Arts Council Axes Animate

We are very sorry to announce that Animate is likely to close down at the end of March 2011, following Arts Council England’s decision not to fund our 2011 programme.

Animate began in 1990 as an Arts Council/Channel 4 scheme and has been supported by the Arts Council England continuously for 21 years.

We set up Animate Projects four years ago, following the sudden death of Dick Arnall. animateprojects.org is a unique resource, with more than 140 films, many by key figures in British animation, including 11 British Animation Awards winners and five BAFTA nominations, as well as interviews, essays and background production materials.

We are very proud of the work that we have been able to support, and would like to thank all the animators, artists, filmmakers, writers, and partners that we’ve worked with over the years, and to everyone who has taken an interest in our work.

Our programme continues, with new works online, until March, and we hope to keep the website live for some time after that.

Whilst we are exploring options for beyond March, we would appreciate any expressions of support that might help.

Please comment below or email us at: info@animateprojects.org

Notes:

We set up Animate Projects in 2007 following the sudden death of Dick Arnall, on the understanding that the Arts Council intended to make us a ‘regularly funded organisation’, however they have only ever given us ‘project’ support.

Arts Council England told us that an application to Grants for the arts for our 2011 - 2012 programme was our only option for support. We have had positive discussions with Channel 4 and were hopeful that the AnimateTV scheme would run again.

The Arts Council assessment of the application stated that, although Animate Projects has a strong artistic record and is seen as a strategically important organisation, ‘it would not be fair or consistent to fund activity of this nature through Grants for the arts.’ This is despite our having been funded through Grants for the arts since 2007.

We have applied for ACE Portfolio funding, but that would commence in April 2012, and without GftA support we cannot sustain the organisation over the 12 months until then.

Animate Projects is the only UK organisation with a particular focus on the production and exhibition of experimental animation, and is at the forefront in the commission of artists’ moving image for exhibition online and digital platforms.

Download the press release here.

AnimateTV 2008 is back on the telly

The hour long AnimateTV programme that was first broadcast in September 2008 is back on the TV - for one night only.

The programme, featuring all 7 films and interviews with the artists, is being repeated on Channel 4 on Monday night (2 February) at 12.20am and will be followed later on by Tim Hope's 2004 AnimateTV film Minema Cinema at 1.35am.

Michael Aubtin Madadi, creator of Tear Drops Blossom, has even done a nice drawing here to celebrate the repeat.


Image: Damaged Goods, Barnaby Barford

British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor - event this Thursday

Author event with Clare Kitson
Clare Kitson -Channel 4 commissioning editor responsible for animation from 1989 to 1999, and author of this excellent book is doing an illustrated talk at Pages of Hackney Bookshop this Thursday, 15 January. It starts at 7pm, costs £3, and you get a glass of wine as well.

Pages of Hackney
70 Lower Clapton Road, Clapton, London E5 0RN
Tel: 0208 525 1452

More information about the book here.

British animation: The Channel 4 factor

Clare Kitson commissioned animation for Channel 4 from 1989 to 1999, and her book is a personal and authoritative review of the period, bracketed with a bit of the before, and observations about the current state of play.

But the book is no wallow in a subjective history. Clare is scrupulous and questioning about all that kind of stuff. Her charting of the early days of Channel 4 is informative and evocative of the ambition and freedom of those times. And her perspective on how things have gone since her departure is considered, and where critical, recognises context and realities. 

But what's really great is what takes up most of the book - in depth, well illustrated essays on 30 key works - jam packed with facts and reflections - and providing unique insight into the processes of making animated films.  And if only one of these is an Animate film, then I'm consoled that 11 of them are made by people commissioned by Animate to make other films. 

The book is an invaluable, important, essential contribution. It gives a terrific sense - both in broadcasting and individual productions - of how things work.

From my own time at the Arts Council - I started working there as the first Animate films were being delivered - one of the things I remember about Clare is her generosity and risk-taking in accepting/trusting the opinion of others - at least in areas where she felt she lacked particular experience or expertise. So I'm sure she'll allow a couple of record straightening comments. 

I didn't simply 'migrate' from the Arts Council to set up Animate Projects - they'd made me redundant six months beforehand, and Jacqui and I spent a very uncomfortable couple of months where we cash-flowed things with our own money, looking after projects in production, and launching a new round in good faith, on the words, and promise of contracts, of the Arts Council and Channel 4.

I think Clare overstates Animate's relationship with LUX - they have distribution copies of the films, but the shift to an emphatically 'art' agenda for the broader Animate 'project' was something that Dick Arnall and the Animate freelancers forged ahead with, following an Arts Council review.  

And I can't agree that "British art animation in a fragile state". Funding certainly is, and as a result, the tradition of 'arthouse', independent animation is in a period of drought...but animation is a vital and flourishing aspect of current visual arts practice. And terms like 'fringe' and 'marginal' really depend on where you're viewing things from - Animate films have won Baftas and BAAs - and are shown internationally - and not just in 'cutting-edge' categories. But these tele-centric viewpoint lapses (ahem...) are minor and rare, and it feels a bit impertinent to even mention them. Animate's relationship with C4 - with, and since, Clare - has been one of utmost, reciprocal, respect. If only power and money were always in the hands of the ones who love you.

British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor

And here's a book we haven't got our hands on yet, but we're told it's in the post...Clare Kitson's British Animation: The Channel 4 Factor, published on 19 November. Pre order here.

Clare was Channel 4's animation commissioning editor from 1989 to 1999, and with the Arts Council's David Curtis, set up the Animate scheme. And the sample pages should really whet your appetite...it looks gorgeous.

Clare will be talking about the book..in person...at Encounters Festival at Watershed, Bristol, on Wednesday, 19 November.  And she's introducing a programme of Channel 4 films at Curzon Soho in London on Friday 5 December.

The still above...which you'll notice appropriately features a representation of a television set...is from Phil Mulloy's legendary Cowboys series - commissioned for Animate Year 1 (though I think it was called Animation Awards in the beginning).

And if you're the bookish type...have you bought The Animate Book yet?  If not.  Why not.

If you order The Animate Book from us before the end of the year, and quote 'blog' in the comments section, we'll throw in a free limited edition Animate t-shirt - tell us if you want an Al and Al or a Run Wrake design, male or female, small, medium or large...

AnimateTV 2009 - new projects selected

We had our advisory panel meeting last week, followed by interviews, and finally made a decision. It was particularly tough this year, especially when we got down to the final six.

The AnimateTV 2009 Advisory Panel members were: Ruth Jarman (artist, Semiconductor), Alex Maclean (Creative Director/Founder, Airside), and Polly Staple (Director, Chisenhale Gallery), along with Jacqui Davies and Gary Thomas (Co-directors of Animate Projects), and Ruth Fielding from Lupus Films - C4's animation consultants who are developing 4mations.tv.

And the commissioned artists are...Thomas Hicks, Petra Freeman, Cordelia Swann, and Sarah Wood.

Lots of information very soon at animateprojects.org

AnimateTV is commissioned by Channel 4, and supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

AnimateTV 2009 Selection

The deadline for proposals for our new commissions for Channel 4 was 31 July. We got 131 submissions, and we're now in the middle of the selection process. We've got a shortlist of 20, and the advisory panel meets up at the beginning of September. We'll let you know how that goes...

Sending rejections is the least fun part, though we know it's worse getting them.