Sana Musasama ( she/her )

My name is Sana Musasama. I am a native New Yorker educated in the public school system and world travel. I received my BA from City College of New York in 1973 and my MFA from Alfred University, New York in 1988. In 2018, I was awarded the 2018 Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts for my years of teaching and my humanitarian work with victims of sex trafficking in Cambodia.

I am a clay artist, humanitarian, and global trotter. My work and passions center on the lives of little girls that were and still are my mentors as I traveled the world. I am concerned about their ability to live full, healthy lives without the burdens of war, child marriages, sex trafficking, displacement, and harmful ritualistic practices. I, along with 8 girls, formed the Apron Project in Cambodia which is a sustainable entrepreneurial project for girls and young women reintegrated back into society after being forced into the commercial sex industry. We create beautiful, one-of-a-kind aprons that I sell on my Etsy store. I have volunteered in Cambodia for the past 14 years, and would like to for the remainder of my life.

I received my BA from City College of New York in 1973 and my MFA from Alfred University, New York in 1988. I received the 2018 Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts for my years of teaching and my humanitarian work with victims of sex trafficking in Cambodia. I am the coordinator of the Apron Project, a sustainable entrepreneurial project for girls and young women reintegrated back into society after being forced into the commercial sex industry. In 2016, I was a guest speaker on “Activism through Art” at ROCA. I was interviewed by Cliff Hocker for an article titled “If I can Help Somebody: Sana Musasama’s Art of Healing,” which appeared in the International Review of African American Art. In 2015, the Museum of Art and Design in New York selected four of my sculptures from The Unspeakable Series for their private collection; I was awarded the ACLU of Michigan Art Prize 7 and Art Prize 8. In 2002, I was awarded Anonymous Was a Woman and I was featured in the 2001 Florence Biennial. My work is in multiple collections such as The Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina; The Museum of Art and Design in New York, New York; the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, New York; the Hood Museum of Art in Hanover, New Hampshire; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York; Bluffton University in Bluffton, Ohio; and in numerous private collections. I live and work in New York.