MORE THAN a dozen young artists flocked to the New England Regional Art Museum to cut, crop and design their own animated film.
Director Robert Heather said the museum was thrilled with the turnout for the workshop which was based on a current exhibit last weekend.
“The exhibition is based upon the much loved picture book by author and artist Shaun Tan and how it was turned into an Academy Award winning short animated film,” Mr Heather said.
“It has been extremely popular with visitors of all ages.
“We have even had a large number of grandparents so it’s one of those shows that crosses generations.”
The exhibition has been organised by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne.
The Animating Utopia workshop will be held on Saturday and introduced participants to the animation production process.
“The Shaun Tan exhibit was so busy over the weekend, we had more than 300 people on Saturday and nearly 200 on Sunday,” Mr Heather said.
“By the end of the show we will have had about 8000 people through.”
The young people watched and analysed Tan’s The Lost Thing then designed of their very own Lost Thing character, looking at shape, colour, texture and then movement when animating their stop motion character through The Lost Thing Utopia.
“We had some really positive feedback from the workshop,” Mr Heather said.
“The workshop completely booked out almost straight away … we are really pleased that it went so well.
“And especially doing an activity where people can do learn something new is a really important component.”
Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing: From book to film is on show will finish this weekend on July 24 at the New England Regional Art Museum.
“There’s a buzz around the New England Regional Art Museum at the moment with the Council and new funding,” Mr Heather said.
“We are having a lot of locals and tourists visiting and attendances are really good.”
This project has been funded by the Australian Government through the Visions of Australia program.
The workshop is one of many activities offered by the museum with a story time session popular during the school holidays.
“We had a really great response to story time,” Mr Heather said.
“All the readers were local volunteers which was great and we were pleased with the outcome.”
NERAM will open the University of New England School Acquisitive Art Prize with the Let’s Hang It! exhibition will debut on July 29 with an opening and prize-giving ceremony from 6pm.
