Animal Transformations

Discover ancient tales of shapeshifting creatures and create your own in this book-making video workshop with visual artist Duffy Mooney-Sheppard for ages 5-12.

The Ark & Irish Arts Center NY present Animal Transformations.

Ireland's history is full of stories of humans turning into animals. Have you heard of the selkie people who could transform into seals? The children who became swans? The women who became wolves? The man who became a salmon, an eagle and then a hawk?! These animal people were believed to possess great wisdom and knowledge.

In this creative book-making workshop, you will choose what animal you would become and see what wisdom you might learn. Using simple materials, we will design a simple booklet and each draw our own imagined animal transformation tale.

You will need:

• A few sheets of A4 paper (white or coloured)
• Drawing materials i.e. pencils, markers, crayons, or whatever you have at home
• A piece of A4 card if you have it (This will be used to make a cover for your booklet. If you don’t have any card you can even save some cardboard from recycling.)
• Stapler or similar (alternatively pritt stick / glue / sellotape)
• Scissors

Duffy Mooney-Sheppard is a visual artist, arts program curator and workshop facilitator.

A recent graduate of the MA Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Arts, she is drawn to the process of story-making as a way to explore ideas and share her curiosity about the natural world.

With many years of experience working creatively with young people at The Ark and many other cultural institutions and schools, she has developed her facilitation methods which are based in playful observation, imagination and telling tall tales.

This year, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, she founded Little Islands Art Club, an online art group for children and adults.

In partnership with The Ark and Irish Arts Center, New York. Video edited by Arcade Films.