The Charles M. Schulz Museum, home to commemoration of the Peanuts comic strip and the cartoonist who created them, is an art museum. When I think of an art museum, the stereotypical words I conjure up in my mind are adjectives like esoteric, stodgy, highfalutin, cultured, stark, serious. I associate them with a building designed with largely vacant rooms, generously spaced wall hangings, each with one or two people standing near, arms folded or one hand on chin, contemplating silently or murmuring to a companion in hushed tones. The Charles M. Schulz museum does not fit that image.
It is not a playground nor an amusement park nor a carnival and yet you laugh often and have a truly fun time at this "art museum". It is very unique in that is not stuffy but rather is warm, homey, inviting, open but not vacant, and urges you to smile as you round every corner. Painted or tiled murals throughout combined with thousands of strategically and thematically chosen little four box formula comic strips do more than evoke feelings; they cause the viewer to recall memories and re-experience emotions from throughout his life time. The many messages hit home.
Charles M. Schulz was born in 1922 in Minneapolis and died in 2000 in Santa Rosa at age 77, leaving behind a legacy of whimsy, social consciousness, art, and laughter. On Thursday July 25th, Frank and I visited the museum in Santa Rosa California recalling the famous and influential cartoonist and we were pleasantly surprised. His wife did an excellent job pulling together his life's work as a retrospective for future generations. This post will describe
- the ride to the museum
- entrance impressions and details
- overall vistas of the museum galleries
- lunch experience
- a closer look at some exhibits
- films viewed
- gift shop
Car ride to Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa is a town in Sonoma County, wine country for California. It is on the order of 100 miles northwest of Livermore and takes on the order of two hours to get there.
The middle portion of the drive goes through the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge includes a variety of habitats including open water, mud flat, tidal marsh, estuary, and seasonal and managed wetlands and hosts millions of migratory shorebirds and waterfowl.
The view from the car window was of ever-changing landscapes with pretty, notable scenes of egrets and mallards and other birds to close to the roadway.
The traffic was sporadically heavy on this one lane road. I was semi-annoyed we were stuck behind this huge camper towing another car so we did not get the full benefits of the wide vistas in front, only out the side windows. Frank would have tolerated the drive far better had it not been for me whining in the front passenger seat. In retrospect I should have sucked it up and behaved better. I even complained we could not pass the time with the license plate game since we only saw one license plate!
My mood improved once we were in the parking lot and I spied the first evidence of Charlie Brown-ness. The parking signs have the characteristic zig-zagging chevron from his sweater. Remember?
Entrance impressions and details
When we left the parking lot and made our way to the museum entrance we were greeted by a large statue of Charlie Brown. Replacing the zig zag on his shirt is a sketch showing the drawing table and ink nib pen, the main tools of his creator Charles M. Schulz. Charlie Brown's forehead holds a faint sketch of the front entrance of the museum. The brown platform beneath Charlie's feet is a replica of a portion of the wall in the Schulz family nursery.
As we pass through the front doors, the lobby area has simple black and white images on glass of four familiar Peanuts characters: Charlie, Snoopy, Linus, and Lucy. Four frames is symbolic of the four frame format of years of daily comic strips.
As we pass beyond the welcoming podium and into the museum, at the far end of an expansive hallway, we are awed by an impressive floor to ceiling tile mural composed of 3,588 ceramic four-frame comic strip tiles. That would certainly merit a return close-up look.
Directly to the left of the tile mural was a small video nook with a short orientation film about the museum. A docent recommended this video as a good start to our visit and it turned out to be an excellent suggestion. I found the architectural decisions and the rationale for those choices interesting and it was heartwarming to see how devotedly and lovingly Jean Schulz spoke of her late husband.
But first things first before exploring in earnest. After a long car ride a bathroom visit was wise and necessary. The doors to the restrooms did not disappoint. There was Charlie's sweater with its zig-zig border for the men's room and Lucy's dress with its ruffled collar for the ladies' room.
The insides exceeded thematic expectations as well. The backsplashes of the sinks flaunted some of those four box comic strip tiles.
Even each toilet stall was similarly decked out.
