The Georgia Museum of Art enriches the education of many students at the University of Georgia. Each semester the museum offers internship and work-study opportunities to provide students with unique and behind-the-scenes experiences of museum life. The following students have worked with us between summer 2019 to spring 2020. Some have graduated or will be reaching that milestone in a few days, while others will return. We’re incredibly grateful for their dedication and hard work.
Amanda Braithwaite
Amanda is an MA candidate in the history department and an independent studies student who used the Colonial Dames Survey of Georgia Decorative Arts at the Green Center to study indigo pigment and dye history and applications. Amanda has also attended the Henry Green Symposium of Decorative Arts and worked in every aspect of Green Center activities. She has also conducted research in support of Green Center programs. Amanda is renaissance person with multiple talents as well as an accomplished artist. Her remarkable organizational skills supported our effort to better organize Green archives.
–Dale Couch
Anabel Crawford
Anabel served as an intern in the summer of 2019. As a major in management information systems, Anabel created a new business process model that improved the efficiency of the membership and stewardship processes at the museum. I cannot understate how impactful Anabel’s work has been in increasing the ease of fulfilling membership packets and in documenting revenue and stewardship information.
–Anna Conrad
Andi Clements
Andi interned over the summer with us and was such a sunny presence to be around. She also had great success in pitching “Material Georgia” to publications. Part of the credit for the great national press that show got is due to her efforts. She wrote something like a bazillion press releases and also worked on the giant expanded exhibition chronology. She actually graduated last spring with a degree in economics and a minor in piano performance, but her love for art always shone through.
–Hillary Brown
Andrea Giordano
Andrea wrote a fantastic blog post about her experience interning at the museum that said it much better than I can. She wrote, “Throughout all of this, the most educational part of working at the museum was being fully trusted to do the work I was given from start to finish. The challenge to take an initial assignment and do research, interview sources, and condense background information into a finished piece taught me invaluable professional writing skills. I loved having this autonomy and I grew immensely from it. Also, seeing this work published on the museum website feels pretty great!” As a former museum intern, I can confirm that I felt this way, too, and I’m proud that we’re still providing young folks with that experience. She’s not graduating until next year, so fingers crossed that she comes back! –Hillary Brown
Anika Chaturvedi
You’ve probably seen Anika wandering around the building with her camera, taking shots of everything from Toddler Tuesday to big, fancy private events. Even though she’s a publications intern, we noticed the camera around her neck when she was in a photojournalism class and took full advantage of her other skills. She’s also done an amazing job with tracking down images for the Carl Holty and Emma Amos shows and keeps sending me emails whenever she hears back from the approximately one million forms she had to fill out. She’s graduating! –Hillary Brown
Aramide Amusat
I interviewed Aramide on the phone over the summer for her position, and I remember telling Michael that I had just talked to the most delightful young woman and couldn’t wait for her to join our team. That first impression was absolutely right. Aramide is calm and steady, reliable and friendly. She’s been so wonderful to have for a year, and I’m sorry we don’t get her for longer because she’s graduating! –Hillary Brown
Ariana Gil
Ariana Gil is a history major and was our fall 2019 education department. Ariana was a true champion of the semester. She helped me with a number of projects including the 5th grade tour and Art Cart (After Class). She set up the classroom with enthusiasm for so many 5th grade tours, and she always engaged with students working on their art projects in an inquisitive and genuine way. She gamely washed endless glue covered paint brushes, and she always had a great playlist or podcast ready for us to listen to when cleaning up the classroom. Ariana worked really hard to create engaging projects for Art Cart (After Class), and one of my favorite memories of her from this year was watching her help a little girl get dressed up for our Baroque photo booth activity.
