The Cartoon Art Museum (CAM) is a California art museum that specializes in the art of comics and cartoons. It is the only museum in the Western United States dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of all forms of cartoon art. The permanent collection features some 7,000 pieces as of 2015, including original animation cels, comic book pages and sculptures.

Until September 2015, the museum was located in the Yerba Buena Gardens cultural district of San Francisco, in the South of Market neighborhood. It reopened in October 2017, in a new location in the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco.

History

The Museum was founded in 1984 by comic art enthusiasts, with its primary founder being Malcolm Whyte, re-opening in the summer of 1995. Primary founder Malcolm Whyte retired from the museum's board of directors around the same time.

In 1997, the museum suffered through serious financial difficulties, and was almost forced to close—this was despite a new endowment fund from the Schulz Foundation.

Jenny E. Robb served as curator of the Cartoon Art Museum from 2000 to 2005. (Robb is now curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, Ohio.) Current curator Andrew Farago took over from Robb in 2005.

In 2001, the museum moved to a ground-floor location at 655 Mission Street in SoMa, which had been vacated by the Friends of Photography Ansel Adams Center. It closed the location in mid-September 2015 after the lease expired; the owners more than doubled the rent. Almost a year later, during late October 2017, the Cartoon Art Museum finally reopened its doors at its new location with three new exhibitions, including a retrospective of the San Francisco cartoonist Raina Telgemeier, a tribute exhibition of Mike Mignola's Hellboy, and the emerging artist showcase featuring Nidhi Chanani.

Sparky Award

Over the years, the Museum has presented the Sparky Award (after the nickname of Charles M. Schulz), in honor of the lifetime achievement of prominent creators in the fields of cartooning and animation who "embody the talent, innovation and humanity of Schulz."

  • 1998 – Charles M. Schulz, Chuck Jones, and John Lasseter
  • 1999 – Sergio Aragonés, Gus Arriola, Carl Barks, and Dale Messick
  • 2000 – Ward Kimball, Stan Lee, and Morrie Turner
  • 2001 – John Severin, Will Eisner, Phil Frank, Lou Grant, Gary Larson, and Bill Melendez
  • 2007 – Creig Flessel
  • 2008 – Gene Colan (and, in an earlier ceremony, Malcolm Whyte)
  • 2010 – Mort Walker
  • 2011 – Jerry Robinson
  • 2015 – Ron Turner; presented in conjunction with the first annual San Francisco Comics Fest
  • 2017 – Jeff Smith; presented at the Charles M. Schulz Museum
  • 2022 – Raina Telgemeier; presented at the Charles M. Schulz Museum

Exhibitions

The Museum hosts nine to 12 major exhibitions annually, along with classes for children and adults. It also offers lectures and operates a research library, a classroom and a bookstore.

References

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