“We are not disappearing”: Cartoon Art Museum closes its Fisherman’s Wharf location

The Cartoon Art Museum is packing up its Beach Street home. In a PR announcement on Friday, July 31, 2026, the museum revealed that it “will not be renewing its lease at 781 Beach Street when it expires at the end of August. As a result, the current CAM location will permanently shut its doors tomorrow, Sunday, August 2, in order to prepare for the move. 

“We make this announcement with deep appreciation for the extraordinary support the community has given the museum. For nearly 42 years, our Board, staff, artists, members, donors and visitors have championed cartoon art and helped create a supportive environment for its creation and appreciation,” said Executive Director Summerlea Kashar.

“After navigating the pandemic and the difficult recovery that followed, it is time to close this chapter. We are not disappearing. We will take this time to recharge, reset and consider what comes next. We hope our community will continue to follow and support us as those plans take shape,” she continued. “So while our lease may be ending, our story will continue. We will share updates as we determine the museum’s next iteration. That’s not all for now, folks.

It's a bittersweet echo of history for the nearly 42-year-old institution, which has now lost its lease at more than one San Francisco address. But per the museum's own framing, this isn't a shutdown so much as a pause between chapters—and this kind of pause is something the museum has weathered before.

Founded in 1984 by publisher Malcolm Whyte and a group of fellow cartoon art enthusiasts, the Cartoon Art Museum was originally known as the “museum without walls,” as it did not have a permanent home; instead, exhibitions were held at local museums and corporate spaces to give the public a chance to see the artworks in their private collections. But thanks to an endowment from Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, the museum’s first home opened in 1987, in the heart of Yerba Buena Gardens cultural district. In 1995, the museum relocated to Mission Street until a rent increase forced it to find a new home; then from 2001 to 2015, it relocated blocks from its previous home (near the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), before it reopened its doors in 2017 at its now soon-to-shutter location on Beach Street  (near Ghirardelli  Square).

About the move, CAM staff and board members said:

“Ten years ago, the cartoon community came together to begin a new chapter for the museum. Scores of funders supported our move to Beach Street in Fisherman’s Wharf. Since then, we have faced significant challenges, including the pandemic and the slow recovery that followed. But we have also enjoyed many successes and countless opportunities to celebrate cartoon art and the people who create it.”

A decade after that Fisherman's Wharf move was funded by "scores" of community donors, CAM Is once again without a permanent address. In its statement, the museum credits the Beach Street location with welcoming more than 80,000 visitors, hosting thousands of student tours, and mounting exhibitions ranging from Smile! The Comics of Raina Telegemeier to They Called Us Enemy to Fight with Art: Contemporary Comics from Ukraine and March: A Graphic History of the Civil Rights Movement, while acknowledging that the pandemic and its slow recovery took a toll the museum never fully shook off.

CAM bills itself as the only museum in the western United States dedicated to original cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, animation and anime, as well as underground comix. It holds roughly 9,000 original pieces in its permanent collection and has drawn more than 500,000 visitors across its history, producing nearly 200 exhibitions spanning a wide variety of topics—from politics to sports to children’s literature to queer culture—and featuring works by hundreds of artists—like Schulz, Jack Kirby, Edward Gorey, Kate Beaton, Will Eisner, Bill Watterson, Trina Robbins, Raina Telgemeier, Stan Sakai, Mary Blair, Roz Chast, and hundreds more. 

The Beach Street gallery closes for good on Sunday, August 2 — the end of a chapter that, per the museum's own history, was never guaranteed to be its last.

Source: Cartoon Art Museum