Nancy Sweezy

{{Short description|American writer and artist (1921–2010)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Nancy Sweezy | image = Nancy Sweezy.jpg | alt = color photograph of potter and folklorist Nancy Sweezy taken in 2007 | caption = Sweezy in 2007 | birth_name = Nancy Thompson | birth_date = {{Birth date|1921|10|14}} | birth_place = Flushing, Queens, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2010|02|06|1921|10|14}} | death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. | nationality = | education = School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | known_for = Potter, folklorist, author, owner of Jugtown Pottery (1968–1980) | spouse = Paul Sweezy (div. 1960) | awards = {{awd|National Heritage Fellowship|2006}} | website =  }}

'''Nancy Sweezy''' (October 14, 1921 – February 6, 2010)<ref name="Martin">{{cite news |last=Martin |first=Douglas |date=February 25, 2010 |title=Nancy Sweezy, Savior of Jugtown Pottery, Dies at 88 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/arts/design/24sweezy.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 7, 2021}}</ref> was an American artist, author, folklorist, advocate, scholar, and preservationist. Known initially for her work as a potter in the 1950s, Sweezy became a scholar of the history and creation of pottery and wrote several authoritative texts and books on U.S. and international folk pottery. She was a major figure in the establishment of markets for folk and traditional crafts. Other major accomplishments in her extensive career included the founding of the crafts organization Country Roads, the revival of North Carolina's historic Jugtown Pottery, and the creation of the Refugee Arts Group in Massachusetts for immigrant folk artists. Her advocacy work also included developing apprenticeship programs. She also was involved with Club 47, a famous performing scene in the American folk music revival.<ref name="Martin"/>

In 2006, she was awarded the Bess Lomax Hawes Award and a National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States' highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/nancy-sweezy |title=Nancy Sweezy: Folklorist |author= |date=n.d. |website=www.arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=January 7, 2021}}</ref> She was the author of several books including ''Raised in Clay'' and ''Armenian Folk Arts, Culture and Identity''. Her professional archive of 32,992 items collected over the course of her career as a folklorist, folk arts advocate, and non-profit organization administrator is held by the Archive of Folk Culture at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/eadafc.af020001 |title=Nancy Sweezy collection |author= |date=2017 |website=Library of Congress |access-date=January 7, 2021 |lccn= 2017-655202 |oclc=1143795005}}</ref>

==Personal life== Nancy Thompson was born in Flushing, Queens, New York in 1921. After her parents divorced, she was adopted by another family and was known as Nancy Adams. She attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.<ref name="Martin"/> During World War II, she worked in the research branch of the Office of Strategic Services,<ref name="Martin"/> the precursor of the Central Intelligence Agency.<ref name="Weigl"/>

She was married briefly to Bill House. She met her future second husband, the economist Paul Sweezy, in Germany.<ref name="Martin"/> They divorced in 1960.<ref name="Weigl">{{cite news |last=Weigl |first=Andrea |date=February 11, 2010 |title=Sweezy, 88, revived Jugtown |url=http://www.newsobserver.com/life/story/332073.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130129225134/http://www.newsobserver.com/life/story/332073.html |archive-date=January 29, 2013 |work=The News & Observer |location=Raleigh, North Carolina |access-date=January 7, 2021}}</ref>

She died of congestive heart failure in Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 6, 2010.<ref name="Martin"/> She had three children: Samuel, Martha, and Lybess. At the time of her death, she had five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.<ref name="Weigl"/>

==Published works== *"Tradition in Clay: Piedmont Pottery" (1975, journal article)<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sweezy |first=Nancy |date=October–December 1975 |title=Tradition in Clay: Piedmont Pottery |journal=Historic Preservation |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=National Trust for Historic Preservation |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=20–23 |issn=0018-2419}}</ref> *''Raised in Clay: The Southern Pottery Tradition'' (1984)<ref>{{cite book |last=Sweezy |first=Nancy |date=1984 |title=Raised in Clay: The Southern Pottery Tradition |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press |isbn=9780874748604 |lccn=84-600048 |oclc=10606039}}</ref> *''Southeast Asian Folk Art Festival'' (1989)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sweezy |first1=Nancy |last2=Magruder |first2=Sarah |last3=Asai |first3=Susan |date=1989 |title=Southeast Asian Folk Art Festival: Resource Materials on Southeast Asia, the Traditional Arts, and the Participating Folk Artists |location=Allston, Massachusetts |publisher=Refugee Arts Group |oclc=23822965}}</ref> *''Raised in Clay: A Guide to the Potteries and Traditions of Seagrove, North Carolina'' (2000)<ref>{{cite book |last=Sweezy |first=Nancy |date=2000 |title=Raised in Clay: A Guide to the Potteries and Traditions of Seagrove, North Carolina |location=Asheboro, North Carolina |publisher=Randolph County Tourist Development |oclc=45566287}}</ref> *''Armenian Folk Arts, Culture, and Identity'' (2001)<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Abrahamian |editor1-first=Levon |editor2-last=Sweezy |editor-first2=Nancy |editor1-link=Levon Abrahamian |date=2001 |title=Armenian Folk Arts, Culture, and Identity |location=Bloomington |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=9780253337047 |lccn=00-63246 |oclc=44860852}}</ref> *''The Potter's Eye: Art and Tradition in North Carolina Pottery'' (2005, North Carolina Museum of Art exhibition catalog)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hewitt |first1=Mark |last2=Sweezy |first2=Nancy |author-link1=Mark Hewitt (potter) |date=2005 |title=The Potter's Eye: Art and Tradition in North Carolina Pottery |url=https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2105235W/The_potter%27s_eye?edition=potterseyearttra0000hewi |url-access=registration |location=Chapel Hill |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=9780807829929 |lccn=2005-10246 |oclc=59224001}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.craftinamerica.org/?s=nancy+sweezy Craft In America / Nancy Sweezy]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweezy, Nancy}} Category:1921 births Category:2010 deaths Category:American women writers Category:American potters Category:American folklorists Category:American women folklorists Category:American women potters Category:Ceramists from Massachusetts Category:People from Flushing, Queens Category:Writers from Massachusetts Category:National Heritage Fellowship winners Category:21st-century American women