Animation, Arrivants & Activism, Royal Drawing School

Animation, Arrivants & Activism: Joan Ashworth, Lee Shearman and Emily Haworth-Booth

17 June 2020

You can find out more about the talk on the Royal Drawing School's website. The event was recorded and can be listened to on their soundcloud, with links to the animation clips shared here and here.

Joan and Lee have been collaborating with Saifoudiny Diallo (Dine), of Giocherenda, on a particular story throughout the animation workshops. In the talk they discuss the most recent workshop with Giocherenda in February, of which you can watch a short film here. They detail the storytelling process and animation techniques, sharing reflections on the impact of the workshops on the participants and on future plans.

Joan Ashworth - artist, filmmaker and independent scholar. Joan’s work includes her short film Mushroom Thief (2010) exploring, wildness, landscape and stealing, and How Mermaids Breed (2002) inspired by Bronze Age Cycladic fertility figures, the drawings of Henry Moore, and Birling Gap Beach, Sussex. Currently, she is immersed in creative non-fiction in the form of an animated portrait of artist and campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst. Her research work includes Animation Therapy working with therapists to explore ways of using animation to enhance clinical, therapeutic practice, and also working with Great Ormond Street Hospital and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to develop an interactive tool, CHILDSPLA, for measuring health states in children. Joan works through her own company Seedfold Films and is based in London and lectures and runs workshops internationally.

Lee Shearman – Arts educator, illustrator and designer. Lee is a multi-disciplinary artist combining experimental artists' books, design, collage and stop frame animation. In 2001 he co-founded Borbonesa Art Company; a group of artists collaborating to produce multi-authored artworks. Borbonesa work in partnership with schools and cultural organisations to devise and deliver creative learning opportunities for learners of all ages and backgrounds. In 2012 he founded u>Micro Library Books; a small press publishing platform for experimental illustrative ideas-based publications. Lee regularly lectures for universities, galleries and art organisations and facilitates innovative and dynamic creative learning opportunities in contemporary bookmaking and stop frame animation. Lee is currently lecturer in Illustration at the University of Portsmouth.