Overall vistas of the museum galleries and exhibits
There are three galleries within the museum proper, all of which change periodically. Available online is also a collection celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Peanuts comic strip. The digital format is adapted from a full version displayed in the museum from August 19, 2015 to January 10, 2016. It shows the morphing of the characters and concepts throughout the years, citing the source of many of Schulz's ideas. I found it very intriguing.
- Downstairs Changing Gallery
- Strip Rotation Gallery
- Upstairs Changing Gallery
- Online Exhibit
https://schulzmuseum.org/celebrating-65-years-of-peanuts-2/
Once we'd collected a map, we did a cursory scope of the museum, trying not to linger too long in any one place, in order to decide where we wanted to prioritize our time once we'd had lunch. We began with the first floor, at the top of the map in the Gallery Lounge.
The Gallery Lounge had benches tucked in niches with the backdrop of huge murals of a few of the Peanuts characters up close and personal. Throughout the museum murals on the walls rather than large framed pictures had a very different emotional effect. I felt like they were more touchable. I could enter the Peanuts world with the characters and become included in the whimsy.
The Downstairs Changing Gallery had a tribute to Woodstock. Note the chevron pattern in the wood floor. It echoes and reinforces the familiar zig-zag on Charlie Brown's shirt. The great hall is visible in the background through the wide doorway and it leads off to the left to the impressive tile mural of comic strips.
Then we were off and running to the second floor for a quick peek.
Tucked in a corner at the top of the stairs was a comparatively small exhibit containing background for the little red-haired girl. Looking over the balcony was another view of the Gallery Lounge on the first floor. We would return there to fool around with some of the props. The mural on the wall was about building a treehouse, a place where "We'll isolate ourselves from the cares of this old world..."
This same mural is repeated on the far wall of the Upstairs Changing Gallery. Notice again the zig-zag floor motif.
On the other side of the nursery wall was a gallery with biographical information about Charles Schulz. It was well-done, not at all boring or monotonous, and was very enlightening as to how much of his personal self Schulz invested in his characters and comic strip. We definitely were revisiting this gallery to explore it in more detail. But right now we were hungry. That car ride was longer than anticipated, coupled with our desire to at least get a flavor for the museum first, lunch was long overdue.
Lunch Experience
The food area associated with the museum is in a different building just across the street. The museum is marked by the aqua teardrop pointer on the left, the Redwood Empire Ice Arena (aka Snoopy's Home Ice) and the Warm Puppy Cafe eating area are marked by the green teardrop pointer in the center, and the gift shop is marked by the blue teardrop pointer on the right.
The cafe can be entered directly from the outside or from the lobby of the ice skating arena. We came in from the outside, an entrance at the far rear of this photo. Between that door and a stone fireplace on the left is a table that is in permanently reserved for Charles Schulz. It is where he sat daily to have his lunch of a tunafish sandwich and tea after a morning at his drawing board. Windows on the other side, the right, overlook the ice rink.
You can come in and get warm and comfy but Snoopy does discouraged the diners with a mild scowl, reminding them of skate etiquette.
Our food was delicious. I had a simple grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of corn chowder dog while Frank had a bowl of chili and a corn muffin. We topped it off with chocolate chip cookies that we saved for later. Snoopy encouraged that indulgence of our penchant for chocolate!
The skating arena is under renovation with estimated completion in October 2019 but we could look though the window and see it under refurbishment. Schulz was an avid hockey player and fan, belonging to a seniors' league, and playing regularly until a few months before his death. The arena hosts the annual Snoopy's Senior World Hockey Tournament.
For over 40 years teams have traveled from across North America and from all corners of the globe to participate in the world's premier Senior Hockey Tournament. Snoopy's Senior World Hockey Tournament is a week-long celebration of sportsmanship, camaraderie and seriously competitive hockey. Charles M. Schulz described his tournament as a summer camp for adults
The lobby of the ice arena has stained glass windows of hockey in play that view into the cafe. My guess is that for stray puck trajectory reasons, they do not face onto the ice. Snoopy and Charlie Brown preside over welcoming visitors and skaters.
Frank and I have fun posing with the characters in ice rink lobby before heading back to the main building of the museum and soaking in some more of the exhibits.
