Animating from Care
Charcoal Animation Course for Care-experience Learners
We all have stories to tell - valid, powerful, impactful stories. Sometimes, these are the stories of our imaginations. Always, these are narratives from or inspired by the journeys of our lives. And often, our stories influence those journeys, but remain hidden, secrets perhaps, on the fringes.
For individuals who have lived through the care system, the stories of life can be particularly intense and outside of the understanding of most. They can also have an impact on a person’s social integration and personal growth. The latest NSPCC ‘Children in care: statistics briefing’ (Nov. 2024) noted an 8% increase in looked-after children over the previous five years, along with acknowledgement that this cohort had poorer mental health outcomes and lower levels of overall personal wellbeing than the general child population, barring children in need. Instability in the home, problematic family relationships, childhood traumas and emotional dysregulation, among a host of other factors, account for real levels of social isolation and disadvantage among those who have experienced the care system, along with higher rates of criminalisation (ONS, 5 Dec. 2022).
Storytelling through moving-image making offers a beautiful creative outlet for countering stigmas stemming from acute adverse childhood experiences. It also provides opportunities for improved personal wellbeing and, as a skills-based endeavour, increased social capital.
Charcoal animation workshops build creative communication skills, nurture artistic growth and enable tech-related learning.
Structures and Outcomes
This initiative is for anyone who has lived through the care system - fostering and adoption - and is keen to develop their storytelling skills or simply find a fresh way to tell stories that matter to them.
It is primarily differentiated by age groups, although existing skills levels and neurodiversity considerations of learners play a part in lesson planning
., from 1.5-hour mini-workshops for 10 - 13 years to the 3-day courses for older age groups
10 - 13 Years
1.5-hour mini workshops in animation practice, creating short, simple loops
participants guided in developing moving-image content indicative
14 - 25 Years
25+ Years
Teasels is cabaret with audience participation, co-created performance art. In a two-hour show, audiences are treated to a drawing experience that brings forth and accentuates the best of cabaret, with all levels of drawing ability welcome and encouraged.
Performers themselves are treated to a step-change in their creative practice, becoming life models for the first time - for most of them - and, in turn, realising a transforming their relationship with the crowd - performance subject becomes art subject.
Teasels is a fully mobile experience - suited for the stage but perfectly adaptable to any space, nook or cranny. We launched the initiative in April 2022 in the Victorian-inspired cinema at Cooper’s Yard Studios, SE London, and now we’re looking for new delivery partners to help is scale up and reach new participants - audiences and performers alike.
If you’re a venue, cabaret performer or training institute or perhaps an individual with a strong interest in exploring the range - the potential! - of cabaret fused with fine-art practice, we’d live to hear from you.
