Building
for the Future

CCS’s campus renewal brings sustainability, economic growth, and a creative hub to the region

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About the Telegraph Renovation Campaign

The future Telegraph. Drawing by Mitra Farmand ’13, animation by Alec Longstreth. Learn more about the style of this drawing and animation inspired by a foundational first-year Ed Emberley assignment at The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS), in which students create an eight-page comic that follows a journey.

As we celebrate 20 years, The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) is undertaking a transformational $3.3 million Campus Renewal Project. This effort will culminate in a two- building historic campus that is fully accessible and climate-resilient-ensuring that CCS can continue to enrich the cultural and economic vitality of the region, serve as a cornerstone of Vermont’s arts ecosystem, and support a community of cartoonists whose work reaches audiences worldwide.

CCS is renovating the Old Telegraph Building, which will join the Old Post Office building that CCS purchased and renovated 13 years ago. Together, these two historic sites will provide a permanent home for CCS programs, partnerships, and community connection and engagement.

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Why this project matters

For years, CCS’s programs have operated across rented spaces, many below ground, vulnerable to flooding and water damage. While all those harrowing events trying to save books, computers, and art were exhilarating (not really), as climate conditions worsen, that model is no longer sustainable. The Telegraph renovation project will ensure stability, equity, and resilience for decades to come by:

  • Creating a fully accessible campus
  • Moving all programming above ground and protecting vital programs from climate-related risk
  • Consolidating operations to create efficiency and open up two key downtown retail storefronts
  • Aligning CCS’s physical campus with its long-term mission as a collaborator and creative hub
  • Securing CCS’s campus in a highly competitive and limited real-estate historic district

ADAPTIVE REUSE FOR CREATIVE WORK

The renewed Old Telegraph Building will support expanded programming and collaboration, including:

  • A state-of-the-art Production Lab
  • A Learning Center
  • Dedicated Studio Space
  • An Archive of Original Artwork
  • The Schulz Library Research Space
  • The Applied Cartooning Lab
  • A specialized Bookshop that will sell comics and graphic novels!

Our project rehabilitates a long-dormant 100-year-old building in the heart of our downtown arts district, advancing measurable climate action through adaptive reuse and electrification. By preserving embodied carbon, avoiding demolition waste, and installing high-efficiency HVAC heat pumps and other energy-saving measures identified in our campus efficiency study, the renovation significantly reduces lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions compared to new construction. Now 85% funded and nearing completion of Brownfield remediation, this priority regional initiative expands accessible arts programming and strengthens economic resilience through a new independent bookstore partnership, generating lasting environmental and community impact.

“I visited the school (CCS) and my decision was instant,” said Tillie Walden. “It had everything I was looking for: teachers I loved and respected, a challenging curriculum, and a community of like-minded cartoonists.”

— Tillie Walden ’16

Help us renovate the Telegraph

  • Project Total: $3.3 million
  • Raised to Date: $2.8 million (85%)
  • Remaining Need: $500,000

We are in the final phase of this project and invite you to help bring it across the finish line. Your gift will:

  • Secure a fully accessible, above-ground campus.
  • Expand programs that serve students, educators, and the public.
  • Revitalize a long-vacant and dilapidated historic building.
  • Strengthen downtown vitality and the regional economy.
  • Advance the field of cartooning.
  • Empower future generations of artists.
  • Grants
  • Foundations
  • Finance
  • Funding Gap

CCS plans to move into the renovated Old Telegraph Building in fall 2026. As we mark 20 years of impact, we invite you to help build the next 20+

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Map drawing by Dan Nott ’18
  • Second Floor Arch. Drawing
  • First Floor Arch. Drawing
  • Future Production Lab
  • Future Bookshop

The introduction of a new, visually focused bookstore — operated in partnership with a local independent bookseller — adds a new book retail destination to the village for the first time in decades. This expansion supports small business growth, creates jobs, increases foot traffic, and enhances the visitor experience in our downtown arts district. Oh, and by the way, you will be able to buy comics and graphic novels in the village!

By the numbers

98%

Student retention rate An extraordinary statistic! Students often stay in the region after graduation.

1,000+

Students from across the country attend in-person and online workshops, events, webinars, public lectures, and events.

