Sana Musasama

Sana Musasama is an African-American ceramic and mixed-media artist based in New York City. Her artistic practice parallels her work as an educator and commitment to human rights causes especially the human trafficking of women. Musasama is an associate adjunct professor at Hunter College.

Early life and education Musasama was born in Saint Albans, New York.

She holds a BA in Ceramics and Education from City College (1974) and an MFA from Alfred State College of Ceramics (1987). She continued her ceramic studies at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana; the Gakium Designer College in Tokyo, Japan; the Tuscarora International School of Ceramics in Tuscarora, Nevada; and at Mende Pottery in Mendeland, Sierra Leone. In the 1970s she traveled to West Africa where she lived and worked in Mendeland, Sierra Leone, it was there she first witnessed the effects of female circumcision of young girls. This experience informed her interest in other women's issues including: foot binding, dowry burning, rape and prostitution. Some of the sculptures from the series were created at artist residencies, and are named after the place where they were made.

Volunteer work and teaching In addition to working as a professor in higher education and teaching ceramics workshops nationally and internationally, Musasama has volunteered at organizations in New York City such as GEMS (Girls Educational & Mentoring Services) that works with survivors of human trafficking and exploitation; and CASES (Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment). She has also worked with AFESIP Cambodia and Together1Heart, organizations dedicated to supporting and rescuing girls and young women that are victims of human trafficking.

Exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions 2024: Returning to Ourselves, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York 2022: I Never Played with Dolls, Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York 2010: Unknown/Unnamed, June Kelly Gallery, New York 2010: The Hand, Meta House Gallery, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2009: Women, Chatham University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2007: A Season of Abundance: The Maple Tree Series of Sana Musasama, curated by chief curator, David Revere McFadden, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; catalogue 2006: ETHOS, Social Consciousness and Craft, Penland School of Craft, Penland, NC 2005: Shhh…Secrets, Status, Society, June Kelly Gallery, New York 2001: Outer Beauty, Inner Anguish, June Kelly Gallery, New York 1998: Maple Tree Series, Fine Arts Gallery, Southampton College of Long Island University, Southampton, New York 1984: From the Studio: The Studio Museum in Harlem Artist-in-Residence, 1984, curated by Schroeder Cherry, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York

Selected group exhibitions

2016: 50 Women-A Celebration of Women's Contribution to Ceramics, American Jazz Museum, Kansas City, MO 2013: Body & Soul, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY 2013: History, Haunting and Palimpsests, Anya & Shiva Gallery, John Jay College, NY 2009: Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, New Hampshire 2006: Edges of Grace, Fuller Craft Museum, Boston, MA 2002: New Works, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA 1999: Cultural Influences in Craft, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC

Recognition Musasama's work has been recognized with numerous awards including an Anonymous Was a Woman Award in 2002, Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2013, and was a Studio Museum in Harlem Artist-in-Residence in 1983–84.