Last week focused on Marti Funke, at the University Museum and her achievements there. This week, I will introduce you to Bozarts Gallery intern, Amanda Malloy.

Bozarts Gallery is run and operated by an alliance of artist members and owners Annette Trefzer and Mickey Howley.  A few months ago, Malloy came on as an intern for this year to help out with day-to-day operations and organization of the gallery.

Having received a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies and a Masters of Arts Degree from the University of Mississippi in Southern Studies, Malloy has been in the Oxford area for almost a decade. Her focus in her graduate studies was Southern Art with photography being a particular interest.

She is particularly interested in the photography of William Eggleston and set out to explore that more in her Master Thesis.

Dr. Annette Trefzer, who is an Associate Professor in the English Department served as an adviser to Malloy, and the two worked together to find a focus for her work. They began working together in 2015, and Malloy also studied with professors in the Art Department and Southern Studies making her MA thesis, “William Eggleston’s Guide” a truly interdisciplinary project.

This partnership led to Malloy asking to intern at the gallery to gain some experience with various aspects of running a gallery including curating and displaying works, working with artists and publicity.  She was hoping to get more of a hands-on understanding of gallery work while applying to graduate programs in Art History which she hopes to begin next fall.

She plans to focus on the history of photography with a curatorial track.

Currently Malloy also works at Rowan Oak under curator Bill Griffith who offered her a job after graduating in May. She was graduate assistant at both the University Museum and at Rowan Oak during her graduate studies, so she was familiar with the locations and had worked with Griffith before.

When asked about working with Griffith she responded “He’s been so great about hiring graduate students and recent graduates, and he really allows us to be involved in new projects. He really tries to understand his worker’s interests and help them to find projects that give them experience in those interests.”

ANDI BEDSWORTH is owner of Art To Go, which brings free art opportunities to children in the community.