Bill Matthews Library

In December 2015, VanArts officially opened the BILL MATTHEWS REFERENCE LIBRARY, with many thanks to our good friend and founding advisor Bill Matthews (retired Manager of Artists’ Development at Walt Disney Animation Studios) for kindly donating his personal collection of over 700 books to our campus.

The collection includes books on animation technique, life drawing, comics, illustration, photography, and the rich history of animation, film, Hollywood, archaeology, ancient civilizations, fine arts, and the world. The collection has been set up in its own dedicated space along with prints of animation drawings, cels,  and caricatures of Bill drawn for him as gifts from artists at Walt Disney Studios over the years. (It became a tradition for animated “cameos” of Bill to find their way into such films as Mulan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Little Mermaid and Oliver and Company.)

Students are free to use the Bill Matthews Library as a resource for images or historical information related to school assignments, personal browsing and interest, and as a quiet place to study.