Marilyn Nance facts for kids

Marilyn Nance (born November 12, 1953), also known as Soulsista, is an American artist. She is famous for her photography and digital art. Her work often explores how people connect, African-American spiritual beliefs, and how technology can tell stories.

Marilyn Nance's photos have appeared in well-known magazines like Life and Essence. Her art is also kept in important places. These include the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Library of Congress. She also created a photo book called Last Day in Lagos. This book shows her pictures from a big festival in 1977.

Early Life and Education

Marilyn Nance was born in New York City on November 12, 1953. She grew up in Brooklyn, a part of New York City.

She started taking pictures when she was a child. She went to the Bronx High School of Science. Later, she studied journalism at New York University. In 1976, she earned a degree in communications and graphic design from Pratt Institute. She continued her studies and earned a master's degree in 1996. She also studied at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Career Highlights

While still a student, Nance photographed her family in Pratt City, Alabama. She began working as a photographer after college. She took pictures for The Village Voice newspaper. Her early work focused on African American spiritual culture. She photographed churches in Brooklyn and Harlem. She also photographed the first Black church in America.

FESTAC '77: A Big Festival

In 1977, Marilyn Nance became the official photographer for a huge event. This event was called FESTAC '77. It was the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. The festival took place in Lagos, Nigeria. It lasted for about a month, from January to February 1977.

The festival's main goal was to celebrate and protect Black and African cultures. Many famous artists and writers from North America attended. These included Stevie Wonder and Audre Lorde. This trip was Marilyn Nance's first time outside the U.S. She took 1,500 photos during the festival. Her pictures are one of the most complete records of this important event. She photographed both the people performing and the audience. She later described FESTAC as being like "the Olympics, plus a Biennial, plus Woodstock."

After FESTAC and Digital Art

After FESTAC, Nance kept photographing Black culture. She took pictures of Black Indians in New Orleans. She also photographed Oyotunji African Village in Sheldon, South Carolina. She even captured carnivals in Rio de Janeiro.

From 1993 to 1994, Nance was an artist living and working at the Studio Museum in New York City. She created an art show called Egungun Work. This show was inspired by a festival she saw in Oyotunji African Village. Her work was praised by The New York Times.

In 1995, Marilyn Nance became a pioneer in digital art. She created her own website, soulsista.com. In 1997, she developed a web application. This app helped people learn about Ifá, a Yoruba spiritual practice. In 1999, she worked on a digital project for the New York Public Library. She put over 500 old photos of African Americans online. These photos went with writings by African American women from that time. Nance later helped teachers and students in New York City schools. She taught them how to use technology for learning.

In 2004, Nance gave a talk about her work at the Library of Congress. In 2016, she made digital copies of all her photos from FESTAC '77.

Her book about FESTAC '77, Last Day in Lagos (published in 2022), was highly praised. The New York Times called it an important cultural document. The New Yorker described it as "a stunning yearbook of the Black world." In 2023, Marilyn Nance gave a lecture about her book at the Pérez Art Museum Miami.

Group Exhibitions

• Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1991
• African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, Smithsonian, 2012, online

Awards and Recognition

Marilyn Nance has received several awards for her photography and writing:

• 1987: New York State Council on the Arts Grant
• 1989: New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship for photography
• 1991: Finalist for the W. Eugene Smith Award in Humanistic Photography. This was for her work on African American spirituality.
• 1993: New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship for non-fiction literature
• 1993: Finalist for the W. Eugene Smith Award in Humanistic Photography again.
• 2000: New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship for photography
• 2024: Honorary Fellowship from The Royal Photographic Society

Collections

Marilyn Nance's work is held in the permanent collections of several major institutions:

• Smithsonian Institution's Smithsonian American Art Museum
• The Library of Congress's Prints & Photographs Division
• Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture's Preservation of the Black Religious Heritage
• Museum of Fine Arts Houston
• Brooklyn Museum