Donald W. Graham (1883–1976) was a

Canadian-American Canadian Americans is a term that can be applied to American citizens whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country that hold dual citizenship. The term ''Canadian'' can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadia ...

fine artist In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork. ...

and art instructor. An early graduate and later a professor at the

Chouinard Art Institute The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879–1969) in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In 1961, Walt and Roy Disney guided the merger of the Chouinard Art I ...

(later merged into the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

), Graham is best known as the head of the internal training and orientation classes at the Walt Disney Productions animation studio from 1932 to 1940.Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pgs. 84-86, 144-151. . Assisted by Disney's top animators, Graham helped to document and establish many of the principles that make up the foundation of the art of

traditional animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proc ...

. he posthumously received the

Winsor McCay Award The Winsor McCay Award is given to individuals in recognition of lifetime or career contributions to the art of animation in producing, directing, animating, design, writing, voice acting, sound and sound effects, technical work, music, profession ...

for lifetime achievement in the animation field from

ASIFA-Hollywood ASIFA-Hollywood, an American non-profit organization in Los Angeles, California, United States, is a branch member of the "Association Internationale du Film d'Animation" or "ASIFA" (the International Animated Film Association). Its purpose is to ...

in 1982.

Notes

External links

*http://www.donaldwgraham.com/
''Letter of Note'' reprint of interoffice memo from Walt Disney to Don Graham detailing the expansion of Disney's training course in 1935
1883 births 1976 deaths Canadian animators Canadian art educators Artists from Ontario Animation educators Walt Disney Animation Studios people Canadian emigrants to the United States People from Thunder Bay {{Disney-stub