October 5, 2023

White River Junction, Vermont –The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) has launched its Applied Cartooning Lab beginning this Fall with a dedicated space on South Main Street and a new website that features comic projects ranging from civics to mental health.

The Applied Cartooning Lab works with organizations in Vermont and throughout the country to create unique educational resources and public education campaigns. “Since CCS opened its doors it’s been using comics to engage with the community and present complex issues and systems with clarity and style,” says James Sturm, the Applied Cartooning Lab’s director and cofounder of CCS, “the dedicated Lab will allow us to broaden and deepen the impact of our work.”

Local and national collaborators include the Vermont Humanities, Vermont’s Secretary of State’s office, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, The Prison Studies Project at Harvard University, Chicago’s Mikva Challenge, Stark County Mental Health and Addiction Recovery, Physicians for a National Health Program, Graphic Medicine International Collective, the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and many more.

Stop by the open house to read nonfiction comics, snag free zines, learn how to make your own zine, and chat with Lab cartoonists James Sturm, Dan Nott ’18, the newly appointed Applied Cartooning Fellow Shay Mirk, and the Lab’s interior decorator, Gabrielle Tinnirello ’23.

For a closer look at the Lab’s past projects and a glimpse at what’s to come, please check out appliedcartooning.org

Applied Cartooning illustration by Eleanor Davis.