Syracuse Poster Project Jim Emmons to Leave Position

Co-founder of Syracuse Poster Project retiring after 25 years at the helm

By Joe Sarnicola

 

Since 2001, local artist Jim Emmons has been the project director of the Syracuse Poster Project, which provides poets and artists with a way to display their collaborative work in public places.

He moved to Syracuse in 1990 after being hired by The Syracuse Newspapers, now Advance Publications. After 25 years he’s decided to retire. The new project director will be Scott Herrmann, another local artist with a history of promoting local art and artists.

“I’m slightly beyond retirement age, so it’s a good time to explore other creative pursuits,” said Emmons, 67. “I have been making videos for and about the Poster Project, but I am interested in French culture and I would like to travel to Montreal. I would also like to be more active with my photography and cooking and I would have more time to spend with friends and family. But it’s important for the project to have new blood and a new successor.”

Herrmann added, “I’m a visual artist. I was originally hired as the marketing manager, then promoted to associate director. Now I’m the director.”

The Poster Project came into being as a possible solution to try to fill the empty poster panels or kiosks that were all over downtown Syracuse. The kiosks were intended to be used to promote downtown businesses, but instead they either displayed outdated information or they were just empty, mirroring the many empty storefronts.

Inspired by a former project run by the now defunct Syracuse New Times, called Syr-Haikus, Emmons approached Syracuse University art professor Roger DeMuth to see if he would be interested in having some of his students illustrate haiku, which would then be printed as posters and displayed in the empty kiosks and elsewhere. He agreed and he was part of the project until his retirement 15 years later. The Syracuse New Times ceased publication in 2019, after 50 years in business.

The project currently solicits artists to illustrate the submitted poems. An open call is sent out for haiku. The artists select from the pool of entries to illustrate. Their finished work is then judged by a panel and the winning poets are notified. A special reception is held, typically in April, where the winning poets and the public are invited to see the finished posters. For the 2026 competition, 24 artists and 89 poets submitted work.

The panel members for 2026 were Sarah Tietje-Mietz, director of marketing for the Downtown Committee of Syracuse; Marianna Ranieri-Schwarzer, co-owner of Art Haus SYR; and Yolanda Stewart, an arts and culture writer. They selected 12 winning artist-poet pairs out of all the submitted entries.

The Syracuse Poster Project became an official nonprofit organization in 2010 with a mission to “foster community through civic poster art, develop ways for that art to sustain itself and provide opportunities for local poets and artists to develop their craft.”

When Emmons was looking for someone to take his place, he didn’t have to look far. Herrmann was already working for the project and he was familiar with leading nonprofits. Herrmann graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in art history. He is the project space coordinator for the Atrium Gallery for CNY Arts, the regional arts council, and he’s the president of the board of Open Figure Drawing, which provides local artists with figure drawing opportunities.

“Jim had previously been on the board of Open Figure Drawing and he asked me if I would like to join the Poster Project. I have a couple crazy ideas in the waiting. I’m wondering if we could spread this to other cities and maybe partner with Girls, Incorporated,” Herrmann said.

Girls, Incorporated was founded in 1864 and the local chapter is a joint venture with the Syracuse YWCA and Onondaga County.

Herrmann’s art has been displayed around the Central New York area, including the Upstate Cancer Center and his work has twice been accepted by the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center’s annual juried show called “Made in New York.” His other hobbies are reading, hiking, cycling and what he calls “really weird films and music.”

At the end of February, the project hosted a mixer where winning artists and poets could meet each other and members of the project board and team. The event was held at the Commonspace Work building on East Jefferson Street, which functions as the project’s headquarters. Friends and family members were also welcome.

Board member Maura Harling Stefl said about Emmons leaving, “It will be hard. This is his baby, but Scott has been involved and is prepared. He knows his stuff and now we are partnering with Girls, Incorporated, which will help with grants and it will improve our visibility and support another great program.”

As an extra project to close out his tenure, Emmons is compiling a booklet called, “Where Art They Now?” which contains updated biographies of 22 featured artists and samples of posters they created.

For the time being, he intends to serve as a member of the board of directors.