Jun 13, 2013

I'm excited to have been invited down to Jamaica at the end of June to host an Animation workshop with Don Perro on behalf of Capilano University.

The Kingstoon Animation festival runs June 20 - 21 at the University of the West Indies, which will be followed up by Don and my workshop June 24 - 28. Fabio Pittiluga of the World Bank has a great blog which outlines the current and future opportunities Jamaican youth have in the animation industry.

http://blogs.worldbank.org/latinamerica/how-cartoons-could-mean-serious-business-jamaica

The Kingstoon festival link:

https://www.facebook.com/kingstoonfest

Our goal over the week is to generate an animated advertisement campaign to highlight gender inequality and violence towards women. Don and I will be conducting the workshop over a 5 day period, after which we will leave the country, and the students to finish off the project over the following weeks.

This venture is particularly dear to my heart, as my family and I left Jamaica when I was a small child. Jamaica's infrastructure has taken a real hit since its heyday in the early half of the 20th century. With rife unemployment, its encouraging to know that there are opportunities ahead for the youth of the island.

I will attempt to blog from Kingston during what will be a busy week. I've managed to sneak an extra few days into the trip to head up to the North Coast for a couple days of R&R before the long haul back to Vancouver.

Irie