logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

San Francisco Rallies to Keep Its Cartoon Art Museum

Jim Schaffer
November 4, 2016
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
Cartoon-Art-Museum
Cartoon Art Museum / Andrew

November 2, 2016; San Francisco Examiner

The Cartoon Art Museum is one among too many nonprofits in San Francisco that has been challenged by high rents, something that NPQ has been writing about in its nonprofit newswire for years, such as here and, more recently, here. The museum was forced to close its doors in June 2015. Rather than leaving San Francisco, it quietly sought and finally found a solution with the help of the city. The museum will move into its new space at Fisherman’s Wharf in spring 2017, thanks to the intervention of the city’s Nonprofit Displacement Mitigation Fund. Once the museum is fully operating in its new space, it will return to hosting nine to 12 major exhibitions annually, along with providing public lectures, a research library, bookstore, and classes for children and adults.

The museum’s executive director reports that their new space is “gorgeous” and perfect for the purposes of their mission, not least that the space is easily accessible, “a stone’s throw from Aquatic Park, Ghirardelli Square and the Buena Vista Cafe.” They will announce their plans soon to raise the funds required to finalize the move.

One of the Cartoon Art Museum’s initial exhibits in 2017 will be to commemorate the 50th anniversary of “The Summer of Love.” This is a fitting anniversary for the museum to honor, the time in 1967 when some 100,000 hippies spontaneously converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco to embrace a love of music and art (and oppose the Vietnam War).

The museum is used to moving around. When it was founded in 1984, it produced showings in other museums and corporate spaces. The great Charles M. Schulz (of Peanuts fame) endowed the museum in 1987, which enabled it to secure its first home. The museum closed in 1994 as it prepared to move to a new location in the summer of 1995. The museum moved to Mission Street in 2001, where it remained until it closed in September 2015 when the rent abruptly more than doubled.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Over the past three decades, the museum has produced nearly 200 exhibitions on topics ranging from politics and sports to children’s literature and Latino culture, and more than 20 publications celebrating and examining the diversity of cartoon art in animation, comics, graphic novels, ’zines and book illustration.

These ups and downs through the years relate a consistent story that transcends financial hardship. Many people believe in the Cartoon Art Museum’s mission and they eventually rise to the challenge. Cartoon art matters. The art includes animation, advertising, comic books and comic strips, editorial cartoons, graphic novel artwork, magazine cartoons, and underground comix. The artwork this museum values has ignited the imaginations of most people, swayed political campaigns, spoke truth to power, and in countless ways positively upheld and contributed to civil society through the ages.

Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor of The New Yorker, read a praiseworthy blog post entitled, “What College Can’t Do.” In his “What Cartoons Can Do,” Mankoff reprinted the entire text interspersing each of the author’s points with a cartoon that did its work more memorably, quickly, and far more entertainingly. San Francisco nearly lost what only the Cartoon Art Museum can do for its citizens.—James Schaffer

CORRECTION: This article has been altered from its original form. The spelling of Charles Schulz was fixed, and a reference to events in 1997 has been removed.

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Jim Schaffer

The founders of Covenant House, AmeriCares, TechnoServe and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp were my mentors who entrusted me with much. What I can offer the readers of NPQ is carried out in gratitude to them and to the many causes I’ve had the privilege to serve through the years.

More about: art museums museum management museums and librariesManagement and LeadershipNonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Hierarchy and Justice
Cyndi Suarez
Salvadoran Foreign Agent Law Threatens Human Rights Movements
Devon Kearney
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb Plutocracy
Alan Davis
Healing-Centered Leadership: A Path to Transformation
Shawn A. Ginwright
Into the Fire: Lessons from Movement Conflicts
Ingrid Benedict, Weyam Ghadbian and Jovida Ross
How Nonprofits Can Truly Advance Change
Hildy Gottlieb

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
Hierarchy and Justice
Cyndi Suarez
Salvadoran Foreign Agent Law Threatens Human Rights...
Devon Kearney
Charitable Tax Reform: Why Half Measures Won’t Curb...
Alan Davis

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.