Theda Sandiford is an interdisciplinary artist whose fiber-based installations explore racial trauma, collective memory, and the connective power of community. Working with techniques such as weaving, coiling, knotting, and jewelry-making, she combines found materials, personal artifacts, and community-sourced objects to create what she describes as social fabric, material narratives that hold shared histories, lived experience, and contemporary realities.
Sandiford’s practice is deeply rooted in community engagement and collective art-making. Through collaborative, site-specific installations and participatory experiences, her work opens space for dialogue around equity, inclusion, sustainability, and personal well-being. These projects emphasize creativity as a tool for healing, reflection, and social connection, transforming individual stories into interconnected visual languages.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is held in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim Museum and the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum. Sandiford has presented work at World of Threads, Expo Chicago, Untitled Art Fair, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Governor’s Island NYC, New Jersey Arts Annual, and the American Contemporary Craft: National Juried Exhibition. She has also created commissioned installations, including a woven lightbox for the launch of Coty Fragrance’s Entere Genres.
Sandiford’s work has been recognized by Fiber Art Now through Excellence in Fibers VI and Fiber VIII. Her honors include the 2020 Jersey City Arts Visual Artist Award, a 2021 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship in Craft, a 2022 Jersey City Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, and the 2023–24 National Leaders of Color Fellowship.
At the core of Sandiford’s practice is a belief in art as a shared experience, one that bears witness, builds connection, and invites collective care through making.