3,500+

Cartoon Club Students Our popular local outreach program serving youth in our community.

$3M

Economic Impact Annually
A $500K increase after the Telegraph Renovation.

$300k+

Property Tax
CCS is the only nonprofit paying property taxes in the region!

$50k

In Scholarships annually Including local, need-based, and the Ed Koren Scholarship, in honor of the legendary cartoonist.

150,000+

Graphic Guides distributed 
across 50 states, and 9,000+ free digital downloads since 2019.

$28k

Cartoon Studio Prizes
In its 14th season, awarding prizes to the best of long-form and short-form comics.

34

Fellows since 2005
including the Cornish-CCS Fellowship which is in partnership with renowned cartoonist Harry Bliss. With over $250k to artists since founding.

30+

Workshops and lectures
each year at schools, colleges, and libraries throughout the country.

30+

Visiting Artists
Over 30 artists are invited to CCS annually for talks, workshops, demos, and events including Alison Bechdel, Raina Telgemeier, Tara Booth, Liniers, Ben Passmore, Mike Curato, Olivia Stephens, Jules Sharpe, and Deb JJ Lee.

+++

Sponsorships
to local community events, national conventions, and zine fairs across the country & donated space to local organizations.

Sasha Velour ’13
Pepita Sandwich ’19

Project Milestones & Updates

See all project updates

Mar 2026

Abatement 95% completed
Allowing us to start construction this spring

Aug 2025

Building Purchased
At a below-market rate, thanks to the support from our partners

Sep 2024

Ready to Move Forward 
Three big milestones allowed CCS to move from planning to the implementation phase

Telegraph Renovation – November 2026 – First Floor – Future Production Lab

Transforming the historic Telegraph building into a creative hub

Past

Present

Future

History of the Telegraph Building

The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company (known as “The Telegraph”) was originally built in 1922 as a two-story Colonial Revival brick building on the former location of a c. 1890 Queen Anne house that was moved across the street in 1917. 

The black-and-white photo above, believed to date from the 1930s, shows the original structure at the corner of Gates and Currier streets, with an unpainted brick facade and without the later-added pedimented portico. 

The adjacent four-story brick structures were added in 1961 and 1975, making the Telegraph Building the tallest structure in the historic district at the time. 

When it opened in 1922, the Telegraph was a state-of-the-art telecommunications building that connected the White River Junction community to the world. In 2026, CCS is honoring its legacy by repurposing it as a creative hub for the town, connecting our small village to a broad audience of readers.

Credits: Historical data from www.hartford-vt.org. Photo: “Images of America: Hartford”, by Frank J. Barrett Jr., 2009, Arcadia Publishing.

Project Brief

Have questions? Want to support this project?

For more information or to discuss
ways to support our project:

Rita Souther, CCS Grant Writer and
Stewardship Manager
souther@cartoonstudies.org
802.295-3319

The Center for Cartoon Studies
PO BOX 125
White River Junction, VT 05001

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Our mission

The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) explores the past, present, and potential of comics and is dedicated to providing the highest-quality education to students interested in creating visual stories. CCS’s curriculum of art, graphic design, and literature reflects the vast array of skills needed to create comics and graphic novels. CCS emphasizes self-publishing and prepares its students to publish, market, and disseminate their work. Recognizing the central role that socially responsible organizations play in community life, CCS actively contributes to the cultural and economic vitality of the region.

The Center for Cartoon Studies is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt institution. CCS does not discriminate in its admissions policy on the basis of race, religion, or ethnic origin.

cartoonstudies.org
Ways to support this project
Renovation photos
Project updates
Campus Map of WRJ
Telegraph homepage

About the Ed Emberley assignment

The style of this drawing and animation is inspired by a foundational first-year assignment at The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS), in which students create an eight-page comic that follows a journey. The project draws on the approach of Ed Emberley—an artist and author whose beloved drawing instruction books have guided generations of children and adults, demonstrating how complex characters and lively scenes can emerge from the simplest shapes, lines, and dots. Like Emberley’s work, this lesson invites students to discover how imagination expands when working within beautifully simple constraints.

Thank you to our project partners and supporters:

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