Jan 29, 2009

Art Jobs

What about jobs and such in the Arts? Here are some resources that can get you started and are worthwhile for regular use.

Very helpful is the SMFA's own online resource site, ArtSource. Here you'll find a curated gathering of useful links to Art organizations, databases of galleries, show calls, residencies, grants, and fellowship listings. If you are an SMFA student or alumnus, you can access it using a password provided to you by the SMFA staff.

Next, the SMFA has its own Artist Resource Center (ARC) in the main building. In this office you can find help for career-related needs, such as internships, how to write a job or artist's resumé, a cover letter, copyright issues, and more.

Outside of the SMFA's resources, consider the local or state Arts Councils that are specific to your area (or where you want to go.) They will have listings to local artists, groups, events and some will have grants/residency listings as well as job postings! Here are some New England area ones to get you started:

MA: Mass Cultural Council on the Arts

MA: Cambridge (MA) Arts Council Job listing Links

RI: Rhode Island State Council on the Arts

CT: Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism

NY: New York State Council on the Arts

NH: New Hampshire State Council on the Arts

ME: Maine Arts Commission


ARTS-RELATED JOB LISTINGS, ANNOUNCEMENTS, DEADLINES

Artsquad.com
If you are searching for a graphic design or a multimedia design job in Texas, this is the place. Job listings are updated weekly.

NYFA Interactive (New York Foundation for the Arts)
NYFA "Jobs in the Arts" site is a free national online source for jobs and internships in the arts. New jobs are posted daily.

Artisan, Your Freelance Network
This site lists jobs in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York for 2-D designers, illustrators, writers, and many more.

Creative Freelancers
Positions in art direction, design, graphic production, IT, web development, writing, editing, proofreading, translating, illustration, photography, marketing and general employment are listed on this site.

Art Week
This site lists jobs, residencies, and competitions on the West Coast.

Art Career Net
Free for job searching and resume posting. This site lists jobs in museums, art galleries, educational institutions and multi-disciplinary organizations as well as other art-related businesses/concerns worldwide.Registration is required, but it is free.

Art Calendar
Lists only a few employment opportunities, but this is an excellent source of information on grants and fellowships, internships, juried shows, residencies, artist's colonies, and studio space competititons. Art Calendar is published monthly and can be found in the Library. You have to subscribe to the magazine to get access to all of the website.

Guru.com
Free sign-up for for freelance and contract project work in Web design and development, graphic design, illustration and more.

Art Job
Search for full- & part-time employment, internships, grants, public art projects, residencies -- you can search by region, art discipline, type of organization, and more! FEE: $25 for 3 months, $40 for 6 months, $75 for 1 year.

Global Art Jobs
Global Art Jobs is constantly updated with international art jobs and opportunities. Subcriptions are $16.00 for 4 months and $28.00 for 12 months. With your subscription you are entitled to a free CV listing for the duration of the subscription.

Art Deadlines List
Art Deadlines list is a monthly newsletter(sent in paper form by mail or sent via e-mail) with several hundred announcements every month, including art jobs, scholarships, grants, and residencies. 12 month subsciptions for individuals are $36.00 by mail or $20.00 by e-mail


MUSEUM POSITIONS (jobs & internships)

Museum Jobs
Lists museum jobs in United States and international jobs.

Museum Resource Board
This site contains a database of current museum jobs. The database is fully searchable and can be sorted by type of job, name of institution, city and state, job name, and date posted. All jobs have expirations dates and expire automatically. Also has a searchable internship database.

Museum Employment Resource Center
Position listings in US Museums and other cultural resources institutions.

Museum Job Resources Online
This site provides links to various museum employment resources.

Jan 28, 2009

How about an INTERNSHIP in ANIMATION?

School of the Museum of Fine Arts: Artist Resource Center
http://www.smfa.edu/Student_Life/Professional_Development/Index.asp
A link listing for sites and information on jobs, internships and arts related resources.

The SMFA ARC Internships
• available to students enrolled in the Diploma, BFA, BFA in Art Education, and
• Combined-Degree programs.
• To receive college credit, you must formally register for an ARC internship.
• Registered internships require a time commitment of “60 contact hours” for each credit earned.
• An internship provider will need to provide an SMFA specified contract.

