Help Cartoon Classroom

Friends,

As one of its supporters and general helpers, I'd like to enlist your assistance this posting in the imminent launch of a new website ; and encourage you to register on it if you're a professional cartoonist/comic creator, or aspire to being such, or are interested in the study of cartoon art as a teacher or an educationalist here in the UK or Southern Ireland.
Cartoon Classroom is the inspiration of Steve Marchant, a cartoonist and teacher of cartooning, who began his tutoring career at The London Cartoon Centre - a charity-run, full-time evening school of cartoon and sequential art creation, which I was connected with for many years before it ran out of funding. Efforts to raise cash for it were continued until it became obvious the Centre could not be resurrected and continued for any worthwhile period. It then became a matter of deciding whether to return these donations to their source, or - at the permission of the donors - to use them to initiate something else that might generally help the cause the Centre espoused.
Steve decided that a good extension of the service the school once offered would be a website which had the main aim of centralising access to all the various means of studying cartoon and comic strip creation which exist throughout the UK and Southern Ireland .

The full list of its aims are as follows :

1) To put educational institutions in touch with cartoonists/sequential art creators who teach this specialised art form on a part-time or full-time basis in the designated area.

2 ) To document whatever is available through art colleges, workshops, recommended manuals and other media, which can help anyone studying to be a good cartoonist/comic creator.

3 ) To list all accessible museums and galleries which have comic/cartoon art on public view or in their archives, and to encourage those without any to acquire examples from local notable creators.

It's our intention that only a fraction of the information required for the site's operation will need to be supplied to the site by us - its administrators. Instead, details of courses, collections, locations and availability of tutoring will be added directly to the site by all those who use it. Ideally, it should be almost self-generating.
The most important thing for the site's effectiveness is that it offers comprehensive coverage of it's target area ; and for this to be achieved, we initially need to maximise our communication to all those institutions and individuals who'll make use of the site. Prior to it's coming launch, this is the toughest job we have. The site's initiators and supporters have time-consuming jobs and responsibilities which limit the hours we can devote to phoning and emailing - so the more work that can be done by simply spreading the word about it, the better.
If you can, please help us by contacting any person or institution you feel would add content to our database, and/or make use of it. To register an interest, and/or register a wish to enter Cartoon Classroom's database, is easy - go to www.cartoonclassroom.co.uk. Full information on what you have to offer can be entered when the site launches on October 3rd at the Birmingham International Comics Show. Email to contactcartoonclassroom@yahoo.co.uk.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope you'll be able to help us make Cartoon Classroom a success.

Cartoon Classroom is a non-profit organization managed and run by Steve Marchant, Paul Gravett and David Lloyd.