Professor Nan Covert’s office sits in the oldest building on campus and holds just enough room for her desk, some bookshelves and a comfy, old chair for her guests. She has taught studio art and art history at Bridgewater College for 29 years.
On this day, her office is full of the scent of hyacinths from a handpicked bouquet on display. Sitting in her office full of lamplight and paintings, Covert tells a story about how she came to teach at the College.
When Covert applied for a teaching position at BC, she says she did not have a usual interview. Rather than the typical script of professional questions, Covert and the art department chair at the time, Paul Kline ’53, sat and had a conversation.
“The dean left us alone for a couple of hours…and we talked and talked, and the two hours went by.” Covert says she saw Kline’s dedication to the art department and wanted to keep his work going. “He convinced me [to accept the position].”
Covert credits conversations like that first one and connection to those around her as integral to her success as a teacher and artist.
Covert began her college education at what was then Mary Baldwin College, a women’s college in Staunton, Va. She majored in history and took her first studio art course while there. After three years Covert got married and transferred to the College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C., for her final year of undergraduate study.
Covert taught elementary school while taking a break from her education. This allowed her more time with her children while they were young, but she eventually wanted to go back to school so she could teach older students.
When she was in her 40s, Covert returned to college to study for an MFA in painting with a minor in art history at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Covert taught art history, drawing and painting during her master’s program and for five years after graduating. While Covert says she strongly admired the program at UNC Greensboro, the large size of the school was a downside for her.
“It was hard to really know the students,” she says. “Those first art history classes were in an auditorium that held 130 people, and I had a graduate assistant to help me grade.”
Despite this barrier, the students there called Covert “the open-door professor.” Her students knew they could come by her studio or office to watch her paint or ask her questions at any time. She says she valued this quality and wanted to teach at a school where it could increase.
In 1996, Covert felt drawn to Bridgewater for its small size, desiring a personal relationship with students and colleagues. After only one year of teaching at BC, she became art department chair when Kline retired. Covert stepped back from full-time teaching in 2022 but continues to teach a few classes a year.
“I really like people, so teaching has been that connection for me,” Covert says.
“I think hers was the first studio class that I had where the professor was really heavily involved with each student,” BC art major Lauren Henderson ’26 says of a painting class she took with Covert.
While Covert’s professional life is about teaching, her work as an artist is equally important to her fulfillment and feeds her desire for solitary, focused work. Covert’s work is a blend of abstraction and elements of nature she observes. Through her drawings, she says she gathers inspiration and captures the structure of what she sees.
“I think about structure and the color comes very intuitively and then I play with it,” Covert says. “Painting is an adventure, a process.”
Covert says her main inspiration is her relationships with those around her that her work as a student, teacher and artist have led her to create.
“It’s about giving back to the people who’ve given to me over the years… all of you, all of my students and my friends here.”
– Rosie Clark ’26
10/27/25
