Cartoon Art Museum

Until September 2015, the museum was located in the Yerba Buena Gardens cultural district of San Francisco, in the South of Market neighborhood. It reopened in October 2017 in a new location in the Fisherman's Wharf area. The museum closed in August 2026.

• Name — Cartoon Art Museum • Established — 1984 • Location — 781 Beach Street, San Francisco, California • Type — The art of comics and cartoons • Collection Size — 6,000 pieces • Director — Summerlea Kashar • Website — www.cartoonart.org

The Museum was founded in 1984 by comic art enthusiasts, with its primary founder being Malcolm Whyte, the publisher of Troubador Press. CAM's first incarnation had no fixed location, instead organizing showings at other local museums and corporate spaces. In 1987, with the help of an endowment from cartoonist Charles Schulz, it established a home on the second floor of the San Francisco Call-Bulletin Building in the South of Market (SoMa) area. • Illustration — The Cartoon Art Museum entrance at its previous location, 655 Mission Street In late 1994 the museum temporarily closed while it moved locations again, re-opening in summer 1995. Primary founder Malcolm Whyte retired from the museum's board of directors around the same time. In 1997, the museum suffered through serious financial difficulties, and was almost forced to close, despite a new endowment fund from the Schulz Foundation. Jenny E. Robb served as curator of the Cartoon Art Museum from 2000 to 2005. (She subsequently became curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, Ohio.) Summerlea Kashar has been the executive director since 2010. In 2001, the museum moved to a ground-floor location at 655 Mission Street in SoMa, which had been vacated by the Friends of Photography Ansel Adams Center. It closed the location in mid-September 2015 after the lease expired; the owners more than doubled the rent. In late 2016, the museum signed a 10-year lease on a historic 8,000-square-foot brick building a block away from Ghiradelli Square. Almost a year later, in late October 2017, the Cartoon Art Museum finally reopened its doors at its new location with three new exhibitions, including a retrospective of the San Francisco cartoonist Raina Telgemeier, a tribute exhibition of Mike Mignola's Hellboy, and the emerging artist showcase featuring Nidhi Chanani. Impacted by COVID-19 and the slow recovery of tourism in San Francisco, the Cartoon Art Museum announced in July 2026 that it would not renew its lease, and closed on August 2, 2026. The organization is considering future plans for its collection. The museum's executive director said the closure may not be permanent, "We will take this time to recharge, reset and consider what comes next."

The Museum hosted nine to 12 major exhibitions annually, along with classes for children and adults. It also offered lectures and operated a research library, a classroom and a bookstore.