Cartoon Art Museum

The Cartoon Art Museum is a nonprofit educational museum in San Francisco, California, dedicated to the history and preservation of cartoon art. Established in 1984, it holds the distinction of being the only museum in the Western United States dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of all forms of cartoon art, encompassing comics, animation, and graphic storytelling. The museum's permanent collection features over 9,000 original artworks, ranging from animation cels and comic book pages to editorial cartoons and concept sketches. It serves as a cultural repository and educational hub, hosting rotating exhibitions, classes, and lectures.

The museum was founded in 1984 by a group of comic art enthusiasts, with Malcolm Whyte, the publisher of Troubador Press, serving as the primary founder. Initially, the institution operated without a fixed location, functioning as a wandering exhibition that organized showings at other local museums and corporate spaces. In 1987, with the help of an endowment from cartoonist Charles Schulz, the museum established its first permanent home on the second floor of the San Francisco Call-Bulletin Building in the South of Market area. The museum temporarily closed in late 1994 to move locations, reopening in the summer of 1995, around the time Whyte retired from the board. Despite a new endowment fund from the Schulz Foundation, the museum faced severe financial difficulties in 1997 and nearly closed. Jenny E. Robb served as curator from 2000 to 2005. In 2001, the museum moved to a ground-floor location at 655 Mission Street in the Yerba Buena Gardens cultural district. It remained there until mid-September 2015, when the lease expired and the owners more than doubled the rent. In late 2016, the museum signed a 10-year lease on a historic brick building near Ghirardelli Square, officially reopening at the new site in late October 2017 with three inaugural exhibitions.

The museum's permanent collection comprises over 9,000 pieces of original artwork, documenting the evolution of cartoon art across various styles, genres, and mediums. Holdings include original comic strips, comic book pages, editorial cartoons, concept sketches, color roughs, and tear sheets. The museum is one of very few worldwide with a permanent collection of original animation art, featuring cels, drawings, background paintings, and illustrations from television series and films produced by studios such as Warner Bros., Walt Disney Co., Filmation, Nevlana Studios, and Hanna-Barbera. Selections from the permanent collection are displayed on a rotating basis through curated exhibitions, and certain selections are also available as traveling exhibitions.

Significant components of the museum's holdings include the Malcolm Whyte Collection and the Corka Collection. Founder Malcolm Whyte donated dozens of original comic strips and comic book pages from his personal archives, including works from the late 19th to mid 20th century. The Corka Collection consists of a substantial number of cartoons and preparatory drawings donated in 2003, created by Zena Kavin and her husband Jon, who published cartoons in the Saturday Evening Post and The New Yorker under the pseudonym Corka. The broader collection features notable original pieces by influential artists such as Charles Schulz, Bill Watterson, Winsor McCay, and Alison Bechdel. Specific documented works in the collection include Alex Anderson's Crusader Rabbit animation art from around 1950, Walt Disney Animation's Donald Duck from around 1935, Chester Gould's Dick Tracy from 1948, and Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey from 1992.

The museum's current home is an 8,000-square-foot historic brick building located at 781 Beach Street in the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco. This waterfront site is situated a block away from Ghirardelli Square and in proximity to the maritime museum and a historic streetcar line. The interior layout is designed to intuitively guide visitors through a series of rotating exhibitions, permanent installations, and hands-on areas. The museum operated at 655 Mission Street in the Yerba Buena Gardens cultural district from 2001 until September 2015, and prior to that was situated in the San Francisco Call-Bulletin Building.

The Cartoon Art Museum is located at 781 Beach Street in San Francisco and is open daily except Wednesdays. The institution hosts nine to twelve major exhibitions annually, alongside educational classes for children and adults, lectures, and workshops. It also operates a research library, a classroom, and a museum store. As a participant in the San Francisco Museums For All program, the museum provides free or reduced admission for low-income residents, offering free admission for up to four people per EBT, SNAP, or MediCal cardholder. The museum has been directed by Summerlea Kashar since 2010.