Exhibition: Rewind, Play, Fast Forward: Animation and Game Design at FIT and Beyond — Closes

January 17–February 15, 2026
Art and Design Gallery

Rewind, Play, Fast Forward: Animation and Game Design at FIT and Beyond celebrates animation and game design work by FIT students, faculty, and alumni of the School of Art and Design and the School of Graduate Studies.

The exhibition surveys works created in New York City and beyond, showing how storytelling appears in animation, where a storyline can take on a linear structure, and in game design, where players shape the story themselves. On display are a wide variety of game and animation art, concept and character designs, and games to play, along with a special guest exhibition of world-class work from Hornet, an New York–based animation studio that produces all forms of commercial work, including stop-motion and computer-generated animation.

At FIT, students in the Illustration BFA program can specialize in design for animation and games, where they learn about concept art and character design to understand how characters and sets work together to create worlds and tell stories. Students in the Animation, Interactive Media, and Game Design BFA program take the process from design to completion, adding movement, sound, and/or gameplay. Alumni of both programs have gone on to work for renowned studios, including DreamWorks, NBC Universal, Disney, and Titmouse, where they continue to create character designs, concept art, and animation for popular shows. Others have formed their own game and animation companies.

Rewind, Play, Fast Forward is curated by Dan Shefelman, chair of Illustration and Interactive Media, and organized by the Department of Illustration and Interactive Media.

This exhibition is free and open to the public