After graduating with a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1977 Nancy Sutor moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. She exhibited her work, engaged in the community and began teaching.

She has curated exhibits in connection with the Santa Fe Center for Photography, the Armory for the Arts and Eidolon, an artists' space she co-founded in 1994, in Santa Fe.

Her work is in collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, the Amon Carter Museum, the Hallmark Collection, and Deutsche Bank of Huston. She has been teaching at the College of Santa Fe since 1996.