Fenimore Art Museum presents Exploring Calvin & Hobbes

The Comic Strip that Transcends Generations and Imaginations Comes to Cooperstown

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Fenimore Art Museum is pleased to present Exploring Calvin & Hobbes, beginning Saturday, September 13, 2025 and on view through December 31, 2025. Exploring Calvin and Hobbes revisits the beloved comic strip created by Bill Watterson from 1985 to 1995 and explores his mastery of the comic strip art form through engaging characters, thoughtful writing and creative layouts.

The exhibition will feature original Calvin and Hobbes daily and Sunday strips as well as specialty pieces by Watterson from his collection of more than 3,000 originals housed at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University. Calvin and Hobbes appeared in 2,400 newspapers worldwide at the height of its popularity. Watterson won the National Cartoonists Society's prestigious Reuben Award for "Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year" in both 1986 and 1988.

Six-year-old Calvin, named after the 16th-century theologian John Calvin, has a vivid imagination; an aversion to homework, chores and girls; and a penchant for discussing the meaning of life. Hobbes, named for the 17th-century British philosopher Thomas Hobbes, appears to most of the strips' characters as a stuffed animal, but from Calvin's perspective, he is a living, breathing—sometimes even dangerous—tiger. He's also a best friend, a playmate, a co-conspirator and occasionally the voice of reason. The strip follows the two as they navigate the bumpy ride of life, surrounded by a supporting cast that includes Calvin's parents, his neighbor Susie, his babysitter Rosalyn, the school bully Moe and his teacher, Mrs. Wormwood.

Exploring Calvin and Hobbes will delight fans of the strip, which remains popular with readers of all ages. In addition to the exhibition, which will be housed in Scriven Gallery, the East Gallery will feature an interactive children's makerspace complete with a drawing table, activity guide, and life-size adaptations off the beloved duo, Calvin & Hobbes.

To further expand the visitor experience, several workshops and programs have been planned, including:

• Tiger Portrait Needle Felting Workshop | September 20, 2025
• Food for Thought, Exploring Calvin & Hobbes | September 24, 2025
• Family Sketch and Nature Walk, Inspired by Calvin & Hobbes | September 27, 2025
• Exploring Calvin & Hobbes with Special Guest, Jenny E. Robb | October 18, 2025
• Comin Strip Workshop for Kids (9-12) | October 19, 2025
• Calvin & Hobbes Inspired Costume Contest & Trick or Treating at Fenimore Farm | October 25, 2025
• Food for Thought, Exploring Calvin & Hobbes | November 5, 2025

This exhibit was curated by Jenny E. Robb, Head curator for the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. This traveling exhibition was organized by The Ohio State University Libraries' Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

This project is supported through a Market New York grant awarded by Empire State Development and I LOVE NY, New York State's Division of Tourism. Additional support comes from The Clark Foundation, Mr. Tom Morgan and Ms. Erna J. McReynolds.

For more information on this exhibition or to pre-register for any of the related programs, visit www.fenimoreart.org.

About The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, part of The Ohio State University Libraries, houses the world's largest collection of materials related to cartoons and comics, including original art, books, magazines, journals, comic books, archival materials and newspaper comic strip pages and clippings.

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Kerri Green,
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(607) 547-1472 | [email protected]

About Fenimore Art Museum Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper's "Glimmerglass"—in historic Cooperstown, New York, presents changing exhibitions each season. Past shows have featured artists such as Keith Haring, Ansel Adams, Banksy, M.C. Escher, and many others. The museum features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, and portrait paintings from artists including Albert Bierstadt, Mary Cassatt, William Merritt Chase, Frederic Edwin Church, Childe Hassam, Martin Johnson Heade, Robert Henri, George Inness, Eastman Johnson, Joshua Johnson, Thomas Moran, Georgia O'Keeffe, Maurice Prendergast, John Singer Sargent, Max Weber, and James McNeill Whistler; more than 125,000 historic photographs representing the technical developments made in photography and providing extensive visual documentation of the region's unique history; and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art comprised of nearly 900 art objects representative of a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, from the Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Great Lakes, and Prairie regions. Visit FenimoreArt.org.

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SOURCE Fenimore Art Museum