A Celebration of Monsters, Superheroes, and Villains in traveling museum exhibitions!
SuperMonster市City! traveling exhibits are derived from co-founder David Barnhill’s private collection of an estimated 200,000 toys, posters, games, books, films, and more. Co-founder Stephen Rueff curates the objects in social and political contexts through reflective and informative texts, artist profiles, and commentary. Barnhill and Rueff bring new insights to America’s iconic mythical figures from America’s Golden Age of toys.
2024 Exhibition Dates:
Spies and Space: Toys of the Cold War Era is an exhibition reflects on how the drama and intrigue of real-world espionage, and the fascination with outer space, seeped into American and Russian popular culture during the Cold War Era. Follow the links below for more info!
Sheboygan County History Musuem
February – April 2024
Dacotah Prairie Musuem
May – September 2024
Castle Museum of Saginaw County Musuem
September 2024 – January 2025
2024 Exhibition Dates:
This exhibition explores how American monsters, superheroes, and villains impacted American culture from the 1960s to the 1990s and became iconic characters reflecting America’s changing values and social tensions. Through this unique display of hundreds of toys, posters, media, and text panels, this exhibition has been enjoyed by thousands of people in cultural institutions across the U.S. Follow the links below for more information!
Science Central
June – September 2024
Sacramento History Museum
September 2024 – January 2025
Recommendation:
The St. Louis Public Library Director of Marketing and Events
Cathy Heimberger wrote the following recommendation.
“As the director of marketing for the St. Louis Public Library I am tasked with bringing exhibits to our Central Library that are unique and have a broad appeal. I met David and Stephen while attending an American Association of Museums conference and I knew immediately that I wanted to work with them and bring this one of a kind experience to St. Louis. They didn’t disappoint.
“Our exhibit consisted of more than 500 items from David’s personal collection and attracted visitors of all ages and backgrounds. The exhibit was a natural fit for the library as monsters and villains have lived on the shelves of public libraries from our earliest days. We saw a spike in our graphic novel checkouts during the four month run of the exhibit. I highly recommend bringing this exhibit to your organization.”
Check out these pictures from the St. Louis Public Library
Exhibited October 2022 – January 2023
Video Testimonials!
Goldstein Museum of Design Director
Lin Nelson-Mayson interview and exhibition images
Historic Duluth Depot Program Director
Briana Johnson interview and exhibition images
Video: Attendees share their thoughts on our exhibitions
Click this LINK for interviews and installation images (if asked, password is SMC)
SuperMonster市City! exhibits strive to be carbon neutral!
As a proud member of TerraPass, we offset 100% of CO2 emissions from shipping and related travel.
We inform host institutions of the amount of CO2 emissions upon request for use in their sustainability reports.
For more on SuperMonster市City!
Contact email: Stephen@SuperMonsterCity.com
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Toy photos above by Steve Zerby
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SuperMonster市City
SuperMonsterCity! celebrates monsters, superheroes and villains in traveling exhibitions and more!
Join us for story hour at SuperMonsterCity. Let me read you the story of Little Red Riding Hood as written by Roald Dahl. It is not the story you are used to. I love Roald Dahl and if you don’t know who he is or haven’t read his works I hope this might inspire you. Please enjoy this crazy fun, loving poem. Cheers. SuperMonster市City #fairytales #roalddahl #littleredridinghood
Welcome and come to the Crypts and look at some crazy stuff. I just happened to find a Wolfman glass from I don’t know when, and a cool convict action figure, please tell me who he is AND a Michael Jackson Pepsi bottle from Japan in the early to mid 90s. All this stuff and more lives in the pop culture archives of SuperMonsterCity, you tell me what you think is cool and tell me who the convict guy is, I don’t know.  SuperMonster市City #vintagetoys #michaeljackson #monster #labyrinthmovie
Fantastical finger puppets and cool playful rings. Discover your inner child, imagination is at your fingertips. Take a look at these fun fiends from Archie McPhee. Enjoy this digital adventure.
Ha ha ha ha! Let’s look at a magazine from the 1960s called Monsters Unlimited. This magazine was put together by Stan Lee and featured incredible monster photos with goofy humorous captions. I loved it as a kid and I just happened to find an issue in the Crypts, take a look and tell me if you remember this or anything like it, enjoy! SuperMonster市City #monsterkids #stanlee #monster #1960svintage
Recently in looking through the piles of mayhem and ephemera in one of my closets, I found these treasures. I love all my comic books dearly and these few scream to me “put us on Facebook put us on Facebook” so here they are for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy if I have stirred any memories, please let me know. SuperMonster市City #horrorcomics #creepy #vintagecomics #edgarallanpoe
It is not too late! If you love vintage toys and history, then try to make it to our fantastic exhibit in Wisconsin. Very cool, if you make it please let us know what you think. SuperMonster市City #vintagetoys #spies #spaceexploration #coldwar #travelingmuseumexhibits
Below are the logos to some of the cultural institutions that have hosted our exhibitions
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