–Emily Hogrefe-Ribeiro
Ashlyn Davis
Ashlyn Davis was of enormous help to me this past year. Courteous to a fault, bright and energetic, committed and ambitious, Ashlyn adapted to the frenetic pace of my office in helping me with research, with lectures and presentations, and, in my case, perhaps most important, with technological assistance. She anticipated what I needed! Often independently of my direct supervision, she put together illustrative material for several lectures I gave and literally acted as my right hand for a couple of visual tours I gave to OLLI and elsewhere. Someone else’s gain is going to be the museum’s loss when she leaves: Ashlyn was among the best—and most dependable—students I have taught at the University of Georgia. –Bill Eiland
It was a treat to work with student Ashlyn Davis! Her intellectual curiosity, good humor, and kindheartedness came through in every project she tackled. Her collegiality and skills led her to collaborate with numerous departments at the Georgia Museum of Art. Thank you, Ashlyn, and congratulations on completing your MA in art history! –Nelda Damiano
Caliya Robinson
Caliya was a very good student, and she fit in right away. She was a printmaking major. She did a lot with Robert in matting and framing, learning techniques for mounting her own works. –Todd Rivers
Caroline Spencer
Caroline was literally the best intern I have ever had! She was really good at anticipating future needs on a project or an installation. She was a great listener and very good at instructive criticism. –Todd Rivers
Celia Clark
I first met Celia last spring when she was a student in my Intro to Museum Studies class. She impressed me in class, always coming prepared and ready to contribute thoughtfully to our class projects and discussions. She went on to intern with us in the education department last summer, where she developed and facilitated interactive tour stops in the “Color, Form and Light” exhibition for the Art Adventures program. She was such a pro! She is a great gallery teacher and her tours are engaging, educational and fun. She also helped with Family Days and other projects throughout the summer. Celia is graduating this spring and will be starting Florida State University’s public history graduate program in the fall, where she was awarded their Dorothy P. and Margaret A. Johnsen Graduate Fellowship in American History. I am so proud of Celia and wish her the best of luck in the future!
–Callan Steinmann
Charlotte Gaillet
Charlotte Gaillet is a graduate student in the History of art. She undertook much organizational work in connection to the recent Henry Green Symposium where she also delivered a paper on a catalog of early flowering plants in Savannah, Georgia, revealing important insights about the decorative landscape of early Georgia. Charlotte has conducted significant research for Green Center projects. Her organizational skills are over the top! Charlotte has been accepted to the Institute for Southern Material Culture 2020 at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. –Dale Couch
Chason Dean
Chase Dean is a senior in business administration and has been an intern at Green Center for more than two years. Chase was introduced to us through the Gio Ponti exhibition and has taken a passionate interest in Georgia material culture. He has participated in most programs at the Green Center and has developed remarkable connoisseurship. He has already made important discoveries in Georgia decorative arts and was a lender to “Material Georgia,” a comprehensive exhibition of Georgia decorative arts recently organized at GMOA. Chase is a brilliant example of how students with different academic backgrounds and career aims can benefit from life enrichment with the humanities and GMOA in particular. His passion for the decorative arts will long serve our field. –Dale Couch
Christina Echezarreta
Christina was an MFA candidate, and a very good student. She wanted to learn more about installation practices, and she was very responsive to instruction and good at listening. Christina is graduating with her MFA this semester. –Todd Rivers
Claire Barrera
We shared Claire with Shawnya over the course of this past year. Correction: Shawnya stole her from us and we still feel a little sad about it! Claire was also super involved with the student association. She’s an art history major but great at communicating to folks who aren’t, so we made her write press releases on exhibitions. She was also responsible for the adorable graduation photos we staged this past summer with Evelyn as our model. Cute is underappreciated as a valuable skill, but Claire knows how to do cute AND intellectual heft at the same time. She’s graduating, and we will miss her!
