The Cartoon Museum
Encyclopedia
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
museum for British cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s, caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
s, comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
s and animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
. It has a library of over 5000 books and 4,000 comics relating to the subject. The museum issues catalogues and features a changing display of over 250 exhibits from its collection of over 1700 original cartoons and prints.
Curator Anita O'Brien noted, "There has never been a cartoon museum [in Britain]... In spite of the very strong historical tradition here, there has always been a very strong ambivalence towards comic art." It was opened February 23, 2006
2006 in comics
-January:*January 1, 2006: Newsweek offer a look back at 2005 through editorial cartoons. *January 2, 2006: The Cincinnati Enquirer cartoonist Jim Borgman starts a blog to detail his creative process...
by the Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh
The Duke of Edinburgh is a British royal title, named after the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, which has been conferred upon members of the British royal family only four times times since its creation in 1726...
.
In its mission statement, the museum declares it is "dedicated to preserving the best of British cartoons, caricatures, comics and animation, and to establishing a museum with a gallery, archives and innovative exhibitions to make the creativity of cartoon art past and present, accessible to all for the purposes of education, research and enjoyment."
Exhibitions
Previous exhibitions have included Ronald SearleRonald Searle
Ronald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI, is a British artist and cartoonist, best known as the creator of St Trinian's School. He is also the co-author of the Molesworth series....
, Pont, Fougasse, Rowland Emett, Beano and Dandy, Mike Williams, Mel Calman, cartoons from private London clubs, Viz, Alice in Sunderland (Bryan Talbot), Robert Dighton
Robert Dighton
Robert Dighton was born c.1752 in London and died there in 1814. An English portrait painter, print maker and caricaturist, he was the founder of a dynasty of artists who followed in his footsteps.-Life and work:...
, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher. Exhibitions feature catalogues, such as Ronald Searle: Graphic Master, which includes essays on Searle’s work. Leading cartoonists and filmmakers have produced artworks in homage to Searle and written pieces, including Steve Bell, Roger Law, Mike Leigh, Uli Meyer, Arnold Roth, Martin Rowson, Gerald Scarfe, Posy Simmonds and Ralph Steadman.
Education
The museum runs a Learning Programme for primary and secondary schools in a range of subjects, including art, media, history, English and animation. With workshops for children during half-term and holidays, it also features adult courses in cartooning and graphic novels in collaboration with London's Birkbeck College.The Cartoon Museum is run by the Cartoon Art Trust (Registered Charity 327 978).
Awards
In addition to its Young Cartoonist of the Year Awards, each year the trustees of the Cartoon Art Trust give a Lifetime Achievement Award to an artist who has made a significant contribution to British Cartooning. Past winners have included Ronald SearleRonald Searle
Ronald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI, is a British artist and cartoonist, best known as the creator of St Trinian's School. He is also the co-author of the Molesworth series....
, David Levine, Trog, Fluck and Law, Norman Thelwell, Frank Dickens, David Langdon, Gerald Scarfe, Leo Baxendale and Bill Tidy. They also give the Pont Award to a cartoonist whose drawings reflect "The British Character". Past winners include Norman Thelwell, MAC, Michael Heath, Sue McCartney-Snape and Tony Husband.
Location
- The museum is located at 35 Little Russell Street.
- Nearest London UndergroundLondon UndergroundThe London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
stations:- Tottenham Court RoadTottenham Court Road tube stationTottenham Court Road is a London Underground station in central London. It is an interchange between the Central line and the branch of the Northern line.On the Central line it is between and , and on the Northern line it is between and...
(CentralCentral LineThe Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...
, NorthernNorthern LineThe Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
lines) - HolbornHolborn tube stationHolborn is a station of the London Underground in Holborn in London, located at the junction of High Holborn and Kingsway. Situated on the Piccadilly Line and on the Central Line , it is the only station common to the two lines, although the two lines cross each other three times elsewhere...
(Central, PiccadillyPiccadilly LineThe Piccadilly line is a line of the London Underground, coloured dark blue on the Tube map. It is the fifth busiest line on the Underground network judged by the number of passengers transported per year. It is mainly a deep-level line, running from the north to the west of London via Zone 1, with...
lines) - Russell SquareRussell Square tube stationRussell Square is a London Underground station on Bernard Street, Bloomsbury in the London Borough of Camden. It is a small but busy station, often used by office workers and by tourists who are staying in Bloomsbury's numerous hotels. The station is a Grade II listed building.-History:The station...
(Piccadilly line)
- Tottenham Court Road
See also
- Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & MuseumBilly Ireland Cartoon Library & MuseumThe Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, a research library of American comic art, is affiliated with the Ohio State University library system in Columbus, Ohio...
- Cartoon Art MuseumCartoon Art MuseumThe Cartoon Art Museum 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...
- Fred Waring Cartoon Collection