Colorado & Regional Art

Born in Stanton, Nebraska on July 1, 1913, Nan Bangs received her BA in music and education from Teacher’s College in Wayne, Nebraska. In 1938, while pursuing her MFA in ceramics at the University of Washington, she met her future husband and collaborator, Jim McKinnell, who was studying ceramic engineering. Jim, having served in World War II, used GI education money to travel with Nan throughout Europe after the war, studying in art schools in France, England and Scotland. They moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1951, where they taught at the University of Colorado and set up a pottery studio. The McKinnells moved often in the 1960s and early 1970s, teaching at the University of Iowa, Alfred University, the Edinburgh College of Art, Colorado State University and the Glasgow School of Art. They also lived and worked briefly in Japan from 1967 to 1968. From 1973 to 1987 Nan and Jim taught at Loretto Heights College in Denver. They split their time between Denver and Fort Collins, spending three to four days a week living and working at Loretto Heights. After this lengthy period of teaching and artist residency, they permanently moved to Fort Collins where they remained until their deaths in 2005 (Jim) and 2012 (Nan). Their work is nationally and internationally known, and they were inducted into the American Craft Council College of Fellows in 1988. Nan McKinnell experimented with glazing styles and her work appears delicate and clean. She often worked together with her husband Jim and they were a strong ceramist duo both teaching and producing ceramics all over the world.