Writing on the Wall film and talk

Details

Writing on the Wall film
Produced by Handcraft Creative, Winnipeg

Winnipeg has one of the largest and most well preserved collections of hand painted signs in North America.

Our downtown core is covered with advertisements and store signs from years gone by that were painstakingly hand painted by highly skilled artists. While ads, store signs, and billboards certainly have changed since the turn of the century, the artform is still kept alive by a few individuals and its history is captured on the sides of buildings and signs we pass each day, often without noticing.

The film will be accompanied by a short presentation by Matt Cohen, who has documented Winnipeg’s Ghost Signs. Ghost signs are hand-painted, outdoor ads that have been preserved on sides of buildings. They are also known as fading ads or brick ads and were prevalent from the 1890s through to the 1960s. As outdoor advertising mediums evolved, ghost signs became a less popular way of advertising products and services and were replaced by billboards and vinyl banners.

The library is fully accessible. Please allow time to go through the security screening.