Nancy Corbin was born in Ohio and moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1976 with her husband Mike as they started a family, and each began a budding career in artistic fields. Both became teachers, though they continued pursuing their personal interests. Mike became a photographer while Nancy has cultivated her love for painting.
As a young girl, Nancy studied art at the Toledo Museum of Art Saturday School. She continued to study visual art, arts education, and arts administration at University of Cincinnati (BFA), University of South Carolina (MA), New York University (Certificate of Arts Administration), Banff School for Fine Arts, Savannah College of Art and Design, The Hemlock Studio, Arrowmont School for Art and Craft, Wild Acres Retreat, The Creativity Workshop, and Converse College.
After teaching in Spartanburg County School District Seven for 14 years, Nancy joined the Spartanburg Day School visual arts faculty in 1991 and taught students a range of subjects from Studio Art to Art History from introductory levels through Advanced Placement. In 1999, she became the first Mildred Harrison Dent Fine Arts Center Coordinator. While at SDS she was awarded the Mildred Harrison Dent Endowed Chair, an honor she held until she moved on at the conclusion of 27 years at the school. Additional honors while at SDS include the school’s permanent collection being named for her, being awarded the Larrabee Endowed Chair, and the future Valerie M. Barnet Theatre will house the Nancy Corbin lobby and gallery.
Her teaching career was enriched greatly by the dozens of art study tours that Nancy led for her students in NYC, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Switzerland, England, Cuba and Spain. She served for 12 years as a reader of Advanced Placement Studio Art exams for the Educational Testing Service and The College Board.
Since leaving SDS, in addition to serving as secretary of the Board of Directors at Spartanburg Art Museum, Nancy spends her time in her studio at Mayfair Art Studios preparing for upcoming exhibits. Watercolor, pastel, printmaking, and collage are important in her process. Smaller works on paper often lead to large works in acrylic on panels, canvas, and walls. Color and figurative abstraction in layered compositions are responses to current events and historical ties.