Charles Schulz' Family Among Guests who Enjoyed LCAD's Peanuts Show

Submitted by the Laguna College of Art & Design:

February 14 marked the end of an historic three-week run in Laguna College of Art + Design’s (LCAD) Gallery. The Art of Charles Schulz and Peanuts—The Minerd Collection, comprised of over 100 original drawings by Schulz and rare Schulz and Peanuts memorabilia—all on loan from CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Guggenheim Partners Asset Management, Scott Minerd—drew a record number of daily visitors to the LCAD Gallery.

Chief among those visitors was Charles “Sparky” Schulz’s widow, Jeannie Schulz; two of the famed cartoonist’s sons, Craig and Monte; internationally respected critic and historian of animation, Charles Solomon; and Karen Johnson, Director of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center (CMSMRC).

Over the three-week course of the exhibition, members of the Schulz family and the CMSMRC staff sojourned to Laguna Beach from as far afield as Santa Rosa, California, home of the CCMSMRC and of it’s founder, Jeannie Schulz.

On Thursday, February 7th, the day of the opening reception for the exhibition, Solomon treated the LCAD community and the general public to a standing-room-only talk on Schulz and Peanuts, followed by an LCAD/Laguna Beach Books book signing of Solomon’s newly released book, The Art and Making of Peanuts Animation: Celebrating Fifty Years of Television Specials.

The Art of Charles Schulz and Peanuts—The Minerd Collection, came to LCAD after months of planning and collaboration between Dave Pruiksma—ex-Disney Animator, Co-Chair of Animation at LCAD, and Curator of the exhibition—and Minerd.

“Charles Schulz, and his work on Peanuts specifically, was one of the biggest influencers of my decision to become an animator,” Pruiksma said. “Being able to hold in my hands original Peanuts comic strips and artwork from the hand of one of the greatest cartoonists the world has ever seen is something I will never forget. And then, to meet Jeannie Schulz and other members of Schulz’s family, and to get to listen to them relay stories about “Sparky” and how he would have loved LCAD was a real treat. I’ll be forever grateful to Scott Minerd for his foresight and generosity as a collector and lender, and to the Schulz family for all of their support.”