The exhibition, “Unity and Diversity: a selection of posters from the Communication Design Department at Parsons School of Design” was the result of a poster competition for junior-year Communication Design students at Parsons, likely in 1993. The theme of the competition was “diversity, the underlying theme of the American Republic,” and students were given creative license to design a poster around it, with the option to incorporate the phrase “diversity, our unifying heritage.” Thirty posters were selected for publication and exhibition, from a total of 180 entries, by a jury consisting of Ivan Chermayeff, Seymour Chwast and Claudia DeMonte. They also awarded several prizes and honorable mentions: first place to Jane Mella, second place to Johanna Savad, third place to Marcella Massa, and an honorable mention to Duvan Hoffmann and Christina Frederich. (Frederich's poster is not present in this collection.) The exhibition was first held at Parsons, February 17-March 4, 1994, before traveling to various institutions in the United States and Canada, which included high schools, colleges and other organizations, until at least 1997. Two known sites to host the exhibition were the Baker County People for Human Dignity in Baker, Oregon, and the College of New Caledonia, in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Another potential exhibition venue was the Windsor Junior/Senior High School in Windsor, Vermont. The project was conceived of by New School Trustee Vera List and Parsons School of Design dean Charles Olton, and funded by List. Not all posters that were in the exhibition are present in this collection.

Sources:

Diversity Initiative: Unity and Diversity exhibition, 1994-1995, 1997, Charles S. Olton records, PC.01.07.01, box 1, folder 40, The New School Archives and Special Collections, The New School, New York, New York.

Exhibitions and public programs collection. "Unity and Diversity: A Selection of Posters from the Communication Design Department at Parsons School of Design" [exhibition catalog], 1993. The New School Archives Digital Collections, New York, New York. The New School. Accessed September 20, 2021. https://digitalarchives.library.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/objects/NS050301_000002