I have a question for creatives in Boston:
Where are the animation/game/studio art internships?
Managing the art internship at Fablevision for the 3rd year and somewhere beyond 20+ interns, I’m entering another season wondering why we get so many applicants in the summer and hearing the passion and anxiety of many students grappling to find opportunities. I don’t feel fully equipped to make a difference, especially when the career landscape in animation in the US is the worst I've seen in the 10 years I've been a part of it. When I see seasoned animation professionals from LA left 2+ years out of work asking for opportunities that can barely afford the cost of living, it feels especially bleak. Is it appropriate to offer mentorship for students when the competition is starving professionals and studio heads eager to replace them with ai tools? Should we even be offering animation as a viable career anymore?
This is a post to talk about the elephant in the room and to also to maybe find the people that are offering opportunities so i can highlight them here and offer students some options.
So here’s where my research has gotten me for studio/art/animation internships in New England:
Fablevision (2 people, so 8 people a year at best). This is where I offer 2 art internship seats a season. It's unpaid, but also something I volunteer my time to do because we don’t have interns work on client work. While I can occasionally use former interns for freelance, it’s incredibly rare and I already have a healthy pool of freelancers that are also pretty hungry for work. So the benefit for us to have interns is pretty hard to justify, and can be seen as more of a cost and strain to time and resources.
RISD/Boston University posts some internships: https://careers.bu.edu/jobs/partizan-entertainment-animation-department-production-intern/
https://careercenter.risd.edu/career-resources-fav-students
Planet Nutshell unclear on frequency, should ask them directly. https://planetnutshell.com/internships/
SmallBu small independent studio, at max capacity. No internships available
Hero4Hire Downsized to a remote/freelancer based operation, unlikely
BlackMath yes! https://blackmath.com/careers
CD Projekt Red - https://www.cdprojektred.com/en/internship unclear if remote is possible or if boston location offers them, opens every summer at beginning of year for applications
Newfangled - nothing listed, should ask https://www.newfangledstudios.com/
Runningmanpost - https://www.runningmanpost.com/ (located in NYC)
Titmouse - https://titmouse.net/ implied to be available via RISD careers/internship website, NYC based
MightyOak - https://www.mightyoakgrows.com/ NYC based
https://www.augenblickstudios.com/ NYC based
RLMG in Watertown https://www.rlmg.com/about - need to ask
Charles River Media - unclear, need to ask https://charlesrivermedia.com/contact-us/ based in Needham Heights, MA
I hope this list is helpful for people, and I highly encourage people to reach out to me if they have ideas or resources available that I can pass along.