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Have you heard the news? The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is moving!
The premier comics and cartooning library in North America, the Billy Ireland Library and Museum is a research library of American cartoons and comic art affiliated with the Ohio State University library system in Columbus, Ohio.
After years of dreaming and scheming, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum’s new home in Sullivant Hall is just a few short months away from being open to the public.
Read the following interview with former Schulz librarian and current Billy Ireland curator, Caitlin McGurk to help you get hip to all the goings on at the Library and Museum in Columbus!
photo by Jen Vaughn
Immense thanks go out to Caitlin McGurk for taking time out of her extremely busy schedule to talk with the Schulz Library.
JF: How long has the Museum Staff envisioned this move? Have folks like founder, Lucy Shelton Caswell, been thinking about this for a long time?
CM: The dream of a new and expanded facility for the Cartoon Library has been on everyones mind for a long, long time now. The initial donation of $7 million that kicked off the move project came from the Elizabeth Ireland Graves Foundation in 2009, and we have been fundraising for the new space ever since.
I would imagine that the hope of having a home like Sullivant Hall someday probably dates back to the early years for Lucy, when she first started diligently building what has since turned into the largest collection of cartoon and comic art in the world. We outgrew our current space years ago, and have been occupying two additional offsite storage facilities since- one of which we’ll be able to fully consolidate into the new building.
JF: How does it feel to have Sullivant Hall nearly complete? Have you begun to work in the new hall yet?
CM: Not just yet! We’ve been packing and prepping for weeks and the movers will be working with us over the next month to get everything set up in the new building.
Our doors will officially be open for business on September 9th, with the galleries debuting at our Grand Opening Festival of Cartoon Art in November. I don’t think any of us could be more excited to get in there- the plan has been in the works for so long, and the tastes we’ve gotten of the new space from our hardhat tours has everyone reeling about the possibilities that the expansion will provide. I still can’t believe it’s actually happening!
JF: I can only imagine that in the process of moving, you’re unearthing work that you’ve rarely had the chance to look at. Have you come across anything that’s really bowled you over?
CM: Most of our collections are actually going to be able to move within their current housing, which is a tremendous relief. We’ve come across a lot of great stuff in our offsite storage facility though, including some beautiful old Disney merchandise.
I think the biggest thing that has bowled us over is just wrapping our heads around just how MUCH material we have. The library has literally millions of holdings, and the process of finding a new home for all of it makes you realize how many hidden collections there are- entire cartoonists careers on paper, who haven’t even begun to be tapped into for research and exhibits.
JF: What excites you the most about moving into the new location?
CM: Just about everything!
The gigantic stained-glass pieces of Billy Ireland’s art that will be built into the lobby and reading room walls, the endless archive space for our collections, the huge theater in the center of the building where we can host events, all of it. It’s going to be such a huge change from what we’re used to, that I think that feeling of incredible new potential is what makes us each the most dreamy.
The bottom line best part of it all though, is just how accessible and open we’ll be to new audiences.
If you’ve been to the cartoon library since 1990 when we first moved into our current space, you know that we’re in a basement location tucked away from the pubic eye, and with only one very small public area- our reading room. In the new building, we’re going to have this monumental presence right at the gateway to OSU’s campus- not only finally above ground, but prominently featured in the Columbus arts district, which is going to bring in the public in a way we’ve never been able to before.
We’re also going to get to curate exhibits for three large gallery spaces- all of which will always be free and open to the public. One will be a permanent treasures exhibit of the highlights of our collection, while the other two will be in rotation three times per year. We’ve got some really big exhibits planned for the first year, but I can’t give away many details yet.
One of the other most exciting parts for me is our new programming spaces, like our Will Eisner Seminar Room, where we plan to host cartooning workshops and reading groups, OSU classes about comics, guest lecturers, and more. We’re hoping to be a regular hub for book tours as well, and want to support community comics groups with access to an inspiring venue for their meetings.
Ultimately, the most exciting part is that the opening of this new facility will see comics and cartoons finally get the long-overdue respect that they deserve in a space where we can share them with new audiences.
Our vision is to be the premier center for comics in the United States.
