Nancy Whipple Grinnell is Curator Emerita at the Newport Art Museum, where she served for 18 years. During that time, she produced over 200 exhibitions, expanded the permanent collection by 800 works, oversaw accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums, established endowments for conservation and acquisitions, and organized the Archives dating back to 1912. She also wrote a biography of the Museum’s founder, Carrying the Torch: Maud Howe Elliott and the American Renaissance, and authored numerous Museum catalogues and brochures.

Previously Grinnell was librarian and curator for the Weyerhaeuser collection of American and other art at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, Massachusetts. She assisted the late Robert C. Vose, Jr. in compiling his manuscript for Tales of an Art Dealer, published in 2012.

Grinnell holds an undergraduate degree in art history from the University of Pittsburgh, an MLS from Simmons College, has taken courses from the Harvard Extension Museum Studies Program in conservation and museum administration, and in 2004 received an MA in American Civilization/Museum Studies from Brown University. In 2010 Grinnell updated her archival skills in the University of Rhode Island’s graduate archives course and has nearly completed a certification in Appraisal Studies from NYU.

Welcome to “In The Heydt’s” the podcast that introduces the art of artist William Heydt, and the people in his community he has showcased on his watercolor canvas.

William Heydt has been painting portraits of the people of his city Newport, Rhode Island for decades. His brilliant splashes, edges, and patterns collide with symmetry and reflect imagination. With his extraordinary talent, he is bringing out the essence of a community through its people and has created one of, if not the only artist's anthology of their locality in existence, one canvas at a time. 

I first met Bill in 2007. I had recently moved back home to Aquidneck Island after twenty-two years. I was serving as the Volunteer Coordinator for the “Newport International Film Festival” and writing articles for “Newport This Week, as well as hosting the radio show “Newport Art Scene” on WADK. 

During the interview process, Bill’s son Eric applied to volunteer. I knew at the time through my conversation with Bill that day he was someone I wanted to get to know. After the interview, I asked Eric to come on the radio show to talk about films from a younger person's point of view. 

The day before the show Eric called me and asked if it would be alright if his father came along to take some pictures. Of course, I agreed it wouldn't take that long. When they arrived on the day of the show Bill asked us to get into the place where we would be during the show, and he proceeded to take pictures from every angle, in a grid, from the side, he even climbed up on the counter to get some higher shots.

I thought this was unusual but just went with it. When he was finished, he said thank you, and he left and we went on the air. I saw him several times during the festival, but still had no idea what all the photos were about.

Almost a year passed when I got a call from Bill telling me that he had finished my painting and it would be hanging in a show in Providence. He invited me to attend. 

I didn’t know what to expect, but what I saw when I got to my first William Heydt exhibit was brilliantly colored portraits of people in their surroundings. My painting was in my view when I was greeted, but as I made my way around the room looking at many canvases, I finally was standing in front of the first painting of myself on canvas. I was in awe! It was beautiful. He had captured me. The details were astounding. The blue of my eyes was so deep, and the color of my skin and shirt captivating.
 
After I stepped away from it, I approached Bill, and he asked, "What did you think? I was speechless. All I could say was unbelievable and I thanked him for taking off forty pounds.

A couple of weeks later he called and asked me to lunch and presented that same painting to me. I still cherish it and it is always hanging somewhere in our home, along with other Heydt landscape prints.

From that day forward we formed a partnership that led to many events, paintings, and a television pilot based around his art. 

Newport, like many other vibrant coastal New England towns, has its own special personal universe made up by the people that give the city life. Capturing that universe for all the world to see is what William Heydt has been doing for decades, and that universe has been collected in his new book "Working Newport" a collection of over four hundred watercolor portraits of the people of Newport one person at a time in their own universe.

Come and meet the artist and those Newportant People.