Anyone interested in signwriting should visit the Lewis & Skinner Exhibition at Victoria University in Yarraville.
Lewis & Skinner exhibition at the VU Library
The exhibition by Dr Stefan Schutt, research program leader at the Centre for Cultural Diversity and Wellbeing, Victoria University, features historical hand-painted signs of Melbourne firm Lewis & Skinner that he rescued from a Footscray demolition site in 2012.
The exhibition which runs from Thursday 13 February to Thursday April 17, 2014 on level 2 of the Footscray Park library includes:
- an aerial map of inner and western Melbourne showing signs painted by signwriting firm Lewis & Skinner, mostly in the 1950’s
- job sheets, contracts, agreements and drafts such as Cadbury’s Bournville Cocoa
Dr Stefan Schutt said that the hand-painted signs were reminders of lives long forgotten or destroyed by social and economic change. “These signs tell us how old inner-urban communities used to live, shop, travel, eat and meet,” he said.
To study the history surrounding the documents from Lewis & Skinner, Dr Schutt benefitted from the State Library of Victoria’s Berry Family Fellowship, which gave him full access to the collections of the State Library of Victoria.
Additionally, the Lewis & Skinner archive development was funded by the Telematics Trust.
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