News
Crowdfunding Campaign Seeks to Expand Animator Dorms
posted on by Daryl Lee Hale
NPO Animator Supporters founder Jun Sugawara launched an IndieGoGo campaign to expand dormitory housing for low-income animators on Friday. The campaign seeks to raise US$15,000 to grow the size of the program, which was established last year through a successfully-funded campaign.
The project's goal is to expand the program to a new facility located in the Asagaya, Suginami district that would house two to three starting-out animators.
The current facility, which opened in March 2014, supports two residents. The facility offers housing for 30,000 yen (about US$247) per month (including utilities) for animators who are new to the industry. The low-cost housing hopes to provide animators with a stress-free environment to focus on their art as well as an opportunity for social interactions with other animators and access to free animator workshops.
A recent study from the Japan Animation Creators Association (JAniCA) found that Japanese in-between animators, many of whom are in their 20's, earn an average yearly income of 1.1 million yen (around US$9,200), and that young animators work on average 11 hours a day. In addition, many animation studios are located in expensive areas of Tokyo, which can create a burden for new animators.
Supporter rewards include specially designed thank-you cards, an art book, sketch portraits, an animator diary, and actual art pieces from the art book.
[Via: animator_supporters]