She earned a BFA in painting from Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Virginia and a MFA in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In 2004, Nancy Hart was the recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to Bulgaria. She has had grants to study printmaking in Prague and to attend artist residency programs at Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy, and La Macina di San Cresci in Greve in Chianti, Italy. She has also received faculty travel awards to study in Italy over the last thirteen years.