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, Filed Under: Internship

Summer CE Due May 4th: Hollywood Backdrop Collection at UT: Museum Studies

Hollywood Backdrop Collection

BDP Summer 2026 Student Opportunity

The Texas Performing Arts Fabrication Studios is home to the Hollywood Backdrop Collection—a rare archive of hand-painted, mid-century motion picture backdrops. As the collection is preserved and prepared for a national exhibition, this internship offers a unique opportunity to work directly with historically significant materials.

Please note, this opportunity is for course credit and is an unpaid position.

Position Overview

  • Application/Letter of interest Due: May 4
  • Acceptance Notification: May 8
  • Dates: May 18 – August 10, 2026
  • Commitment: 10–12.5 hours/week (150 hours total)
  • Location: TPA Fabrication Studios (limited remote work possible)
  • Credit: Must be enrolled in a course for credit
  • Cohort: Maximum of 6 students

What You’ll Dos

  • Create and manage object-level metadata using museum standards
  • Write condition reports for each backdrop
  • Document materials and stabilization methods for exhibition and travel
  • Assist with website updates and digital cataloging
  • Assign artifact numbers and record provenance
  • Support safe handling, storage, and transport protocols
  • Contribute to exhibition and touring preparation
  • Work directly with large-scale painted backdrops (team lifting up to 50 lbs)

What You’ll Gain

  • Hands-on experience in museum collections care and documentation
  • Training in cataloging, condition assessment, and preservation practices
  • Insight into exhibition development and touring logistics
  • Cross-disciplinary collaboration (Art & Art History, Anthropology, Media Studies, and more)

Program Impact

  • Advances preservation and access to a nationally significant collection
  • Establishes best practices for handling and transport
  • Builds a sustainable student training model at UT Austin
  • Prepares future leaders in museums and the arts

Structure & Tools

  • Weekly Meeting: Mondays, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM (PAC 3.108)
  • Platforms: Trello, Slack, UT Box, Canvas
  • Environment: Active scenic art and fabrication studio

Supervision

Students work under the guidance of Karen L. Maness
Associate Director, TPA Fabrication Studios
Professor of Practice, College of Fine Arts

Applications Due by May 4th

Please send a letter of interest to Hollywood Backdrop Collection Director Karen Maness. Kmaness@texasperformingarts.org

Be part of preserving and activating Hollywood’s cinematic history.

, Filed Under: Internship

Summer and Fall 2026 Internships: Center for Child Protection

Internship Opportunities

Interns at the Center for Child Protection provide critical support to successfully meet the needs of child abuse victims and their families. As an intern, you will gain behind-the-scenes nonprofit experience relevant to a career in child welfare while networking with industry professionals and actively making a difference in the lives of our community’s children.

Summer Internships: 
Community Outreach Intern
Fall Internships:
Community Outreach Intern 
Direct Service Intern
Events and Fundraising Interns
Donor Database Intern 
Additional Information:

Direct Service Interns work directly with children & families and participate in an unpaid internship, assisting in the management of the on-site flow of clients for forensic services and assessment of therapy and medical needs.

Non-Direct Service Interns work in support of children & families. Please see some of the opportunities below.

Donor Database Interns participate in an unpaid internship, focusing on database management, data analysis, and donor cultivation while also assisting with administrative duties.

Event & Fundraising Interns participate in an unpaid internship, helping plan, promote, and execute fundraising events while also assisting with donor stewardship and administrative duties.

More information and the application can be found here: 

, Filed Under: Internship

RistoCat Programmer – Summer 2026 Internship

What is RistoCat?

RistoCat is a Pokémon-meets-finance game to help young adults learn financial strategies, purely through gameplay. Taking inspiration from Animal Crossing and Club Penguin, players engage with their real-world finances through an immersive, cat-themed world filled with characters they can grow, customize, and care for – think Tamagotchi meets money management. We’re building toward a public launch and are looking for a developer intern to help us expand the game’s world and bring its characters to life programmatically. 

About the Position 

This is a hands-on engineering role at an exciting stage of development. The core gameplay loop is built and has been validated with playtesters. We’re now expanding the Tamagotchi elements of the game. You’ll work directly with the founder to deepen the Tamagotchi elements of the game: building out a richer world for cats to inhabit, and programming cat companions with distinct personalities, preferences, and behaviors that players can discover and customize. If you’ve ever wanted to work on the systems that make a game world feel genuinely alive, this is that opportunity. 

 The internship is eligible for 3 hours of course credit, pending submission and approval of a BDP Connecting Experience proposal, and is structured as approximately 18-20 hours per week over 8 weeks during Summer 2026. This internship is also remote-friendly with async flexibility. 

Responsibilities 

  • Extend the game world with new environments, interactive elements, and ambient behaviors that deepen immersion 
  • Design and implement a personality system for cat companions, including individual traits, preferences, and reactive behaviors 
  • Build out customization mechanics that allow players to shape and express their cats’ identities over time 
  • Collaborate with the founder to scope features, review implementations, and iterate based on playtesting feedback 
  • Write clean, maintainable code that integrates smoothly into the existing codebase 

Required Qualifications 

  • Programming experience in any object-oriented language (Java, Python, C++, Swift, Kotlin, etc.) 
  • Comfort picking up new languages quickly – our codebase is in Dart, which is approachable for anyone with prior coding experience 
  • Strong problem-solving instincts and ability to work independently 
  • Interest in game development, simulation systems, or interactive design 
  • Clear and proactive communication 

Preferred Qualifications 

  • Experience with game engines. We’re specifically using Flutter’s Flame engine, but prior experience is not required 
  • Familiarity with game AI concepts such as behavior trees, state machines, or need-based systems 
  • Experience building or playing games with simulation or life-sim mechanics (Animal Crossing, The Sims, Tamagotchi) 
  • Exposure to mobile game development 
  • Interest in fintech, educational technology, or behavior design 

What You’ll Gain 

  • Shipped feature work on a real, actively developed product 
  • Hands-on experience designing game systems from the ground up – not just implementing tickets 
  • Direct mentorship from an indie developer across the full product cycle 

How to Apply 

Please send a link to any relevant work (GitHub, portfolio, or past projects), your resume, and a brief note about why this project interests you to shiva@ristocat.com by April 30th. 

 

NOTE: This is an unpaid position and can be used for a BDP internship Connecting Experience.