By Stacie Boyls | Arts & Life Writer
When one walks into an art exhibit, they expect paintings, sculptures and drawings spanning across hundreds of years. Rarely do we consider the artistic value and rich history embedded in something as overlooked as band posters and concert handbills. For avid concertgoer and obsessive poster collector Larry Cartmell, the brilliance of these artistic displays was obvious.
This February, that collection steps out of Cartmell’s personal space and onto the walls of Art Center Waco in “If These Walls Could Talk.”
Cartmell never set out to build an archive. Over the last 50 years, the instinct to save a poster from a wall, keep a handbill from a show or remember where he was and what he heard slowly became one of the most comprehensive private collections of concert posters in the region.
“They’re kind of set up in groups,” Cartmell said, gesturing toward the densely packed display. “Stuff that I’m interested in, mostly.”
Cartmell’s interest spans the full spectrum, from 1960s psychedelic rock to punk, blues, funk and alternative. Posters in the exhibit represent bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Talking Heads, Ramones, Nine Inch Nails and Pearl Jam, as well as Texas icons like Willie Nelson and the 13th Floor Elevators.
Bella Perez, gallery coordinator at Art Center Waco, said that a collection of this scope has never been publicly displayed in Texas.
“What unites the pieces isn’t market value or rarity, it’s memory, encapsulated in a rugged poster, first edition sketch or handbill,” Cartmell said. “All of it’s my personal collection. It just shows the ephemeral nature of the posters — the venues come and go.”
That sense of impermanence is central to Cartmell’s collection story, as the posters are high-value memorabilia that were not created to last.
“They just used whatever they had to make the posters,” he said.
Printed cheaply and glued to poles or venue walls, most of the posters were torn down or discarded, yet Cartmell kept them.
While the collection reflects a life deeply embedded in music culture, Cartmell’s professional life followed a very different path.
He spent decades working as a pathologist, balancing the structure and responsibility of medicine with nights spent at shows, weekends traveling for music festivals and years quietly preserving pieces of visual history.
For Cartmell, collecting became a creative counterweight — a way to stay connected to art, sound and community alongside a demanding medical career.
Some of the most personal pieces trace Cartmell’s connection to Texas psychedelic music. Hearing the 13th Floor Elevators for the first time left a lasting impression.
“One night I heard ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me,’” he said. “It was a revelation.”
That revelation stayed with him. Posters from legendary venues such as Armadillo World Headquarters, Vulcan Gas Company, Antone’s, the Fillmore East and West and Cain’s Ballroom line the exhibit, alongside materials from festivals like Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival — an event Cartmell and his wife have attended nearly every year since the mid-1990s.
For Art Center Waco, the collection represents more than nostalgia. Perez said the exhibit highlights a form of cultural documentation that is often overlooked.
“These posters were never meant to be archival,” Perez said. “They were meant to be hung up, torn down and replaced.”
Perez said the show also emphasizes the artistic innovation behind music promotion.
“Poster artists were doing really experimental work,” she said. “A lot of it overlaps with what we think of as contemporary art now.”
The exhibit is located at 701 S. Eighth St. at Art Center Waco. Throughout February, Cartmell will also lead interactive thematic discussions on selected posters every Saturday at noon, offering visitors the chance to hear the stories behind the paper.
For Cartmell, those stories are the point. The posters mark where music once lived — in rooms that no longer exist, in scenes that were never expected to be remembered.
“It’s like a snapshot of history,” he said.
And for five decades, Cartmell has been quietly holding onto those snapshots, one poster, concert or festival at a time.
