Museum Magic for the Peanuts Gang

Posted from Glen Ellen, CA

“The only thing I ever wanted to be was a cartoonist. That’s my Life. Drawing. I would draw comic strips even if I weren’t getting paid for it…..I’m obsessed with thinking of funny things.” Charles M. Schulz

This is part one of a two-part series about the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center.

A statue of a smiling Charlie Brown, imagined as an artist, extends a greeting. An adjacent landscape rendered as a walking labyrinth of Snoopy’s head is at his left, Lucy’s yellow Doctor Is In booth stands ready for a patient at the still-low fee of five cents for a psychiatric consultation. Oblivious, Snoopy naps atop a bright primary-colored doghouse festooned with musical notes.

This could only be the entrance to the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa.

Opened in 2002, the museum is both a tribute to the remarkable Charles M. Schulz, who created the iconic and beloved Peanuts comic strip, and a public repository and showcase for his extensive body of work.

The last 40 years of Schulz’s life were centered in Sonoma County and, more specifically, on this campus. His office at One Snoopy Place was on the other side of the baseball field. The ice rink where he played hockey and where he and his family hosted ice shows with champion skaters of the day has been a longtime gathering place for the community. He sat at his special table at the Warm Puppy Café, eating his daily breakfast of bacon and eggs until heart surgery necessitated a switch to an English muffin and grape jelly. Lunch was always a tuna salad sandwich and tea. To break up the day, he’d walk to the nearby Coddingtown Mall, where, as an avid reader, he invariably passed some time in the bookstore.

Schulz, nicknamed Sparky after the horse Spark Plug from the Barney Google comic strip, retired in 1999 and died shortly after in 2000, ironically just hours before the Sunday newspaper with the last original Peanuts strip arrived on doorsteps. When he retired, Peanuts was syndicated in over 2,600 newspapers worldwide, with book collections translated in over 25 languages.

Although Schulz didn’t live to see the museum come to fruition, he was involved with the early planning. According to Jean Schulz, his widow and the museum’s board chair, the guiding principle in the museum’s design and construction was always, “What would Sparky think?”.

From my standpoint as a longtime Peanuts fan (full confession – I slept with a stuffed Snoopy), I think he’d be pleased.

Some of the must-sees at the museum include:

Great Hall – This multi-level, light-filled space leads you into the museum. It features several larger than life pieces of art. Directly in front as you enter is a massive black and white tile mural composed of 3,588 ceramic tiles; in essence, they’re about 10 years worth of strips published between 1956 and 1988. The artist, Yoshiteru Otani, hand-selected each strip to compose a secondary, composite scene. It’s a classic – Charlie Brown about to (try to) kick the football before Lucy yanks it away. High above at left is the morphing Snoopy mural. Its dimensions: 26 feet long, 9.5 feet high, and 10.5 inches deep. Created by the same artist, it uses 43 layers of maple veneer to convey Snoopy’s evolution from 4-legged best friend, to walking upright on two legs, to writer, World War 1 flying ace, and more.

Strip Rotation Gallery – To me, this is the heart of the museum because it displays Schulz’s original work in enlarged formats – all the better to see the genius of his drawings: simple, clean lines, and a judicious, artful use of black and white spaces.

Downstairs Temporary Gallery – Currently, the museum has an exhibition showing how the Peanuts comic strips from the 1950s and 1960s reflected the mid-century modernism design vibe of the time.

Schulz Studio – On the second floor is a recreation of his studio. Schulz drew his cartoons by hand, and his drawing board is a central feature. The tools of his trade were pen, ink, pencil, and paper.

The museum building itself is a work of art. Contemporary in style, featuring large walls of glass, and made of natural materials like slate, cherry, and oak, it exudes a feeling of comfort, welcome, familiarity, and happiness – just like holding a warm puppy.