The ToonSeum in Pittsburgh, PA has announced that it has acquired over 700 pieces of cartoon art from the Ticonderoga Cartoon Museum which will be closing in September.
From the press release:
The ToonSeum is delighted to announce the addition of more than 700 pieces of cartoon art to its permanent collection. This generous donation was made by Stan and Cathie Burdick of the Ticonderoga Cartoon Museum in New York. After twelve years of operation, The Ticonderoga Museum will close in September.
The Burdick collection, begun nearly 60 years ago, features works from the 1830s to the present day, and includes original art by cartoon masters such as Chuck Jones, Garry Trudeau, Lee Falk, and many others. It also features rare prints and reproductions, along with more than 100 books on the cartoon arts, which will add to the ToonSeum’s growing library.
When they decided to close the museum, the Burdicks began to search for a new home for their art. Determined to keep the collection intact and available for public viewing, they contacted the ToonSeum, a non-profit museum of cartoon art located in Pittsburgh’s Downtown Cultural District. A shared vision of preservation and education led Stan to choose the ToonSeum as the new home for his valuable collection.
“It is a great honor to be selected to preserve the remarkable cartoon legacy of Stan and Cathie Burdick,” said ToonSeum Executive Director Joe Wos. “We have a common mission and vision, and look forward to sharing this art with the public for decades to come.”
Joe Wos, who also founded the ToonSeum, will complement the Burdicks’ gift by donating his own cartoon art collection to the ToonSeum this July. The Wos Family Collection features hundreds of pieces, including a rare original production sketch of Gertie the Dinosaur, widely recognized as the first animated cartoon character.
The ToonSeum has recently received numerous donations of animation, comic strip, and cartoon art from across the country. The donations by Stan and Cathie Burdick and the Wos Family will increase the ToonSeum’s permanent collection to more than 3,000 pieces, enough to fill a museum ten times its current size. Art from these new acquisitions, and the entire ToonSeum archive will be displayed year-round at the ToonSeum’s main gallery, as part of its series of regularly scheduled exhibits.
Man, I go up to the Finger Lakes nearly every year for camping, and I had no idea this was in Ticonderoga!
A couple years ago on a warm, sunny day I decided to put way too many miles on a brand new convertible. On a whim, I drove 2 hours past my destination to check out the cartoon museum in Ticonderoga….and found out they were only open a few hours a week! I’m sorry to hear I won’t get a second chance.
I lived near there and knew Stan, but never managed to be in Ti when the museum was open. I’ve got to get up there sometime this summer — maybe I’ll make one more try before it all heads to Picksburg.
Mike, you’d best hurry. In some correspondence with Stan a couple months ago he was planning on closing Aug. 31 — but that may have changed too.
We are delighted to provide a new home to the collection here in Pittsburgh, and hope you will all visit us here soon.