Marian Amies is an associate tenured professor and joint head of the graphic design area of the BFA program at UM­St. Louis. She is an international exhibiting artist and a dual national of the UK and the US. Her graphic design, illustration, book arts and print work has been shown in over 100 exhibitions since 1986. She received a BFA in Graphic Design from Webster University and an MFA in Printmaking from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville in 1997. In addition to illustrating for Viking Penguin New York, her design commissions in her graphic design practice (founded in 1979) have included US tour materials for the Royal Airforce Red Arrows Aerobatics Team; projects for Mallinckrodt Medical Inc.; Holland American Lines; Sheraton Hotels; AT&T; American Standard; Ethyl Corporation; Girl Scouts and the National Children¹s Cancer Society. She has received five fellowships in the Center for International Studies and has curated two international book shows at the university to include the work of over 300 artists and scholars from institutions including the British Library and Tate Britain. She is currently curating a third The Art of the Book Exhibition and catalogue which will be on display in Gallery 210 in 2010. These shows are part of an ongoing The Art of the Book international exhibition series and include 84 page color catalogues to include essays and images by the participating artists and scholars. With proceeds from the catalogues and other fundraising activities Amies created The Art of the Book Scholarship to help fund students to study book arts overseas. In 2004 she helped fund 6 junior and senior graphic design student majors to travel to Senegal, West Africa to study and produce artists¹ books in collaboration with artists from many countries; in 2008 she created a London atelier book arts study program that helped fund 8 senior and junior graphic design student majors to study for a 3 credit 3 week class. This program included lectures and studies at major museums including the Tate and the British Library in collaboration with curators and book artists at universities in Britain. The books produced
by the study abroad students are also included in the exhibitions.

Amies' personal book arts work includes installation, projected animation, digital and traditional processes including hand bookbinding. An ongoing work series entitled UK/US compares and contrasts life experiences in both countries on issues of race, gender, equity and the environment. In 2002 and 2003 she served on the board of the St. Louis Chapter of the AIGA American Institute of Graphic Arts as Education Chair and in 1986 and 1987 as a board member of the St. Louis Not Just An Art Directors¹ Club. She lives in the city of St. Louis in the neighborhood of Benton Park in an 1890¹s bakery building which houses the English Cave book arts press and her graphic design and printmaking studio. With 24 gardeners, she helped found, and is one of the coleaders of, the award winning English Cave Community Garden in Benton Park