The National Cartoonists Society Foundation has contributed $20,000 to support the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum location, part of the Sullivant Hall renovation at The Ohio State University. This gift will be matched dollar for dollar by Jean Schulz, widow of Peanuts’ creator Charles M. Schulz, giving it a $40,000 impact on the project. Ms. Schulz promised to match donations to the new facility up to $2.5 million.
The National Cartoonists Society Foundation’s board of Directors unanimously approved this gift. The Foundation’s mission is to support and promote the art of cartooning through scholarships, donations to museums and cartooning institutions as well as to support individual cartoonists in need. The fund was created by a generous grant from the estate of cartoonist David Pascal and the merger of previous contributions from the Herblock Foundation, the estate of Toni Mendez and the Milt Gross fund. The Foundation is also supported by individual contributions from cartoonists, syndicates and other benefactors.
The Sullivant Hall renovation is estimated to cost $24.4 million and is scheduled to be completed in 2013, at which time Sullivant Hall will house the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum as well as The Ohio State University Department of Dance and the Department of Art Education. Upon completion of the Schulz Challenge, the Sullivant Hall renovation will be completely funded.
Established in 1977 with a founding gift of the Milton Caniff Collection, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum was housed originally in two converted classrooms in Ohio State’s Journalism Building. Donors have contributed to the collection, with gifts ranging from one item to tens of thousands. The Will Eisner Collection was established in 1984 and additions were received following his death. With the 2008 addition of the International Museum of Cartoon Art’s extensive permanent collection, the Cartoon Library and Museum now houses more than 450,000 works of original cartoon art, 50,000 books, 61,000 serial titles, 3,000 linear feet of manuscript materials, and 2.5 million comic strip clippings and newspaper pages.
Now the world’s largest collection of cartoon art and comics material, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is currently located in the lower level of the Wexner Center for the Arts complex. Its new, permanent home in Sullivant Hall will expand its space from its current 6,808 square feet to more than 40,000 gross square feet, providing much-needed additional storage and new exhibition galleries that will allow more of the collection to be displayed and accessible to the public. The tentative opening date for the library’s new home in Sullivant Hall is fall 2013.
Contact: Caitlin McGurk (614) 292-0538 or cartoons@osu.edu