ASIFA.NET/NEWS - February 2001 Back to asifa/news Archive



Topics:

  • VRANJE 2000 (Yugolsavia) - Int. Animation Workshop
  • ASIFA Colorado  -  a   n e w   A S I F A   c h a p t e r ! ! !


    • The 2nd International Animation Workshop
    >>> Vranje 2000 (Yugoslavia)

    Bordo Dovnikovic reports about this wonderful animation workshop (held in the south of Serbia a year after the killing), seeing it as a strong statement for peace and multi-cultural thinking.
    The report can be found in the INFO ZONE, in the section of the "ASIFA Animation Workshop Group".
    Or you click here.



    >>> A heartly   W E L C O M E   to ASIFA Colorado

    ASIFA Opens Colorado Chapter (January 20, 2001)

    ASIFA-Colorado was officially inaugurated and celebrated on January 20, 2001 with a party, which brought together an audience of over 120 of animators, students and animation enthusiasts. The event included an exciting show of animation work created by a wide variety of animation styles and techniques by artists from around the world.

    Heading up ASIFA's newest chapter is Edward Bakst, award-winning master animator and designer/director as well as the founding chair of the new animation department at Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design.
    "The aim of our new organization is to bring together animation artists, students and those passionate about our art, not just from within Colorado but also from all of the surrounding states. There exists here a creative void and a certain sense of alienation and a lack of creative interactively associated with the main metropolitan centers such as Los Angeles or New York City"
    (says Bakst, himself is a very recent transplant from New York City.)
    "This, in turn, offers a great opportunity for our new organization not to only satisfy the existing hunger but also to inspire and stimulate creative activity and bring about a rebirth of the art of animation within this region of America".
    ASIFA-Colorado's true to form mantra is visible in the cast of visiting international artists and scholars who expose animation practitioners, students or enthusiasts to a variety of attitudes, power of imagination styles, diverse creative ideas, and different philosophies on the art of animation throughout the world.

    Thanks to a partnership with the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design and its animation department, ASIFA-Colorado is able to offer its members an opportunity for creative growth through exposure to foreign cultures and an exchange of ideas between international animators and scholars who come to RMCAD, invited by Bakst to participate in the animation department, as either visiting scholars, artists or faculty.
    "Within the first 4 months alone, we had the pleasure of welcoming here international guests and faculty from Austria, California, Russia and Denver".
    We began this term by welcoming to our faculty a renowned computer animation artist from Poland and a Romanian life drawing artist.

    Within the next three months we shall also be visited by famed animation historians from Italy and Canada. For the following term we hope to welcome a famed experimental and stop motion animator from Estonia. This varied exposure results in contrasting, thought provoking and imagination inspiring exchanges so essential to evolution of any art form.

    Future monthly meetings will include appearances by Italy's Giannalberto Bendazzi and Poland's famed animator Zbigniew Dowgiello, as well as an appearance by Chris Robinson, Executive Director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival. Most recently on February 1, Giannalberto Bendazzi presented and discussed a program on Italian animation.
    Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design, founded in 1963, is a four-year college providing students with a foundation in traditional and contemporary art and design studies. With an average enrollment of 400 students, RMCAD provides a friendly, highly charged atmosphere with a great deal of one-on-one interaction between students and faculty members. Degree programs include Animation, Graphic Design & Interactive Media, Illustration, Interior Design, Painting & Drawing and Sculpture.


    For More Information Please Contact:
    Edward Bakst
    Phone: (800) 888-ARTS
    E-Mail: EBakst@rmcad.edu or ASIFA-Colorado@rmcad.edu

    Report written by Chris Robinson