ST PAUL, Minn. — This summer, the Minnesota History Center opened the Life and Art of Charles M. Schulz. The exhibit will remain open through July 9, 2024.
"Charles Schulz is from St. Paul and he went to Central High School in St. Paul," said Kimmy Tanaka, community engagement manager for the Minnesota Historical Society, which runs the history museum.
Tanaka said, this fall, they found a special way to connect with students enrolled in Schulz's alma mater.
"We worked with Central High School's intermediate drawing students and we went to the school and we held a couple of workshops doing a short-form comic-making series with a teaching artist," Tanaka explained. "We introduced them to some of the Snoopy Peanuts comic strips. We gave them a few prompts like, 'Home is...,' 'Blue is...' and 'Happiness is...'"
Now, just a floor below the main exhibit, their comic strips are on display. And on Wednesday, students like Yuri Rivers went on a field trip to see their art on museum walls for the first time.
"The title is Midnight Blue," Rivers said of his work. "This is because it's a dark night, it's rainy. You would always think gloomy, but he decides to play guitar and be happy about the blues because the blues isn't a song about sadness, it's a song about becoming happy in spite of sadness."
A Central High School junior, Rivers picked up a guitar two years ago and is now in a jazz band. And while it's his second year singing in the choir, this is his first drawing class at school.
"I myself plan to be an actor," Rivers said. "I was just in a musical at my school. Yes, the Little Mermaid. I was King Triton."
He says he likes many art forms, including the comic strip project inspired by Schulz.
"This is just a chord," he said, pointing to his drawing of a hand over guitar strings. "It's a chord often used in the blues. It's a 7th chord."
Rivers says he intentionally kept some white space and used blue and black ink to create all six panels.
"There's something about short-form comics that you can say a lot with just a few panels," Tanaka said. "It kind of speaks to maybe the generation too because of social media and communicating with just a few words or just a few images, which is also something Charles Schulz was good at - finding those mundane moments in life and finding the humor in them or finding really complex in them."
While Rivers included just a few words in his work, "I'm feeling kind of blue today," sophomore Laney Kravis chose a lengthier narrative for her comic, Home is Where my Family is.
"Home is where my family is, yet they're not home," the aspiring animator read aloud. "They're not here. Kidnapped, missing in action. They've been gone for three years. Where could they have gone? Please tell me where they are if they're safe and please bring them home."
The students say they're proud of each other and proud of themselves.
"Well, this is a great start," Rivers said. "Maybe someday, you know, when they look back on this they'll be like, 'He had his art in a museum one day.' It's a good accomplishment. My mom came by earlier and saw it."
Their work will be on display through early March.
The project was funded by Minnesota's Legacy Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.
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