Conclusions of the 4th cartoon museum conference organized by the European Cartoon Center Kruishoutem

1. Conclusions of the 4th Cartoon Museum Conference 2012
1. Participants: see attached file.
2. Connecting
The theme of this year conference was about ‘connecting through cartoons’. We did ask
all cartoon museums to send us in advance their own success stories about ‘connecting’.
You can read the stories on: http://www.slideshare.net/saskiagheysens/story-book-of-
cartoon-museums-successes
At the beginning of the conference we shared stories behind the objects that all
participants did bring which were relevant to them and their museum.
3. Dream
The participants did dream together how the cartoon museum of 2025 should
look like:

2. How do we achieve to win the prize of the ‘Museum of the decade’ in 2025:
By working together, sharing ideas and exhibitions and by being all one museum,
working together
By bringing the collection to the people, people who can decide by themselves
what they get to see in the museum
By making the museum a virtual museum, with every day a new curator and
debates between cartoonists and the possibility to make 3D-prints, so that
everyone can have an original cartoon in their own house
By making it a place where children learn about cartoons
By allowing the world to read the only remaining newspaper, one with cartoons
only
The common elements in the dreams can be summarized in 5 topics:
Technology
Collaboration and cooperation
Participation/Interactivity and being closer to the public
Growth and expansion
Stability
4. Actions
For each topic actions were proposed by the group:
Technology - no physical borders
- sharing knowledge
- another way of presenting -> show more
- what with authorship, what is original/uniqueness
- makes copyright difficult
- exhibitions with parts of each museum to stimulate
the visits
- increase democracy/peace
Collaboration/cooperation - universal language/improving communication
- exhibition exchange
- sharing our networks of artists and fans
- a hub for information
- unite to improve the social perception of the art form
- international cartoon art museum union
- provide a support network for artists / shared
philosophy of rights of artists
- ongoing exchange of updates, news and ideas in
cartoon museums of most important events
- residences and cartoon ambassadors
- start small
- reach out to other cartoon institutions
Participation/Interactivity/closer Public/visitors:
public - celebrity
- active role of public
- turning mill
- publishing
Artists
- personal presence

3. - educational role
- promoter
Other museums
- experience
- professionalism
- knowledge archive
- taking actions
- go over borders
Growth/expansion - perseverance and patience
- variety in program and workshops
- Action Jackson!
- superactive, interactive, playful website
- diversity in volunteers (background, age, places, …)
- aim or blame fame
The group decided on these most favorite actions:
1. (Virtual) International Cartoon Museum Exhibition
2. Cartoon Exhibition exchange
3. Diversity in the museum teams (background, age, places ….)
4. Active role of public/visitors
5. Playful website
And which ideas and actions do we take back home to our own cartoon
museums?
Virtual world cartoon museum gallery with rooms for each museum
Common platform
In situation of lack of money and space, a long term planning is necessary, also
cooperation and contacts with others
Invite youth/students to participate
Curating by the public or other cartoonists
Digitalizing the collection (help from others), but live arts does have to stay!
Prove that we are one community
Dedicating a part of the museum to the collection of the museums (copies)
Organizing the same exhibition, at the same time in all museums
I will brief my colleagues in my museum in detail about the conference
Virtual exhibition salon
Cartoon Museum Day (3th of April, Atila Ozers birthday)
Exhibits in Toonseum about world cartoonists
Exchange program for cartoonists
Organizing own cartoon competition
Using social media as PR, as well as regular media
Museum as a professional advisor for your town/city
Use of each other’s archives
Screen in museum with information about the other museums

4. We already did agree to work about:
Exchange of Exhibitions
o European Cartoon Center: Exhibition ‘Cartoons from Belgium’ – prize
winning cartoonists (60 works)
o Anadolu University: Exhibitions of Turkish cartoonists about different
themes
o Cartoon Museum of Warsaw ‘The ball is in the play’ (soccer) (200 works)
o Atila Ozer Cartoon House: Virtual exhibition with work of Atila Ozer on the
3th of April
o PortoCartoon: exhibitions on different themes
Collaboration on Exhibitions
o European Cartoon Center: World War I remembrance in June 2014 (use of
collection and simultaneous exhibition)
o Israëli Cartoon Museum: Participation in new exhibition March 2013 – the
Peace Pigeon
o Toonseum: ‘how the world sees US’ – looking for works about the theme
Other projects
o Fayoum Cartoon Museum of Egypt: residency for cartoonists (room and
atelier)
o European Cartoon Center: web pages on ECC’s website with calendar of
activities of all cartoon museums
o Anadolu University can use the museum archives for educational reasons
o PortoCartoon: offering the platform for a virtual world cartoon museum
gallery

5. List of participants:
Name First Name Organisation Country
Aygun Sadettin Anadolu University Museum of Cartoon Art Turkey
Donmez Recai Anadolu University Museum of Cartoon Art Turkey
Cil Deniz Atila Ozer House Turkey
Ozer Vicdan Atilla Ozer House Turkey
Muradov Vugar Azim Azimzadeh Cartoon Museum Azerbeidjan Azerbijan
Verheggen Jan European Cartoon Center Belgium
Gheysens Rudy European Cartoon Center Belgium
Abla Mohammed Fayoum Caricature Museum Egypt
Abla Christina Fayoum Caricature Museum Egypt
Boneva Galina House of Humour Gabrovo Bulgaria
Tsankova Tatyana House of Humour Gabrovo Bulgaria
Reijnders Wim Markiezenhof - Spotprentenmuseum The Netherlands
Franken Mireille Markiezenhof - Spotprentenmuseum The Netherlands
Masaracı Kamil Milas Turhan Selçuk Cartoon House Turkey
Ruhan Şelçuk Milas Turhan Selçuk Cartoon House Turkey
Zaradkiewicz Zygmunt Museum of Caricature and Cartoon Art in Warsaw Poland
Zaradkiewicz Joanna Museum of Caricature and Cartoon Art in Warsaw Poland
Beugeling Niels Persmuseum Amsterdam The Netherlands
Humberto Marcos Luis Portocartoon Portugal
Humberto Marcos Julia Portocartoon Portugal
Galit Gaon The Israeli Cartoon Museum Holon Israel
Kruglova Svetlana The Surgut Fine Arts Museum Russia
Kruglova Daria The Surgut Fine Arts Museum Russia
Wos Joe Toonseum USA
Najhold Branko Zemun Serbia