Summer 2025: Weaving New Futures

This summer, my work travels across states and seas, gathering threads of memory, identity, and community in a series of exhibitions that speak to love, resilience, and the emotional labor we carry.


The Future Belongs to the Loving
Now through – July 31, 2025
MAPSpace | 6 N Pearl St, 4th Floor, Port Chester, NY
mapspace.art

Love, in this exhibition, is not a soft whisper but a radical act. The Future Belongs to the Loving gathers voices from artists committed to compassion as resistance. Tender Crown is a sculptural meditation on the intimate rituals of Black hair care—where tenderness and tension coexist. The work evokes the memory of tight braids and firm hands, each parting and twist pulling not just at the scalp, but at identity itself. Beauty here is not effortless; it’s labor, discipline, love, and pain intertwined. This crown remembers the sting, the throb, the scalp still tingling with memory.


FIBER 2025
May 10 – June 19, 2025
Silvermine Galleries | 1037 Silvermine Rd, New Canaan, CT
Opening Reception: May 17

Fiber is language—resilient, tactile, expressive. At FIBER 2025, I join fellow artists in celebrating the breadth of contemporary fiber practices. My work here, Blackity Black Blanket ladder provides a visceral portrayal of navigating the relentless barrage of microaggressions, highlighting the absence of comfort. The ladders adorned with zip tie blankets symbolize my endeavor to ascend beyond microaggressions, yet the weight of these interactions impedes upward progress.


Theda Sandiford Studio Tour / Ecopark Walk
June 19, 2025 | 11am – 2:00pm
Sky Garden Gallery Retreat | Kingshill, St. Croix, USVI

For those on island or visiting, I invite you into my studio at Sky Garden—an oasis where art, ecology, and ancestral memory intersect. Walk the grounds, see where I gather and process materials, and join me in conversation about land-based creativity and healing. RSVP recommended for this intimate, immersive experience.


Fiberart International 2025
June 20 – August 30, 2025
Brew House Arts | 711 S 21st St #210, Pittsburgh, PA
Opening Night: June 20 | 4:30 – 8:00pm
Artist Gallery Tour: June 21 | 11am – 12pm

An international survey of fiber’s future, this juried exhibition is a touchstone for textile artists worldwide. I’m honored to exhibit among a visionary group that is pushing the medium’s boundaries. My work here, Polyurethane Paradise: Rainforest Rhapsody reflects on the environment and sustainability and is inspired by the lush vegetation found on my rainforest property in St Croix USVI. I wove single-use bottle caps into vines and flowers to replicating the vibrant colors and intricate patterns of vines, orchids, Heliconias, and Birds of Paradise that surround me.


MidAtlantic Fiber Association Conference – Emotional Baggage Cart Parade
June 26 – 29, 2025
Millersville University | Millersville, PA
View Exhibit Info →

We all carry invisible weight. The Emotional Baggage Cart Parade transforms that weight into visual metaphors through shopping carts wrapped in stories. This interactive exhibit invites reflection, empathy, and communal healing. Come see how individual struggles become collective strength—one cart at a time. MAFA has day passes available, come through so we can connect. Register here.


Wherever you are this summer—Port Chester, New Canaan, Pittsburgh, Millersville, or St. Croix—I hope our paths cross. Please let me know if we can meet up this month.

—Theda

May Exhibitions & Beyond

2025 is shaping up to be a powerful year of storytelling, connection, and expansive visibility for my work across the U.S. and beyond. From New York City to San Diego, and even home on St. Croix, I’m honored to present a range of projects that explore collective memory, material transformation, and healing through fiber. Here’s where you can find me:


1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
Dates: May 8–11, 2025
Location: Halo, 28 Liberty Street, NYC
I’m thrilled to return to 1-54, the leading fair dedicated to contemporary African art, presenting new work that bridges ancestral narratives with present-day urgency.