A closer look at some exhibits
As well as the rotating galleries that we'd skimmed through, there were some permanent exhibits we'd merely passed. We heading back to enjoy all in more depth, taking time to "wander and ponder". The permanent exhibits were:
- Peanuts Tile Mural
- Morphing Snoopy Wood Sculpture
- Schulz’s Re-created Studio
- Nursery Wall
- Wrapped Snoopy House
- Snoopy Labyrinth
The Peanuts Tile Mural was my favorite and we lingered at it for a closer look. The dark lines that form the image of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown were formed from hand selected tiles that were dark because of a night theme. These were repeated because there were not as many of them as the default daytime scene tiles. Frank looked close and made a discovery!
He found a tile where Snoopy was IN his doghouse and not just ON it. It is in the top tile-strip of the four in the following photo. He mentioned this to two of the docents and they were excited and unaware of that, asking Frank to point out where. It took a small amount of effort to located the exact spot again but we succeeded. The docents complimented us on our powers of observation and noted that we were the first visitors to ever point that out.
Once home, when I checked out the online gallery, I learned that a side view only of Snoopy's doghouse was intentional.
In later years, Schulz felt that the doghouse viewed from the side represented an essential part of Snoopy’s fantasy world. If viewers saw the doghouse from the front or its interior, the universe Snoopy inhabited suddenly became too real. Schulz explained, “Snoopy himself had become a character so unlike a dog that he could no longer inhabit a real doghouse.”
Snoopy had initially been modeled after Schulz's childhood dog Spike. Yoshiteru Otani, the same Japanese artist who did the tile mural, also created a bas relief wood sculpture of how Snoopy developed over the years. The wood sculpture hangs in the The Great Hall. Morphing Snoopy is composed of 43 layers that have been shaped and cut to reveal the evolving personas of Snoopy, beginning with Spike, Schulz’s childhood pet and inspiration for the world famous beagle.
Yoshiteru Otani said of these two works
To me, Sparky [Schulz] was an artist with whom I could share the pleasures of creativity- a good friend and a great teacher. These pieces, the Morphing Snoopy and the Tile Mural are my interpretation of the two themes Sparky [Schulz] and I agree upon; the evolution of his work and the everyday aspect of doing a daily cartoon for 50 years.
Stenciled high on the wall opposite Morphing Snoopy is a tongue in cheek description of what Charles Schulz said of his own profession:
Another morphing example was that of the bird Woodstock. Stenciled on the wall in the Downstairs Changing Gallery that featured Woodstock was this flight of change throughout the years 1950 to 1969.
Still on the first floor, for the second time, we took in the visiting Woodstock Gallery. Flowers - flower power perhaps - abound within the Woodstock featured area. A theme abounds that being small does not mean being of no importance. Woodstock and Snoopy are important friends to each other. A film we were to see later reinforced the philosophies of smallness and friendship.
There was a presentation of the birdbath as a medium for Schulz's humor.
Being from the San Francisco Bay Area, this weather strip tickled my fancy. It is so true!
This wall mural made me grin. Schulz's love for hockey made a Zamboni appear even in a birdbath.
We still had more we wanted to revisit on the second floor. At the top of the stairs was a small area devoted to the Little Red-Haired Girl modeled after his real life girlfriend Donna Wold, a colleague at the art school where Charles Schulz taught and who had red hair of course. He proposed. She turned him down. She is immortalized in his work. It is rumored that admission to the Schulz Museum is free to red-haired girls on Valentine's Day. Do not feel too bad about his rejection, though. Charles and Donna still corresponded as friends and he was happily married at the end of his life with eleven grandchildren. The kite eating tree in the outer courtyard was inspired by his outings with his children and grandchildren. This sign in the Little Red-Haired Girl exhibit expresses a romantic idea. The possible case of unrequited love might inspire you to write a country music hit song! Make some lemonade out of those lemons, why don't ya?
Tucked in an alcove near this exhibit overlooking the Great Hall is a life-sized doghouse wrapped in tarpaulin, polyethylene, and ropes, and presented to Jean Schulz for permanent display at the Museum. It was a gift from environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Schulz was supportive of these artists when building their Running Fence in Sonoma and Marin Counties in 1976. This artist couple is also famous for Valley Curtain in Colorado in 1970-72 and Wrapped Walkway in Kansas City, Missouri in 1977-78. Schulz cited these works in a 1978 cartoon strip.