–Hillary Brown
Claire has been with me since fall 2019. She has assisted me with compiling research information for “Mary Bendolph: Quilted Memories” and “Emma Amos: Color Odyssey.” She is graduating senior from the Lamar Dodd School of Art with a degree in art history. –Shawnya Harris
David Campo
David interned over the spring 2020 semester. He is diligent and hard working. He wants to go into the registration field and was eager to take on projects on his own. He always asked questions when needed and had a great attention to detail. I have no doubt that he will be a great registrar someday. I wish him all the luck in grad school! –Amber Strachan
Ellen Roberts
As my intern in the American art department this semester, Ellen Roberts has brought her diligent work ethic and good-natured spirit to a range of important projects. No job has been too big or too small for Ellen, from the mundane clerical task of photocopying and spreadsheet formatting to difficult, time-consuming assignments like combing through primary sources, journal databases, and exhibition catalogues. Without her help building a database of artist files for my upcoming show on Magic Realism in American art, my catalogue essays would not have been possible. Even after the museum and university went online in mid-March, Ellen remained cheerful and ever-reliable, continuing to follow through on whatever task came her way. Thank you, Ellen, for your hard work this spring. It has been a pleasure working with you! –Jeff Richmond-Moll
Emily Duvall
A word about Emily DuVall, now in graduate school at Chapel Hill. Her undergraduate degree is from Birmingham-Southern college, where I took my BA many years ago. She makes me proud, especially since her intelligence, her research skills, and her ambition are so emblematic of a true liberal-arts education. –Bill Eiland
Working with student Emily DuVall over several semesters was a privilege and a joy! Emily brought her passion for the visual arts, relentless researcher skills, and rigor to every exhibition she collaborated on. She is now pursuing her PhD in art history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Congratulations, Emily! –Nelda Damiano
Evelyn Newsome
Evelyn majored in art history, with a minor in studio art. She worked on research for Emma Amos. Evelyn accepted a position as a coordinator in the Education dept at the High Museum in August 2019.
–Shawnya Harris
Evelyn was President of the GMOA Student Association last year, and did a fantastic job managing the organization and planning events. She worked so hard to put on three excellent Student Nights throughout the school year, she and organized the spring Pop-Up Artist Market which was a great success. She is super organized and creative, and is so easy to work with. We are so proud of her and look forward to following her career in the museum world! –Callan Steinmann
Hana Rehman
Hana has been such a fantastic proofreader. Sometimes I feel bad that the publications interns spend so much of their time reading text with a pen in hand, but then I remember that they like it! Hana has doggedly gone through page after page after page, and her sharp eyes have definitely caught some important things. She’s also spent hours working on an expanded list of past exhibitions at the museum, going through files in the registrars’ office. Someday that project will be done and accessible to our website visitors! –Hillary Brown
Keivanna Haylock
Keivanna was an intern over the fall 2019. She was always on time and present. She helped with conditioning and organizing objects for the Material Georgia exhibition. She also helped with setting up for classes. She always handled objects with care and the registration department was grateful for the extra hands! –Amber Strachan
Keyonna Brannam
Keyonna is quiet, but there is so much under the surface. She’s incredibly smart and picks up on new tasks really fast. She’s become our go-to for MailChimp emails, and she knows how to take care of the details in those as well as our staff members do. She’s also a gifted writer. I always look forward to reading her press releases and blog posts because I know she’ll have thought through her subject and come at it from an interesting angle. She’s wise beyond her years (she’s a freshman), and I look forward to her coming back in the fall (fingers crossed) so very much.
–Hillary Brown
Kim Truesdale
Kim interned with the education department in the summer of 2019. I first met her when she was a student in my Intro to Museum Studies class, and she showed an enthusiasm and passion for art and museums in the care and energy she brought to class discussions and projects. As a summer intern, she was responsible for developing tour stops and leading tours for hundreds of kids for our Art Adventures program. She was an integral part of our team last summer and we were lucky to have her for many reasons, including her talent and experience as a studio artist. Kim is graduating with her MFA this semester, and we wish her all the best in the future! –Callan Steinmann
Kimberly Purnell
Kimberly was my intern over two semesters, fall 2019 and spring 2020. She is a quick learner and was able to complete tasks fast and efficiently. She was a huge help with conditioning works on paper and paintings. She is organized and has a good eye for details — some of a registrar’s favorite attributes. –Amber Strachan
Lillie Beck
Poor Lillie! She did so much work on what would have been the spring Museum Mix, only for us to have to cancel it. She cold-called a bunch of businesses and got them to donate food, something that I know is always a heavy lift for students but that gives them a new skill. Lillie really dove into the life of the museum, with an open heart, and we loved having her here so much. She took photos, wrote press releases and blog posts, and always, always expressed enthusiasm for whatever we asked her to do. She’s also graduating! –Hillary Brown
