Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
• University of East Anglia
• Norwich
• Norfolk NR4 7TJ
• UK
•  
• More details
•