Kilkenny could be in danger of losing it’s fast-growing animation industry – according to the city’s Mayor.
David Fitzgerald has been responding to news that SETU is offering a new post-grad course in animation at the Waterford Campus.
It has been drawn up with input from Kilkenny’s two award winning studios Cartoon Saloon and Lighthouse Studios.
There have been calls for animation and digital design courses to form a core part of a new Kilkenny campus as part of the university.
But Councillor Fitzgerald says that a course in animation in Waterford could affect the industry in Kilkenny.
“We’ve developed a world-class animation business which brought in lighthouse studios who are in temporary accommodation in St. Kieran’s College, and the danger now is that if the academic side of training those young animators moves out of or never comes to Kilkenny, well there is the danger that those other industries could move away from Kilkenny and be tempted into new innovation centers in other parts of the southeast.”