Lizzie Adams
Lizzie interned the summer of 2019. As a marketing major specializing in digital communication she was INSTRUMENTAL in strategizing and preparing for the Friends membership transition that occurred on July 1st. I cannot imagine prepping for such a major transition without her. She wrote copy for marketing items and the new brochure, developed an 18month implementation plan, and assisted with a complete review and rewrite of all membership related text associated with the website and our online payment platform. But, most importantly, she was a joy to have in the office and I am grateful for her contributions to such an immense project. –Michele Turner
Marie Walker
Marie is a history and museum studies student. She was a good worker, and very interested in history. She and her friends do historical reenactments, and this fueled her desire to learn more about cultural institutions. –Todd Rivers
Megan Neely
Megan Neely, PhD candidate in art history, brought great knowledge, enthusiasm, and commitment to the department of European art. It was a real pleasure to work with her and benefit from her flawless research and writing skills. Thank you, Megan! –Nelda Damiano
Meghan Gerig
Meghan has prepared an exhibition of a private collection on long-term loan to the museum. Due to the pandemic and the closure of the museum, we did not have a chance yet to present her exhibition, but it will happen after we re-open. Because of my frantic schedule in the early spring semester of 2020, Meghan had to be independent, assertive, and articulate as well as imaginative and persistent. She rose to every occasion, and I cannot wait for the public to see the results of her research and preparation for her exhibition. She deserves a better teacher than me, and I sincerely hope she joins our profession someday. She will be an asset in whatever endeavor she chooses. –Bill Eiland
Mengshi Yan
Mengshi served as an intern throughout the fall of 2019. An accounting major, Mengshi was able to apply her detailed knowledge of finance, taxation, economics, and auditing to help monitor cash projections and data management in GAIL (UGA’s donor database). Her assistance with membership fulfillment and data cleanup was an important part of the successful transition to the museum’s new membership structure as well as several specific stewardship efforts. Mengshi will spend the summer preparing for the Certified Public Accountant exam. –Anna Conrad
Nora Marie Gellona-Wagoner
Nora is a first year student in landscape architecture, and she was a fantastic work study student in the education department this year. Nora was such an asset to the education department and a joy to work with. She did everything from prepping supplies and creating beautiful art examples for Family Day to research and translating text for gallery programs. Her updates to our Family Day records was a big task and she did a great job. We miss you, Nora! –Sage Kincaid
Rebecca Marston
Rebecca dug in and did a ton of useful research for us, tracking down information from peer and aspirational institutions that we can use and have used already for comparative purposes. She went through many museum issues of the New York Times to see who got coverage and what they did in the way of advertising. That work is going to pay off for years to come! It’s also pretty far away from her graphic design major (she’ll graduate next year), so we appreciate it all the more.
–Hillary Brown
Ryan Woods
Ryan has been instrumental in the completion of a number of intricate projects at the museum over the past year. His work with the Rachel Whiteread exhibition was particularly helpful, especially his construction of cardboard, life-size replicas of the sculptures. Whitney Biennial look out! Ryan’s background and skill as an artist also came in useful as he helped with the installation design of the Tiffany exhibition — a complicated and large exhibition. He also assisted with plans for the future installation of a sculpture by Andrew Crawford and the upcoming move of the petroglyphs from north campus. I have greatly appreciated Ryan’s willingness to help and learn, his ability to problem solve and his skill with transferring three-dimensional concepts to paper. –Annelies Mondi
Scarlett McCullough
Scarlett has a special ability to make young and old feel welcome. She was an excellent greeter for Family Day and her meticulous attention to details was a huge help. Scarlett also has an uncanny knack for picking out the perfect book for Toddler Tuesday storytime. She will be graduating in May and she has been accepted into George Washington University’s museum education master’s program in Washington, D.C., which will be starting online due to COVID-19 in June. (She also received a merit scholarship from the university!) Best of luck, Scarlett! –Sage Kincaid
Taylor DiFonzo
Taylor DiFonzo was a summer 2019 Art Adventures intern. She helped create and lead tours for summer camp students inspired by the “Color, Form and Light” exhibition. Taylor came to the museum every day with great ideas and an excitement for guiding students’ experiences at the museum. She was especially helpful in the classroom where she dove right in to working one on one with students who needed assistance creating their sun catcher art projects. One of my favorite parts of working with Taylor was hearing her insightful and compassionate reflections on the tours she gave each day. She worked hard to connect with the students on her tours in a way that impressed me the entire summer.
–Emily Hogrefe-Ribeiro
Authored by:
Museum Staff
