The University of Virginia

 

2004 MAYES AWARD RECIPIENT
Nancy Andrews
Detroit, MI

 

 
Ms. Andrews has been Director of Photography at the Detroit Free-Press for almost five years now after having photographed at The Washington Post for 10 years. In 1998, both the National Press Photographer’s Association Pictures of the Year and the University of Missouri named Ms. Andrews Newspaper Photographer of the Year. In 1999, she was named White House Photographer of the Year by the White House Press Photographer’s Association.

In 2002, Ms. Andrews edited Time Frames: Our Lives in 2001, Our City at 300, Our Legacy in Pictures, a 224-page photo essay of Detroit by Free Press photographers. She has published two other books, Partial View: An Alzheimer’s Journal, in 1998 with SMU Press and Family: A Portrait of Gay and Lesbian America in 1994 with HarperCollins Publishers for which she won the 1995 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian And Gay Photography/Visual Arts. The Palazzo Reale at the Piazza Duomo in Milan, Italy, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Rochester Institute of Technology SPAS Gallery, and the University of Virginia’s Art Museum have each hosted solo exhibitions of her work.

In 1998, Nancy Andrews was the first person to make a substantial gift to the lesbian and gay community at the University when she endowed the Serpentine Students Fund, which is stewarded today by the University’s Queer Student Union. Also, The Cavalier Daily created the Nancy Andrews Award in 1998, which is “presented annually to a member of a nonliterary staff who through his courage, commitment and vision for the future of The Cavalier Daily has maintained the highest standards of excellence.”

Ms. Andrews received her B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1986. She is being honored by the Serpentine Society for her outstanding leadership, compassionate vision and courageous and pioneering spirit, as demonstrated by her public service to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as well as other minority communities. She will receive her award at the Society’s annual gala in Charlottesville on September 18 which benefits its signature program, the University of Virginia LGBT Resource Center at Newcomb Hall.

Andrews acknowledged the Serpentine Society’s award by saying, “I am honored to receive the Bernard Mayes Award, and to be a part of the Gay and Lesbian Alumni community. I didn’t realize I was gay until 4th year, and came out about a year later. Since then, I have worked to help others like myself and be a part of the open gay and lesbian community. I am grateful for all the hard work so many people do on behalf of helping students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. You are helping a younger version of me, who struggled with her newfound identity. I thank you.”