Polyvision Corporation is an American company that manufactures porcelain enameled steel, known as ''CeramicSteel'', surfaces for applications such as

whiteboard A whiteboard (also known as marker board, dry-erase board, dry-wipe board, and pen-board) is a glossy, usually white surface for making non-permanent markings. Whiteboards are analogous to blackboards, but with a smoother surface allowing for ...

s, chalkboards, architectural surfaces and panels, and infrastructure projects. Headquartered in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, Polyvision was acquired by private equity company Industrial Opportunity Partners in February 2020. Polyvision has production facilities in

Okmulgee, Oklahoma Okmulgee is a city in the Tulsa metropolitan area and the county seat of Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, Okmulgee County in Oklahoma, United States. The name is from the Muskogee language, Muskogee word ''okimulgi,'' which means "boiling waters".Bambu ...

, New Philadelphia, Ohio, and Genk, Belgium, with their Okmulgee facility being one of the area's major employers.

History

The company was founded in 1954 under the name Information Display Technology, Inc. and began operating under the name Polyvision in May 1995. In 1998, Polyvision purchased Alliance International Group, a manufacturer of CeramicSteel products used in visual displays and writing surfaces, for about $75 million. The following year, Polyvision acquired Nelson Adams in May 1999. In January 2000, Polyvision purchased both American Chalkboard and Peninsular Slate. Polyvision became a subsidiary of Steelcase in August 2001. In 2012, it was announced that Polyvision’s educational technology products would become part of the Steelcase Education Solutions group. Polyvision was divested by Steelcase and acquired by Industrial Opportunities Partners in February 2020. Polyvision announced its acquisition of Marsh Industries in August of 2020.

Projects

Polyvision has created surfaces for many

public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

installations, only a few of which include: * The "Flat Earth" mural at the

Dijkzigt Metro Station Dijkzigt is an underground subway station in the city of Rotterdam, and is served by Rotterdam Metro lines A, B, and C. The station is located next to the ''Erasmus MC'' (the biggest hospital in the Netherlands) and the Erasmus University. Dijk ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, artwork by Peter Jansen * Artwork at

Telok Ayer MRT station Telok Ayer MRT station ( or ) is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore), Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the Downtown MRT line, Downtown line (DTL). Situated in Outram, Singapore, Outram, Singapore, the station serves various offic ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, art by Lim Shing Ee and Kazunori Takeishi
Dublin's Last Supper
by John Byrne in 2003

Recognition

Some of PolyVision's products have won awards at the NeoCon World's Trade Fair: *2005 MAX Award winner for the Walk-and-Talk Interactive Panel and Cordless Lectern *2010 Best in Tech by Scholastic Polyvision's Genk facility was the first European CeramicSteel manufacturer to earn a

Cradle-to-Cradle Cradle-to-cradle design (also referred to as 2CC2, C2C, cradle 2 cradle, or regenerative design) is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems that models human industry on nature's processes, where materials are viewed as nutri ...

certification for its environmentally sustainable practices.

References

{{reflist Manufacturing companies based in Georgia (U.S. state) Manufacturing companies of the United States Industrial supply companies