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Syracuse Poster Project Welcomes VISTA Worker Syracuse Poster Project Welcomes VISTA Worker

By Louise Rath

LOUISE RATH: The Syracuse Poster Project is celebrating their twentieth year of making the city a little brighter.

ALYSSA DEARBORN: So, I think it brings art and literature to pretty much anyone who’s just walking down the street. And I think that’s great.

LOUISE: Alyssa Dearborn has been an illustrator for the Poster Project since she graduated college in 2018.

ALYSSA: I had a lot of free time on my hands, and I was looking for some sort of creative project to do, and I saw the ad in the paper and decided to give it a try.

LOUISE: She’s one of hundreds of artists who have helped to fill these poster boxes in the last twenty years.

ALYSSA: They used to be empty, and they used to be sitting around just dirty and collecting dust essentially.

LOUISE: But instead, they’re a result of months of planning, creativity, and competition. People submit poems, which artists bring to life–and submit to a competition.

ALYSSA: And so, in my first year I actually won second place.

LOUISE: This past September, Alyssa went to work for the Syracuse Poster Project, thanks to a special grant. She joined the non-profit as a VISTA worker through AmeriCorps, which is better known as the nation’s domestic peace corps.

ALYSSA: And because I love the organization so much, and it was a great opportunity, I decided to apply for it.

LOUISE: Volunteers in Service to America commit to a year of full-time, indirect service to a non-profit agency, to work on capacity building.

ALYSSA: So, making more community relations, researching and filling out grants, things of that nature.

LOUISE: Alyssa is from Central New York, and as a local artist and freelance writer, she fit the criteria the project was looking for.

ALYSSA: We try to keep it as a local project. So, most of the people who have moved out of the community or are from the community have participated.

LOUISE: And just over a month into her new role—Alyssa says fulfillment is what she’s found.

ALYSSA: You don’t go into a non-profit for the money. You go into it because you care about the organization, you care about the mission.

LOUISE: Louise Rath, NCC News.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — This year, the Syracuse Poster Project is celebrating both its 20th year and the addition of a new worker.

When Alyssa Dearborn was looking for a creative project after graduating from college in 2018, a newspaper ad for the Syracuse Poster Project caught her eye.

“I had a lot of free time on my hands,” Dearborn said. “And I saw the ad in the paper and decided to give it a try.”

She submitted her first poster for the nonprofit that year, and took home the second place prize.

After each year’s poster competition in April, the streets of Syracuse get a facelift, and the nonprofit updates the city’s poster panels with fresh artwork.

Photo of Syracuse Poster Project Panels featuring Alyssa Dearborn's work outside of the Landmark theater on S. Salina St.
Syracuse Poster Project Panels on display outside of the Landmark Theater on S. Salina St.
© 2021 Louise Rath

“They used to be empty, and they used to be sitting around just dirty and collecting dust essentially,” Dearborn said.

The poster development process starts with freelance writers, who submit three haiku poems to the Poster Project. Local artists then choose which poem they bring to life.

“I feel like it definitely beautifies the area,” Dearborn said. “I am a big supporter of public art and as well as accessible art.”

This year, Dearborn is getting an inside look at the project for the first time. She was hired by the Syracuse Poster Project in September, as a Volunteer in Service to America (VISTA) worker. The VISTA program is funded by AmeriCorps, which is colloquially known as America’s domestic peace corps.

“I just ended up being really lucky that there was a spot here in my own hometown that needed assistance,” Dearborn said.

VISTA workers commit to a year of full-time service, and Dearborn’s main focus for the Syracuse Poster Project is capacity building.

“Making more community relations, researching and filling out grants, things of that nature,” she said.

Dearborn seemed like the perfect fit for the project, being a freelance writer and artist from central New York.

“We try to keep it as a local project,” she said. “So, most of the people who have moved out of the community or are from the community have participated.”

Just over a month into Dearborn’s new job, she said she’s found a sense of fulfillment.

“You don’t go into a non-profit for the money,” she said.  “You go into it because you care about the organization, you care about the mission.”

 

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