Monday, August 08, 2005

Sim on Museum

Dave Sim's proposal for a Canadian Graphic Novel Museum is now online:

"The recently completed experiment with Lithograph No.1: Neil Gaiman—as a benefit for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund—actually originated in my thinking of how to do fund-raising for a possible Canadian Graphic Novel Museum not unmindful as I am of the fact that any sort of Museum is a risky proposition which is why I want to have a solid foundational home for the preservation of all material at an enduring institution like Wilfrid Laurier or U of W or NYU or McMaster or York before taking even the most preliminary steps in setting such a project in motion. So, what I wanted to do was a series of extremely limited edition prints of and related to Canada’s Graphic Novelists and to auction them pretty much in the same way that Lithograph No.1: Neil Gaiman is being auctioned: trickling them out—anywhere from a single impression to a handful of impressions a year and keeping the total number of impressions down to around 50 and no higher than 75. Basically what I envision is financing the preservation (and, ultimately, the display of the artwork) through the selling of signed limited edition copies of our work."

"The management of the Canadian Graphic Novel Museum should always be in as few hands as possible and the control over that management should be in as many hands as possible, the latter controlling the livelihood of the former. Ideally, management should be on a volunteer basis with the preservation and proper display of the material as the only material reward. "

Dave's Cerebus Archive Report