Author: Alyssa Shea
NMOP Featured on WHYY’s “You Oughta Know”
Click play to watch NMOP founder Len Davidson explore the museum with Shirley Min, co-host of WHYY’s You Oughta Know. Air date: August 13, 2021.
Lighting up Philadelphia’s arts, cultural scene
PCA interviewed NMOP founder Len Davidson for a feature in their Milestones publication. Read it here.
NMOP Awarded Best of 2021 by Philadelphia Magazine
We’re honored to be a 2021 ‘Best of’ winner in Philadelphia Magazine. Say hello to Philly’s best ‘Museum You Didn’t Know Existed’.
Check out the write-up here, and see all the award winners here.
Thanks for the recognition, Philadelphia Magazine!
• Special Exhibition • Seeing Ghosts: 7 Photographers Capture Faded Wall Ads
On view from July 2nd through August 8th, 2021
Across the globe, artifacts from pre-Internet commerce emerge from building facades in hand-painted figures and fonts of vintage advertisements. Known as ghost signs, these faded wall ads are folk art diamonds in the rough of today’s shiny plastic cities. Their fossilized messages, ranging from obvious to obscure, are the focus of our show’s ghost sign hunters, who’ve captured these fading designs and histories in photographs, videos, and interviews.
A live wall painting event will be held at the Museum by Philadelphia sign painter Gibbs Connors on July 3, 2021. Appearances by different photographers will occur throughout the exhibit as will additional demonstrations by Gibbs. Stay tuned for announcements.
Featuring work by Peter Woodall, Frank Jump, Chris Brace, Len Davidson, MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson, Gibbs Connors, and Jordan Keiffer.
Celebrate Father’s Day weekend at NMOP
We’ve designated space to display your notes and pictures, thoughts and memories. Share with us:
1. Pictures, xeroxes, articles about your Dad
2. Sentiments and poems about Dad
3. What’s it like to be a father? What have you learned?
4. Dad’s hobbies, leisure interests, and games (especially street games)
5. Dad’s links to Philly (if any). What did/does he like to do here?
6. Images and info on “Fathers of Neon” (Georges Claude, Rudi Stern, Neon makers you know or admire)
Bring in write-ups or fill out 3 x 5 cards to post at the museum.
Atlas Obscura: Philadelphia’s Neon King Gets a Glowing Castle
Max Ufberg for Atlas Obscura interviewed NMOP founder Len Davidson about the opening of the Museum and how he got started in the neon world. Click here to read the full article.
Joel Spivak’s “South Street Renaissance” Exhibit Extended thru June 13th
Now Showing through June 13th, 2021:
Joel Spivak’s “The South Street Renaissance, or, How A Handful of Acidheads Brought South Street Back from the Ruins.”
Join us for a freewheeling journey through 300 years of South Street lunacy, from earliest foundations to hippie parades; featuring photos of South Street in the 1960s by Denise Scott Brown.
Joel Spivak is an architect, author, historian, ray gun peddler, and one of the saviors of Philadelphia’s South Street.
