Cartoonist Gary Varvel to Conduct Two Workshops on Taylor Campus Next Week

Award-winning and longtime Indianapolis Star editorial cartoonist Gary Varvel will conduct two workshops on the Taylor University campus next week.

Varvel is a syndicated columnist and editorial cartoonist for Creators Syndicate and a contributor to the Indianapolis Business Journal. His editorial cartoons gained national recognition during a 24-year career with the Indianapolis Star. Varvel recently retired from the paper.

He will conduct two workshops on cartoon creation for 114 students from the Foellinger Foundation-sponsored Fort Wayne Summer Clubhouse program.

During his career, Varvel has been the recipient of numerous awards, which included the National Headliners Award, Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award for Best Editorial Cartoonist, and the Grambs Aronson Award for Cartooning with a Conscience.

Varvel was also a 15-time winner of the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists' Award for Best Editorial Cartoon and 13-time winner of the Best Editorial Cartoonist Award in the Hoosier State Press Association. In 2006, Varvel received the H. Dean Evans Legacy Award for community service; and in 2018, he received the Advancing American Democracy Award from the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The sessions will be held from 10:25-11:30 am, in room MMVA002 of the Modelle Metcalf Visual Arts Center on Wednesday, June 19; and Thursday, June 20.

The Summer Clubhouse Program is sponsored by Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Foellinger Foundation, and is operated by Taylor University. The program is held at multiple locations in Fort Wayne and provides programming for youth that encourages positive social, emotional, and academic development.

The Foellinger Foundation, Inc. is a private, charitable foundation that awards grants for the benefit of people in Fort Wayne and Allen County, Indiana. The Foundation was created in 1958 by Helene R. Foellinger, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel’s publisher from 1936 to 1980, and her mother, Esther A. Foellinger.