CREATING A FANTASTIC FUTURE!
A capital campaign raising funds to transform the Cartoon Art Museum’s new site and enhance the future of its programs.
TO OUR FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS OVER THE YEARS,
First, we want to thank your for your past support of the Cartoon Art Museum. After 32 years, we are embarking on a new adventure. Our relocation provided us with an opportunity to reach out to our supporters for feedback on what people love about us, areas of concern, and what they would like to see us achieve in the new location. As a result the Board has revised our mission statement, providing us with new vision for planning our programs, exhibitions and educational activities.
The Museum’s strategies for the first phase of the campaign have paid off! Thanks to a lead gift and contributions from our Board of Trustees totaling $230,000, plus additional major contributions from the museum’s key donors, we raised over $950,000 of our $1,100,000 goal before announcing our campaign to the public.
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OUR HISTORY AND OUR FUTURE:
Founded in 1984, the Cartoon Art Museum has something for everyone—from comic strips, comic books and anime to political cartoons, graphic novels and underground comix. Visitors of all ages can view original cartoon art at exhibitions and screenings, produce their own comics and animation at classes and workshops, research deeply into our collection and library, and mingle with professional and aspiring cartoonists. This unique institution houses approximately 7,000 original pieces in our permanent collection and attracts more than 30,000 visitors annually.
In 1987, three years after the Cartoon Art Museum was founded, an endowment from Charles Schulz allowed the Museum to open a location in San Francisco near what has become Yerba Buena Gardens. Now, 30 years later, the investment has succeeded as the longest running museums of cartoon art in the United States expands again: signing a 10-year lease in a historic building along San Francisco’s tourist-rich northern waterfront.
THE CARTOON ART MUSEUM NOW HAS A LONG-TERM LEASE AT A WONDERFUL LOCATION FOR OUR NEW HOME AT 781 BEACH STREET.
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Surrounded by Aquatic Park, the Maritime Museum, Ghirardelli Square, and the Hyde Street cable car turnaround, this 1912 storefront building features a beautiful historic brick façade, prominent street presence, convenient parking, and easy access via public transportation. It offers highly visible public access to nearly 8,000 square feet of space for our galleries, screening area, classrooms, bookstore, library and permanent collection facility. The best part about it (besides the breathtaking views of the bay) is that the interior is now a wide-open space, which allows us to design a perfect, welcoming venue for viewing, discussing, creating, and interacting with all forms of cartoon art and connecting with the artists who make it.Family Circus © Bil Keane, Inc.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate. Gift of Bil Keane
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OUR FULLY RENOVATED FACILITY WILL SHOWCASE THE FOLLOWING FEATURES:
- HIGHLY VISIBLE SIGNAGE and a prominent storefront to attract a wide range of local, national, and international visitors.
- AN INVITING LOBBY staffed by Museum personnel as an area for visitors to interact with guest artists and cartoonists-in-residence.
- A LARGE STATE-OF-THE-ART GALLERY equipped with the flexibility of movable walls to accommodate major changing exhibitions of cartoon art created in all sizes and mediums.
- A SMALLER GALLERY to feature changing exhibitions of work that is primarily curated from the Museum’s holdings, as well as other private collections.
- AN EMERGING ARTISTS EXHIBITION SPACE to display work by up-and-coming artists.
- A SCREENING AREA that can be configured to accommodate intimate groups or large crowds, newly outfitted with a high-definition projector, speakers, and a retractable screen.
- CLASSROOMS with enhanced materials, equipment and technology to house a wide range of classes and workshops where young people learn from professionals how to create everything from comic strips to animation.
- AN EDUCATION CENTER & LIBRARY where visitors of all ages can experiment with making works of cartoon art or enjoy the library’s reading area and stacks of unique publications.
- A PERMANENT COLLECTION secured in a climate-controlled room for the Museum’s vast holdings of original art, open to the public by appointment for research, class visits, and curatorial inquiry.
- THE MUSEUM STORE with storefront visibility and separate interior access from the lobby, stocked with a wide variety of perennial favorites, unique items, and merchandise related to our exhibitions—all displayed in a curated boutique-style store.
- OFFICES for the Museum’s personnel.
- A SMALL KITCHEN with appliances and plumbing to accommodate catering for a wide range of public and private events.
We are very excited about the progress we’ve made. You can learn more about the campaign and our accomplishments at Our Fantastic Future! section of our website. While we have moved in and opened the museum at the new location, we want you to join us in completing the capital campaign. Be a part of the new location by making a donation to the Capital Campaign, Creating a Fantastic Future!, today!
FROM THE BOARD AND STAFF OF THE CARTOON ART MUSEUM,
Board of Trustees:
Chair, Ron Evans
Vice Chair, Dr. Michael B. Johnson
Founder / Chair Emeritus, Malcolm Whyte
John Butler
Mischa McLachlan
Staff:
Executive Director, Summerlea Kashar
Curator, Andrew Farago
Program Coordinator, Nina Taylor Kester
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A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO OUR
HONORARY CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
- Alison Bechdel, Award-winning cartoonist, MacArthur Fellowship recipient
- Michael Capozzola, Comedian, cartoonist, promoter
- Pete Docter, Pixar Animation Studios Academy Award-winning Director
- George Lucas, Filmmaker and founder of Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic
- Michael Jantze , Cartoonist (The Norm)
- Ben Katchor, Cartoonist (Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer) and MacArthur Fellowship recipient
- Jeff Keane, Artist (Family Circus)
- Keith Knight, Gentleman Cartoonist (Knight Life, K Chronicles, (th)ink)
- Steve Morger, Attorney at Wendell, Rosen, Black & Dean, LLC.
- Jean Schulz, widow of Charles Schulz
- Raina Telgemeier, Cartoonist, Eisner Award recipient, New York Times bestseller
- Peter Westley, Investment Advisor and Partner at Blum Capital Partners
- Malcolm Whyte, Founder and Chair Emeritus, owner of Word Play Publications
- Gene Yang, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Graphic Novelist and MacArthur Fellowship recipient
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