The 21st Annual Society for Animation Studies Conference, subtitled The Persistence of Animation, will be held July 10-12, 2009, at the Atlanta campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Held under the auspices of SCAD-Atlanta’s Animation Department, the conference features over 50 scholars and filmmakers from around the world who will present papers on a wide range of topics relating to animation history and theory; in addition, there will be workshops on teaching animation history and animation production. The conference itself will kick off with a keynote address Andrew Darley, a renown British media theorist.

In conjunction with the conference, the SCAD Library will be presenting a special exhibition, Behind the Cels: Selections from SCAD’s Don Bluth Collection, featuring art work donated to the school by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman; Goldman will introduce the exhibit during the conference on Saturday, July 11th, and will also be present at a free reception, which is open to the public, Thursday evening, July 9th, from 6:00-8:00 pm.

Finally, ASIFA-Atlanta, in conjunction with the High Museum of Art, is organizing Georgia Animation on Our Mind: A Retrospective of Peachtree State Animation, which will screen at the nearby Woodruff Arts Center’s Rich Auditorium. The program features short animations, including experimental shorts, TV commercials and Avery Matthews, a never-aired Cartoon Network pilot.

For details on the SAS conference, including registration fees, check out the conference blog. You can also sign up for free tickets to the Friday night screenings at the ASIFA-Atlanta website.

I’ll be in Columbus Ohio tonight to introduce a screening of Disney’s 101 Dalmatians (1961) and to celebrate the recent acquisition of Mort Walker’s International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection by Ohio State University’s Cartoon Library and Museum.

I will be doing a book signing at 6pm in Wexner Center, then at 7pm we’ll be screening Disney’s 1961 feature. The movie will be preceded by the 1938 Mickey Mouse short, The Brave Little Tailor, and the 1949 Paramount cartoon Leprechaun’s Gold – all in beautiful 35mm! For information on this screening and tickets, go to the Wexner Center website. Come by and say hello!

I will be screening an evening of classic Frank Tashlin Cartoons at the Silent Movie Theatre on Fairfax in Hollywood, Tuesday July 7th at 8pm. This program is the first in a series of “first Tuesday” animation screenings each month at the Silent Movie.

Frank Tashlin spent the first part of his screen career as an animator, storyman and cartoon director at various Hollywood animation studios in the 1930s and 40s. In addition to a selection of his best Warner Bros. cartoons, we will be screening his earliest work at Van Beuren, his rare stop motion puppet animation and several of his Columbia cartoons (Fox & Crow in 35mm!). For more information, visit The Silent Movie Theatre website.