July 20, 2018

Event date: –

Art Spiegelman is the first-ever cartoonist to receive the Edward MacDowell Medal. MacDowell is one of the nation’s leading contemporary arts organizations, and it has been awarding this medal annually since 1960 to artists who have made an outstanding contribution to American culture. 

Comic by Alison Bechdel, published in Vermont’s Seven Days

The selection panel this year was chaired by Vermont Cartoonist Laureate Alison Bechdel, creator of Fun Home (Mariner Books, 2006) and MacArthur winner. Bechdel created her comic art panel with Hillary Chute, literary scholar focused on comics; Julia Jacquette, graphic memoirist and MacDowell fellow; James Sturm, cofounder of CCS and MacDowell Fellow; and Gene Yang, creator of American Born Chinese (Scholastic, 2006), MacArthur winner, and last year’s Library of Congress Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

Not only did Spiegelman give us Maus (Pantheon Books, 1980), a ground breaking graphic novel showing the depth of story a comic can dive into, but he also was coeditor of the influential comics anthology Raw with Françoise Mouly, his wife. Raw was one of the main venues for European comics in the United States in the ‘80s. Spiegelman has also been a supporter of The Center for Cartoon Studies, including hosting the inaugural fundraiser!

The award ceremony is Sunday, August 12, at 12:15 at the MacDowell Colony grounds in New Hampshire. Medal Day is the one day each year that the Colony is open to the public; open studios are hosted by the MacDowell artists-in-residence from 2 to 5.

Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly at CCS with emeritus board member Ana Merino and co-founders Michelle Ollie and James Sturm.