Nancy Worden

Worden was born in Boston, Massachusetts on November 29, 1954.{{cite web |last1=Doornbusch |first1=Esther |title=Nancy Worden |url=https://hedendaagsesieraden.nl/2018/07/10/nancy-worden/ |website=Hedendaagse sieraden |access-date=12 January 2023 |language=nl |date=10 July 2018}} She was raised in Ellensburg, Washington. Her parents were both academics. The family lived near Worden's grandparents, who lived on a small farm.{{cite journal|last1=Updike|first1=Robin|title=Multigenerational Themes|journal=Ornament|date=Spring 2001|volume=24|issue=4|page=51}} There Worden learned to use hand tools to express her creativity. While in high school, she studied art under Kay Crimp, and in her junior year took her first jewelry class. During her senior year she enrolled in undergraduate metalsmithing classes at Central Washington University.LeBaron, Michelle and Platt, Susan Noyes, Loud Bones: The Jewelry of Nancy Worden. Tacoma Art Museum, 2009.

Worden started making jewelry when she was in high school.{{Cite web|url=https://www.artfulhome.com/artist/Atelier-Nancy-Worden/8321|title=Artfullhome Atelier Nancy Worden|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}} After high school, Worden enrolled in a degree program at Central Washington, earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1977.{{cite web |title=Remembering: Nancy Lee Worden |url=https://www.craftcouncil.org/post/remembering-nancy-lee-worden |website=American Craft Council |access-date=12 January 2023 |language=en}} There she studied with Ken Cory, who taught her jewelry fundamentals and encouraged her to develop her own personal artistic style.{{cite journal|last1=Kangas|first1=Matthew|title=Nancy Worden: Excavations|journal=Metalsmith|date=Spring 2006|volume=26|issue=1|page=26}} In 1980 Worden enrolled in the University of Georgia to study jewelry and metalsmithing under Gary Nofke. He encouraged her to develop a unique creative voice that was expressed through technique and materials. Worden received her Master of Fine Arts later in 1980.{{Cite web|url=http://www.azdesignercraftsmen.org/Default.aspx?pageId=301116|title=Arizona Designer Craftsman - 2008-Nancy Worden-"Cold Connections"|website=www.azdesignercraftsmen.org|access-date=2016-03-05}}

After graduate school, Worden worked in retail jewelry and art galleries. This provided her training in the business aspects of jewelry as an art.{{cite journal|last1=Biskeborn|first1=Susan|title=Nancy Worden: Getting Personal|journal=American Craft|date=October–November 1998|volume=58|issue=5|page=55}} During the 1980s, Worden organized shows for other artists, and refined her own style. In the 1990s, she developed a regional reputation.{{Cite web|url=http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/article/Jewelry-artists-are-flourishing-in-Seattle-1189794.php|title=Jewelry artists are flourishing in Seattle|website=seattlepi.com|access-date=2016-03-05}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.artfulhome.com/artist/Atelier-Nancy-Worden/8321|title=Nancy Worden (Atelier Nancy Worden) Artist Profile {{!}} Artful Home|website=www.artfulhome.com|access-date=2016-03-05}} She began teaching herself to electroform in 1995.

By the late 1990s, she won national notoriety for her distinctive style that merged personal and political themes.{{cite journal|last1=[Anon]|title=Doer's Profile|journal=Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist|date=November 2013|volume=67|issue=6|page=80}}{{cite journal|last1=Kangas|first1=Matthew|title=The Rematerialzation of the Art Object|journal=Sculpture|date=July–August 1996|volume=15|issue=6|page=27}}

In 2014 the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) acquired her necklace "The Family Reunion 2012."{{Cite web|url=http://www.snagmetalsmith.org/2014/06/member-achievements-june-2014/|title=Member Achievements – June 2014 - Society of North American Goldsmiths|last=Goldsmiths|first=Society of North American|website=www.snagmetalsmith.org|access-date=2016-03-05}} Several more of her pieces were acquired by (SAAM) as part of the Renwick Gallery's 50th Anniversary Campaign.{{cite book |last1=Savig |first1=Mary |last2=Atkinson |first2=Nora |last3=Montiel |first3=Anya |title=This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World |date=2022 |publisher=Smithsonian American Art Museum |location=Washington, DC |isbn=9781913875268 |pages=228–238}}

TheFamilyReunion.jpg|The Family Reunion by Nancy Worden

SevenDeadlySins.jpg|Seven Deadly Sins by Nancy Worden

RepairingTheNest.jpg|Repairing the Nest by Nancy Worden

From June through September, 2009, the Tacoma Art Museum presented a major retrospective of Worden's work, titled Loud Bones: The Jewelry of Nancy Worden. The exhibit featured 41 pieces from throughout Worden's 30-year career. It was accompanied by a book of the same title. The show was then presented at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University from November 2009 to January 2010.

Her work in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,{{cite web |title=Nancy Worden |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/2156974 |website=LACMA Collections |access-date=12 January 2023}} the Museum of Arts and Design, New York{{Cite web|url=http://collections.madmuseum.org/code/emuseum.asp?emu_action=media&id=1133&mediaid=12200|title=Museum of Arts and Design Collection Database|website=collections.madmuseum.org|access-date=2016-03-05}} the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston{{cite web |title=Lend Me Your Ears |url=https://collections.mfa.org/objects/457557 |website=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |access-date=12 January 2023}} the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,{{cite web |title=Nancy Worden |url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/people/19585/nancy-worden/objects |website=The MFAH Collections |access-date=12 January 2023}} the Seattle Art Museum,{{cite web |title=Nancy Worden |url=https://art.seattleartmuseum.org/people/6068/nancy-worden;jsessionid=AA1E56985FE8E0B88A6A5249F0F982C6 |website=Seattle Art Museum |access-date=12 January 2023 |language=en}} the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Tacoma Art Museum.{{cite web |title=Nancy Worden |url=https://tacoma.emuseum.com/emuseum/people/30/nancy-worden/objects |website=Tacoma Art Museum |access-date=12 January 2023}}

She died February 17, 2021, in Seattle, Washington as a result of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.{{cite web |title=Remembering the life of Nancy Worden 1954 - 2021 |url=https://obituaries.seattletimes.com/obituary/nancy-worden-1081708970 |website=Seattle Times Obituaries |access-date=12 January 2023 |language=en}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://artjewelryforum.org/nancy-worden-smiling-faces Nancy Worden In Conversation], Art Jewelry Forum interview, July 2009
• [https://artjewelryforum.org/nancy-worden-smiling-faces Nancy Worden: Smiling Faces], Art Jewelry Forum interview, December 2012

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Category:1954 births

Category:2021 deaths

Category:American jewelry designers

Category:Artists from Boston

Category:American women jewellers

Category:20th-century American women artists

Category:21st-century American women artists

Category:20th-century American jewellers

Category:21st-century American jewellers

Category:People from Ellensburg, Washington

Category:Artists from Washington (state)

Category:Central Washington University alumni

Category:University of Georgia alumni

Category:Deaths from motor neuron disease in the United States