Why an internship?
An internship is incredibly valuable because it is like learning “on the job.” It is most only available while you are still a registered student. If you pursue a formal internship you will receive college credit as well as on-the-job training. Sometimes these positions can help you form professional connections that will assist you in the job hunting later on.

Paid or Not Paid?
A college-credit based internship will most likely not involve pay, or very minimal pay.
A post-graduation internship (very unusual) will sometimes offer pay, but low pay.
It’s up to you to decide if the experience sounds worth the effort.

What kinds of internships are there?
Some are actual production based and some are more general production assistant based. The latter means that you might do anything from filing papers to picking up lunches, to something animation related.
Some kinds of internships are very rigorous and are kind of like going to school. Pixar’s internship program is like this.
You need to ask the company internship liaison about the position description.

When hunting for an internship, you are supplying some very basic materials such as any job hunter might provide.

1) a résumé
2) a cover letter specifying your area of interest; includes your contact info
3) a portfolio (samples of traditional hand skills)
4) demo reel with a shot breakdown and maybe also slates on each shot. Include head and tail slates with your name, phone and email.

The shot breakdown briefly describes your contribution to each shot and the tools used.
Shot Breakdown Example: Shot 1: Witch Melting — animated the witch melting using Maya; created the textures using Photoshop. If you did everything on your reel, say so. Never claim anyone else’s work.

The internship provider knows that you are a student and they are not expecting you to provide a professionally accomplished resume or demo reel. But, make it look its best without overstating your qualifications.

See some good examples of cover letters here:
SCAD

Everything you submit should be labeled clearly with your name, phone number and email address.


WHO OFFERS INTERNSHIPS?


Individual, cool animation filmmakers?
Well, maybe. Some do, and if they are looking, they’re most likely advertising by word-of-mouth instead of in a trade website. In this instance, choose to work with a particular person because you respect their work and want to learn something about them and their process.

Small studios are more likely to give you a real handful of interesting things to do. Finding these smaller studios is the harder part. Here are some examples:

FableVision
Busy MA animation studio looking for interns in 2009!

Soup2Nuts
a very busy studio doing tv shows. Located in Watertown, MA.

Curious Pictures is a good example of this kind of small, diverse studio. A very creative “medium-sized” commercial animation studio in NY.

Animation Collective
Hires LOTS of recent grads and others. Located in NY.

What about major studios?
Generally, this will most likely be administrative style internships. Lots of taking notes, helping file, etc, but having a chance to watch the studio at work. Examples:

DreamWorks
have internship descriptions in “company info” section

Pixar
have a very rigorous and good internship program. Very competitive!

Disney
Professional education-style program.

Blue Sky Studios

Lucas Films


These links are to sites that regularly post information:


Animation World Network – online magazine
http://www.awn.com main page
http://jobs.awn.com/ page for jobs, internships. Do a job “keyword search” to help sort out all the stuff.

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
http://www.emmys.tv/foundation/internships.php
http://www.emmys.tv/foundation/internshipcategories.php

MTV Internships
https://jobhuntweb.viacom.com/jobhunt/main/internships.asp
http://www.onedayoneinternship.com/internships/mtv-networks/

What about when I get there?
Savannah College of Art and Design has info for HOUSING, for when you travel the country for your internship



JOB & INTERNSHIP LISTING SITES
Some of these are paid sites, some are free.

New England Film

Reel Jobs NY (mayor's office, city of NY listings)

Get That Gig

Intern Jobs

InternWeb

College Recruiter

The Film, TV & Commercial Employment Network

Mandy’s International Film and Television Production Directory

Media-Match

Maslow Media

Hollywood Creative Directory
(also hosts a job list)

ShowBiz Jobs

Independent Film Productions
Jobs and classifieds under the “Networking Center” link.

Entertainment Jobs

Entertainment Careers

Crew Calls - Jobs

Disney Jobs

Crew411.com

Jan 25, 2009

Motorized Thaumatropes!


The SMFA Animation Integration class made motorized thaumatropes this week. A thaumatrope is an early Victorian era optical animation toy that was a paper disc with a different image on each side. Using string that was tied to either side of the paper disc, the user would spin the disc rapidly, causing the images to optically appear to blend into one image.

To make our thaumatropes we used 3v dc gear motors, batteries, wire, foam core, screws, washers, nuts and other stuff. Some people soldered, some people used breadboard circuitry, some people made special frames to hold the motors, and there was even a solar powered thaumatrope.

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