Theresa Secord
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TRIBAL AFFILIATION: Penobscot
MEDIUM: Basketry - Ash, Basketry - Other
BIOGRAPHY
Theresa Secord (b.1958) is a traditional Penobscot basketmaker and the founding director of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA). Over the course of 30 years, Theresa taught more than a dozen apprentices the endangered art of ash and sweetgrass basketry. Now, some of her apprentice’s apprentices- have apprentices!
Theresa has been honored several times for her advocacy. Among the most notable, the National Endowment for the Arts bestowed her with the prestigious lifetime achievement award, the National Heritage Fellowship, in 2016. In 2003, she was awarded the Prize for Creativity in Rural Life by the Women’s World Summit Foundation, granted at the UN in Geneva Switzerland, for helping basket makers rise out of poverty. She has won a number of first place ribbons for her own basketry at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Eiteljorg Indian Art Market and the Heard Museum
