Nancy Halverson Melvin '76: Making Art a Lifelong Career
Nancy Halverson Melvin '76 is a teaching artist who designs and produces clothing, teaches after-school enrichment classes in painting and handwork for children through adults at the Chicago Branch of the Anthroposophical Society, and documents her work with short videos. She shared how her Bennington education started her long and fruitful artistic career.
Tell us about your current career–where are you working, and in what position?
I am a self-employed teaching-artist. I design, cut, and dye organic and cozy clothing that translates to street wear in my home studio and use other one-woman businesses for pattern cutting, sewing, and selling. After 30 years of teaching the practical arts of handwork (sewing, knitting, basketry, weaving, bookmaking) in Waldorf Schools, I now teach after school enrichment classes in both handwork and painting.
Does your current job relate to your Bennington education?
I studied Anthropology with Ken Kensinger, Photography with Neil Rappaport, and Contact Improvisation with Steve Paxton, and those skills support everything I do now. I remain fascinated by how and why we make things, and I document everything I make and sell with short videos, like I used to shoot of dance. I post them on Instagram as my only advertising. My husband, Tom Melvin '75, paints sweet little gouache portraits of my clothes, which I use alongside my videos.
Handkerchief Linen Pocket Skirt by Nancy
Gouache on paper
6” x 10”
Spring Collection 2022
How did your Field Work Term experiences connect to or inspire your current career path?
I worked in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. After graduating, I went into museum work, first in textiles and then in fine art. I still do my own work in textiles and fine art. I also set type by hand for a small press in Norway and remain involved in bookbinding. I did a self-study Non-Resident Term in photography and still shoot footage every day documenting my work and my husband’s paintings.
What are some of your proudest professional achievements and/or current goals?
Diversity in my careers! Before children, I worked in museums, including Chicago’s Field Museum and Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and then I moved to galleries, because of their slower pace, when my two children were babies. I followed my children into Waldorf School and taught the practical and fine arts there for 30 years. Now, I get to make things again rather than just teach! I love being 70 with this much experience. Everything I did enlightens everything I do!
Do you have any career advice to share with current Bennington students?
Be diverse in your inquiry. Let your teachers lead you into areas you may not think you want to study. Everything will contribute to your understanding and abilities, especially those things to which you have no initial attraction!