Nan Youngman

Nan Youngman OBE, (28 June 1906 – 17 April 1995), was an English painter and educationalist.  Youngman is remembered primarily as a painter, but from before the war to the mid-1960s she was an influential figure in art education, as a teacher, an author and an impressively efficient organiser of exhibitions.

She trained at the Slade School of Art (1924–27) and , needing to finance her career as an artist by teaching, she went on to the London Day Training College.  There she was taught by Marion Richardson, who introduced her to Roger Fry and awakened her interest in children’s art.  From 1929 until 1944 she divided her time between painting and teaching; she lectured for the London County Council, gave practical art classes for schoolteachers and taught part-time.  The organisation of exhibitions became an important part of her strategy for increasing children’s awareness of art.

A collection of her correspondence and papers relating to her work of promoting art through education are held by the University of Reading Library.