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Sujean Gahng realized as a freshman that the College of Visual and Performing Arts wasn’t providing enough resources to animation students like herself. Gahng also noticed that there wasn’t much opportunity for students outside of her computer art and animation major to get involved with the art of animation.

Gahng created a Syracuse University chapter of Women in Animation with the help of e-board members, such as Leia Bisgard and Amanda Lennes. The club drew 17 students for its first informational meeting on Sept. 19 and plans on having more events, including workshops, in the future.

Gahng, president of the chapter, said WIA at SU seeks to educate members about the animation industry, teach technical skills and help students network with professionals.

“What we’re trying to do is make animation people more aware of the animation resources on campus,” Bisgard said. “No matter their gender.”

With the intention of bringing animation resources to both animation majors and non-majors, Gahng approached a handful of her classmates, including Bisgard and Lennes, in spring 2020. But it wasn’t until this semester that they would host their first official informational meeting.

The club is entirely event and workshop-based, with meeting times scheduled at various times throughout the week. As of right now, the group has held meetings entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic but hopes to conduct workshops in person at the Shaffer Art Building.

At the workshops in Shaffer, students will be able to participate in “mini crash courses,” on animation programs like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe After Effects. The SU WIA e-board members are looking for professors to teach some of the workshops as well.

Until in-person workshops can be held, WIA will upload pre-recorded workshop lessons to YouTube Live or conduct the lessons over Zoom. Professionals from the animation industry will also be guest speakers at the club and provide a networking outlet for members. Visiting professionals will talk about their industry experience and how they succeeded with a career in animation.

The animation industry has a wide gender gap, with only 20% of creatives being women. Courtesy of Amanda Lennes

Despite being a club based on animation and created by a computer art and animation major, a large number of recurring members are not animation majors. At least 40% of the WIA chapter is non-animation, with communications and rhetorical studies majors and even theater majors joining the group, Gahng said.

“We believe knowledge of resources and also understanding the resources that you have are very important,” Gahng said.

The gender divide is a current issue that SU’s WIA e-board is aware of, Gahng said. The computer art and animation major boasts an average of 50% female students, but the animation industry does not follow suit. According to the WIA website, 60% of animation students are women, but only 20% of animation creatives are women in the industry.

Despite the WIA parent organization’s major focus on the equal representation of women in the animation workforce, SU’s WIA chapter also stresses the importance of inclusivity. Identifying yourself as a female is not a requirement for this chapter, Gahng said. The club is open to students from every gender, race and sexual orientation.

“Anyone can be an animator; anyone can be in the animation industry,” Gahng said. “This is just for people to kind of be like a gateway drug into the wonderful industry of animation.”

Published on September 27, 2020 at 8:45 pm

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