Steve Prince is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, and currently resides in Williamsburg, Virginia. Prince was born and raised Catholic from kindergarten through college. He received his BFA from Xavier University of Louisiana and his MFA in Printmaking and Sculpture from Michigan State University. He is the Director of Engagement and Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at William and Mary University. He has created several public and private commissions nationally and he has received numerous honors for his art and scholarship including the 2020 International Engage Art Contest Visual Art Grand Prize Winner, and the 2010 Teacher of the Year for the City of Hampton. Prince has shown his art internationally in various solo, group, and juried exhibitions.
He is an accomplished lecturer and workshop conductor in both sacred and secular settings internationally through a variety of media. In 2019 he worked with over 500 people to create a collective art piece focusing on the history of chattel slavery stemming from the first documented Africans arriving on the shores of Point Comfort in 1619. His project was called Links which metaphorically championed the inextricable connections we have as human beings. Prince spreads a message of hope and renewal to the global community. His philosophy is derived from the cathartic Jazz funerary tradition in New Orleans, Louisiana called the Dirge and Second Line. Conversely, the Dirge represents the everyday issues and pains we confront and endure, whereas the Second Line represents new life, restoration, salvation, and yearning for the eternal while we are still alive.