In Conversation: Modern Treads with Susan Driver and Rachel Zebro

Susan Driver and Rachel Zebro are sitting down for a conversation at the Phoenix Art Museum on Wednesday, October 28, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM. The talk is built around Modern Treads: The Discount Tire Poster Collection, a graphically rich display of modern advertisements that the company's founder, Bruce T. Halle, began collecting in 1982.

The exhibition draws entirely from the Collection of Discount Tire, which reaches back to the turn of the 20th century. That was when industry giants like Michelin, Dunlop, Continental, Pirelli, and Goodyear turned to talented lithographers for eye-catching designs. The posters on display are a look at that era of commercial art, when a tire ad was as much about the illustration as it was about the product.

Driver knows the collection inside out. She's the Curator of the Collection of Discount Tire and Registrar of the Diane and Bruce Halle Collection, and she wrote Posters from the Collection of Discount Tire in 2007. She also curated Masters of the Road: International Vintage Posters from the Collection of Discount Tire at Eastern Michigan University in 2008. Rachel Zebro, Curator of Modern Art and Manager of Collections and Archives, joins her to walk through the collection and talk about what's on the walls.

The conversation is part of the Phoenix Art Museum's Lectures and Talks speakers program. It's held in Singer Hall at the museum, 1625 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85004. Admission is free for members and $5 for non-members.