ALLISON NANCE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Allison Nance is the Executive Director of The Nicholson Project where she develops and stewards the organization in implementing our mission and vision, and oversees organizational operations encompassing our artist residency program, exhibitions curation, partnerships, and more. Allison is deeply dedicated to supporting and empowering artists as leaders, and elevating cultural exchange opportunities both abroad and within our own communities. 

Allison has over 17 years of leadership experience in arts non-profit management for the visual arts. She was the Director of Hillyer Art Space from 2013-2020 where she facilitated a robust schedule of artist selection and mentorship, organizing and curating over 30 exhibitions and 85+ public programs annually. She fostered initiatives and key partnerships throughout DC and the surrounding region and broadened artist-focused projects between Washington, DC, and international counterparts. Before that, she was the Target Gallery Director and Head of Outreach at the Torpedo Factory Art Center where she worked from 2008-2013.

Allison has curated numerous exhibitions, notably Berlin Underground (2025) in partnership with Goethe-Institut Washington, with works by Hito Steryl, Ming Wong, Alicja Kwade, Candice Breitz, and more from the collection at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) Video-Forum; Magnifica (2021) by Italian duo Goldschmied & Chiari in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute and the Italian Embassy in Washington, DC, and International Arts & Artists, with funding from a prestigious grant from the Italian Council. She co-curated RE/ENVISIONING (2023) featuring Adele Yiseol Kenworthy, Antonio McAfee, Stephanie Mercedes, Fargo Nissim Tbakhi, Jessica Valoris, and Stephanie J. Williams at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Allison curated Storie Americane: Stephanie Williams, Naoko Wowsugi, Elizabeth Acevedo (2019) for Sala 1 in Rome, Italy, and she served as organizing curator of Urban Mapping: Public Space Through the Lens of Contemporary Iranian Artists (2017) in collaboration with photographer and curator Gohar Dashti. 

Allison is a founding member of artconnex DC, and she co-founded and co-curated Plain Sight, a storefront gallery in the historic Park View neighborhood in Washington, DC which launched in 2020 in response to the many art-space closures in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. She was the curator of exhibitions at Culture House DC from September 2020-January 2022, and served on the Alexandria Commission for the Arts from 2013-2022, and ArtTable’s DC Chapter Leadership Committee from 2016-2022. Currently, she serves on the Washington Sculptors Group Advisory Board and Dupont Underground’s Programs/Exhibitions Committee.