Profiled: the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Peter Tonguette profiles the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for The Columbus Dispatch.

In 1990, a roomier space was procured in the basement of the newly opened Wexner Center for the Arts on N. High Street, but the ballooning collection would outgrow its 6,800 square feet there, too.

This year, at last, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (as the venue was re-christened in 2009) has settled into a more fitting home ? all 30,000 square feet of it.

Occupying the ground level and half of the second floor of the renovated Sullivant Hall, it more than quadrupled its footprint ? with 13,000 square feet of storage space, plus offices, galleries, and areas for talks and studies. (The architecture firm was Acock Associates of Columbus.)

As a general reminder, the Festival of Cartoon Art is next month which is also the official grand opening of the library and museum. It’s a don’t miss it event.