In September 2001 the wall was carefully removed intact and transported via a temperature controlled truck to the museum. I cannot say that the dark brown tone is my favorite, but then it is a part of history. Can you find Charlie Brown being nimble and quick and jumping over the candlestick?
The major portion of the second floor was devoted to biographical data of Charles Schulz, a recreation of his studio, and evidence of his world renown. Authors are advised to write about what they know, so as a parallel, it should not be surprising how much the Peanuts character strip drew from Schulz's life. Little snippets caught my eye that I thought were worth remembering. One display noted that in 1945 he was "hired as a teacher at Art Instruction, Inc. where he met fellow instructors Charlie Brown, Linus Mauer, and Frieda Rich". Do those names sound familiar? Another display reminded me that in 1969 "NASA astronauts named the Apollo 10 command module Charlie Brown and the lunar module Snoopy". Also in 1969 the "Redwood Empire Ice Arena ... opened and ... 1968 Olympic Gold Medalist Peggy Fleming headlined the event". In 1974 Schulz presided as Grand Marshall of the 85th Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California with this comic strip as commentary.
Farther down the gallery from this biographical timeline was a recreation of the cartoonist's studio. I gave a passing glance at the various knick knacks and awards and books on the shelves of the wood paneled office and observed a bit longer his drawing table and implements of his trade. A picture of his eleven grandchildren gave me a warm family feel. But what fascinated me was video loop playing on an old TV where Schulz himself talked as he worked. Intended to be aired as a TV show he used a felt tipped pen in parts of it to be more visible to the camera. But when he reverted back to drawing drawing with his customary nib-tipped fountain pen, his skill really shone. With just a few strokes and shadowing he could convey so much wit and wisdom it was fascinating to watch. By far my favorite part of the studio was a poem thumbtacked to the wall written by his son. I typed the verses beneath the following photo in case they are not legible from the photo alone. It speaks volumes of what kind of man Schulz was that his son should view him so. It touched me.
Farther down the gallery from this biographical timeline was a recreation of the cartoonist's studio. I gave a passing glance at the various knick knacks and awards and books on the shelves of the wood paneled office and observed a bit longer his drawing table and implements of his trade. A picture of his eleven grandchildren gave me a warm family feel. But what fascinated me was video loop playing on an old TV where Schulz himself talked as he worked. Intended to be aired as a TV show he used a felt tipped pen in parts of it to be more visible to the camera. But when he reverted back to drawing drawing with his customary nib-tipped fountain pen, his skill really shone. With just a few strokes and shadowing he could convey so much wit and wisdom it was fascinating to watch. By far my favorite part of the studio was a poem thumbtacked to the wall written by his son. I typed the verses beneath the following photo in case they are not legible from the photo alone. It speaks volumes of what kind of man Schulz was that his son should view him so. It touched me.
Little Boxes (For My Father)
I salute you,
Speaker to the world
Through little boxes.
I applaud the four little squares
A world watches and laughs with, mornings
And I share the fortune
You grant us,
Allowing a peek through four little windows
Into your world each day.
I cherish the wisdom lessons
And the story telling,
And always I treasure
The laughter,
Greeting every new morning.
Speaker to the world
Through little boxes:
I salute you.
And Charles Schulz did speak to the world. His comic strip was circulated in 75 countries and translated into more than 25 languages, even braille. When The Moscow News, an English-language weekly published Peanuts reprints without permission in 1973, Schulz frankly responded "If that's the only way I can get published in Russia it's all right with me. I guess it's better to be stolen than not to be worth stealing."