The Future Belongs to the Loving
Dates: May 3 – July 31, 2025
Location: MAPSpace, 6 N Pearl St 4th Floor, Port Chester, NY
More Info
I’ll be sharing Free Your Mind, a participatory installation unpacking microaggressions and offering a communal space for release and reflection.


FIBER 2025
Dates: May 10 – June 19, 2025
Opening Reception: May 17, 2025
Location: Silvermine Galleries, 1037 Silvermine Rd, New Canaan, CT
My Blackity Black Blanket Library Drape will be featured—an expansive textile work exploring Black identity, protection, and cultural memory.


Sky Garden Studio Tour & Ecopark Walk
Date: June 19, 2025, 11am–2pm
Location: Sky Garden Gallery Retreat, Kingshill, St. Croix, USVI
Come experience where the magic happens. I’ll be hosting an intimate studio tour and a guided walk through the ecopark—sharing process, stories, and island-grown inspiration.


Fiberart International 2025
Dates: June 20 – August 30, 2025
Location: Brew House Arts, 711 S 21st St #210, Pittsburgh, PA
This juried exhibition celebrates innovation in contemporary fiber art—an honor to be included among such dynamic global voices.


MidAtlantic Fiber Association Conference: Emotional Baggage Cart Parade
Dates: June 26–29, 2025
Location: Millersville University, Millersville, PA
Details Here
My interactive Emotional Baggage Cart Parade installation will invite participants to name, confront, and ceremoniously discard emotional burdens.


Interpretations 2025
Dates: October 17, 2025 – January 10, 2026
Location: Visions Museum of Textile Art, 2825 Dewey Rd #100, San Diego, CA


If you’re near any of these locations, I would love to see you! Each exhibition is an invitation to engage, reflect, and participate in the stories woven into my work. Stay tuned for more details and behind-the-scenes updates.

With gratitude,
Theda

Free Your Mind at The Future Belongs to the Loving

I’m honored and excited to share that my interactive installation Free Your Mind will be featured in the upcoming exhibition The Future Belongs to the Loving, on view from May 3 through July 31, 2025 at MAPSpace, located at 6 N Pearl St, 4th Floor, Port Chester, NY.

This show could not be more timely—or more necessary.

Opening Day is May 3rd, and it promises to be a vibrant, full-day celebration of collective creativity, healing, and resistance through the power of art. From morning coffee and community connection to workshops, performances, and living sculpture, the day will be brimming with opportunities to engage, reflect, and rejoice.


Exhibition + Opening Day Details:

May 3, 2025 | 🕚 11am – 7pm
MAPSpace, 6 N Pearl St 4th Floor, Port Chester, NY
Visit MAPSpace

Collaborative Events Schedule:

  • 11:00–11:30 AM – Coffee + Welcome Remarks
  • 11:30–12:30 PM – Sound Bath Workshop with Serena Buschi
  • 1:00–5:00 PM – Rotating Presentations with Theda Sandiford (that’s me!), Natlaya Khorover, and Michael Sylvan Robinson
  • 5:00 PM – Performance by Ms Muscle
  • 5:00–7:00 PM – Living Sculpture with Amy Keefer

About Free Your Mind

Free Your Mind invites viewers and participants alike to confront and release the weight of microaggressions—those subtle, often unintentional moments that carry very real emotional impact.

This piece provides a space of craftivist healing. Participants inscribe the microaggressions they’ve experienced on colorful ribbons, tying them onto the installation and quite literally freeing them from the confines of personal silence. As the work grows, it becomes an evolving, visible, communal record of disempowering interactions—open for reflection, conversation, and, ideally, transformation.

This work lives at the intersection of artivism and collective care, and I’m honored to share it alongside fellow artists who are also committed to joy, activism, and connection through creative expression.


The Future Belongs to the Loving asks: How do we create loving, resilient communities in a world that feels increasingly fragmented and fragile? I believe we begin by telling the truth, creating together, and holding space for each other—and that’s exactly what this show is about.

Come out, connect, and contribute. I can’t wait to see you there.

With love and intention,
Theda

Free Your Mind