Nina de Creeft Ward

Nina de Creeft Ward (born 1933) is an American artist who works with bronze, soft sculptures, etchings, woodcuts, and monoprints. She had multiple art exhibitions in the Philippines and the United States. Ward was the co-winner of the Individual Artists Award for Works in Clay in 2006 from the Santa Barbara Arts Fund. Most of Ward's work has to do with animals, including a 1998 exhibition of art that resembled endangered and extinct species. She has taught students such as at the University of Northern Iowa. Her clay animal models are made with raku ware.

Personal life Nina de Creeft Ward was born in 1933 in New York City to Jose de Creeft and Alice Robertson Carr de Creeft, who were both sculptors. Ward's mother cared for animals, leading to Ward having a fondness for them.

Ward began to sketch draft horses for the Los Angeles County Fair during her time at Scripps College. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1956 from Scripps College, a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1964 from the Claremont Graduate School, and further studied at the Massachusetts College of Art. Ward was taught by Albert Stewart, Betty Davenport Ford, and Paul Soldner, with the last teaching her how to create raku ware. She later moved back to Santa Barbara in 2001 after living in Iowa for 26 years with her husband. In 2016, Ward was the juror at the 2016 Tri-Cities Online Ceramics Show which was hosted by the Student Art Fund of the Santa Barbara Art Association. The Frick Collection's Archives Directory for the History of Collecting has "Esther Bear Gallery records, 1954-1977" that includes information about Ward.

Exhibitions Ward's 1998 exhibition titled Rhino/Blaauwbock Project was made to show "how people have caused a scourge to the balance of nature" by using art that resembles corpses of extinct and endangered species. In response to the exhibition, Ward said, "I want to make a statement about anti-complacency. I think it's important to think about death. Something physical will put your mind on it whether you want to think about it or not. If you see something dead, you think about it." She held an exhibition at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts in 2015 that included sculptures, prints, and drawings. In 2020, Ward displayed 28 of her animal sculptures at South Willard gallery in Los Angeles, California. A 2020 exhibition titled Santa Barbara Printmakers: Wild Places in Print at the Wildling Museum’s Barbara Goodall Education Center included Ward's art. A 2022 exhibition titled An Encomium: Women in Art included her work at the University of Northern Iowa Gallery of Art. Her exhibitions have been shown in the Philippines, California, Maryland, Iowa, Chicago, and Kansas City.