Coastal Futures Animation Lab

Dive into community storytelling with the Coastal Futures Animation Lab, where coastal stories come to life through animation magic!
About this Event

Coastal Futures Animation Lab

Coastal Futures Animation Lab is a community-centered animation workshop led by animators, educators, and musicians, Mark Minnig and Dominika Ksel. The free workshop invites Rockaway residents to imagine future possibilities for the peninsula’s coastline and to translate their visions into collaborative, hand-made animation. Rooted in environmental justice and community storytelling, the project uses animation as an accessible medium for ecological reflection, upcycling materials, and collective imagination.

The workshop begins with a brief story-sharing circle and guided sensory walk on Rockaway Beach, where participants consider memories of storms, shifting shorelines, and their hopes for the future. These reflections become the foundation for creating short hand-drawn and stop-motion animation sequences using found materials and simple tools. Participants will visualize “micro-futures” informed by lived experience, coastal resilience, multispecies relationships, and community care. During the process, field recordings of waves, wind, and sand will be collected to support a locally grounded soundscape.

Big thanks to our community partners New York Foundation for the Arts, Rockaway Film Festival/Arverne Cinema and Materials for the Arts!

Spread the word and bring friends for some animation alchemy:)