Films viewed
The museum is open 11:00 to 5:00 on weekdays. Since we'd arrived at 12:15 pm and then taken time to eat lunch we had less than four hours to visit the galleries. Although we wanted to take in some of the films offered, we did not want to squander our time in a dark theatre when the galleries beckoned. We made two down-selections base on duration, time offered, and which exhibit each of them coordinated with – Woodstock and the Little Red-Haired Girl. I am also hoping that the two interviews might be available on YouTube. Our choices were:
- 11:15 pm • Snoopy's Reunion • 30 minutes
- 11:45 pm • Charlie Brown's All Stars • 30 minutes
- 12:15 pm • TV Land Legend: The 60 Minutes Interview • 30 minutes
- 12:45 pm • Snoopy Come Home • 80 minutes
- 02:15 pm • A Charlie Brown Celebration • 50 minutes
- 03:15 pm • Woodstock: Creating Snoopy’s Sidekick • 15 minutes
- 03:30 pm • It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown • 30 minutes
- 04:00 pm • The Charlie Rose Interview • 40 minutes
Woodstock: Creating Snoopy’s Sidekick
This documentary focusing on Woodstock, Snoopy’s best friend. He might be a little yellow bird, but the character of Woodstock has a huge personality. Conceived as a loveable pest to Mr. Joe Cool himself, Woodstock is as much a comedic sidekick as he is a sarcastic thorn in the side of Snoopy. A perfect compliment to Snoopy, was Woodstock an agent of chaos in the calm and organized universe of everyone’s favorite beagle, or was he the device for Charles Schulz to further his social commentary on all things under the sun? This film is being shown in conjunction with the Peace, Love and Woodstock exhibition. (released in 2009 ● 15 minutes)
It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown
It’s homecoming at Charlie Brown’s school, and Charlie Brown and Linus are among the escorts for the Homecoming Queen and her court. During the Homecoming Parade, Linus tells Charlie Brown that he will be the escort for the Queen, but Charlie Brown is shocked when he sees the Queen is none other than the Little Red-Haired Girl herself. He is even more shocked when Linus tells him about the Homecoming tradition—that he has to escort Heather and give her a kiss on the cheek before the first dance. This may be Charlie Brown’s chance to finally kiss the girl of his dreams. (originally aired October 24, 1977 ● 30 minutes)
Finally, weary of being educated, although it was fun learning all this "neat stuff", it was play time for Frank and me. We went back to the Gallery Lounge on the first floor. I plunked myself down in Snoopy's oversized dog dish and established a rapport with Woodstock.
Then I moved on to Charlie Brown. Maybe the Little Red-Haired Girl had given him the brush off, but I was not going to.
Moving out into The Great Hall, Frank was in a racing mood. Observe that determined look on his face and his ready-to-win posture.
A final glimpse of The Great Hall showcased three pieces of artwork we had visited: Morphing Snoopy Wood Sculpture (near left), Wrapped Snoopy House (far left), and Peanuts Tile Mural (straight ahead).
We then headed toward the gift shop. We had allowed ourselves some time to visit it and I was glad we had. I had gleaned from the museum website that the gift shop was a treasure trove of other displays, not merely a mercenary attempt to extract money. On the way we still fooled around a bit more. All aspects of this place are packed with fun and whimsy. This booth was in front of the ice arena on the way to the gift shop. I admit. I may have been getting a bit tired by this time.
Snoopy's Gallery and Gift Shop
The walls and ramp leading up to a second level are packed with artwork in many different mediums as tributes to the Peanuts gang. How about this Mona Lucy?
Walls of the ramp to the mezzanine level are carpeted murals of the background landscapes where the Peanuts characters would walk and discuss life and of the skies where Snoopy would fly his plane. Mirrored crystal was a popular medium. In one corner was a shiny crystalline statue of Woodstock. Charlie's Brown's statue was at the mezzanine level and had snippets of the comic strips embedded in the base.
Midway up on the inclined journey upward was a bench painted as a hockey game in progress. The gift shop was not just for souvenirs. It sold skating equipment and other sports paraphernalia for hockey.
About three-fourths of the way up the ramp route to the mezzanine were a stained glass window on the right and a commemorative hand-crafted wooden model of the Sopwith Camel on the left.
We bought Alex a shirt at the gift shop and I bought a book about the holidays.
On our walk back to the parking lot we passed by the front of the museum where a landscaping feature, The Snoopy Labyrinth, is located. I learned that a labyrinth is different from a maze. A maze features false starts and dead ends. Labyrinths feature only a single winding path.
We did not walk the winding path but did read with interest its informational sign. It was time to go home. Besides those chocolate chip cookies were calling to us to be devoured during our return car ride.
It is a good thing that I am an independent blogger and not a professional author with an editor. This post is way too long and an editor would have made me omit a lot of it. But it is my vault for memories so I indulge myself. I also hope I may have enticed others to visit this fun, fascinating place. We can all do with more laughter and joy in our lives. I do, however, invoke the wisdom of Woodstock as my closing message for this post.
