Nancy Heuston is Honored by The Utah Cultural Alliance (UCA) with the Utah Cultural Award—the Lifetime Cultural Achievement Awarded Annually. 

The UCA is in it's twelfth year of awarding the Utah Cultural Award—the Lifetime Cultural Achievement Award that has become an important part of honoring well-respected individuals in our community. This year, the winner is Nancy Heuston, founding and former Head of Waterford School, who will be presented this award at the UCA Annual Luncheon on December 5, 2018.

The award was given to a member of Utah's community who has demonstrated exceptional dedication to Utah's arts, culture, and humanities. This award recipient has demonstrated more than one decade of support for the sector. Each recipient has made a significant and lasting impact on the overall cultural community throughout Utah.

Nancy Heuston is exemplary and has had an unwavering commitment to the arts as an essential part of a child’s education. While Head of Waterford, Nancy has employed some of Utah’s most accomplished artists allowing them the time and space to develop as both artists and teachers. She has presented in many national forums on the arts and education and has attracted artists of the highest caliber to visit Utah and teach workshops at Waterford, often in collaboration with local arts organizations. She build up Waterford—this truly impressive school—from the ground up with the fine and performing arts at the center.

Nancy’s focus has been a proponent of arts education far and wide. Her commitment to the ideal of Honor, Beauty, and Wisdom through the arts has created a culture of accomplished artists, and supporters of the arts. The impact of her contributions to the cultural life of Utah and beyond is just beginning to be understood. So much more could be said and so many others could attest to her great contributions.

We congratulate and honor Nancy Heuston for this achievement and stand grateful for her vision and perseverance in building Waterford to be the pre-eminent liberal arts school that it is today. 

Past recipients of the Utah Cultural Award include:

2007: the late Tony Larimer, a veteran educator, actor and director

2008: Katherine Coles, Professor of English at the University of Utah and former Poet Laureate of Utah

2009: Doug Fabrizio, KUER FM90.1 reporter

2010: Geralyn White Dreyfous, an award winning local film-maker and founder of the SLC Film Center

2011: Kevin Jones, former State Archeologist

2012: Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon 

2013: Diane P. Stewart, philanthropist and art collector, founder of Modern West Fine Arts Gallery

2014: Dr. Raymond Tymas-Jones, dean of the College of Fine Arts and Vice-President of the Arts at the University of Utah

2015: Fred C. Adams, founder of Utah Shakespeare Festival

2016: Nancy Boskoff, longtime head of the SLC Arts Council

2017: Scott Anderson, CEO of Zions Bank