Theresa Secord
Theresa Secord, Penobscot
Traditional Ash and Sweet Grass Basketry
Farmington, ME 04938
wikepi@gwi.net
Recent Artist Interviews
Theresa Secord (b.1958) is a traditional Penobscot basket maker and the founding director of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA). Theresa received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2016. In 2009, she was honored with the First Peoples Fund Community Spirit Award and in 2003, the Prize for Creativity in Rural Life by the Women’s World Summit Foundation, presented at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland; for helping basket makers rise out of poverty. Theresa learned to weave ash and sweet baskets on Indian Island from her mentor, the late Madeline Tomer Shay (Penobscot) beginning in 1988. She weaves family and tribal styles on antique wooden forms, using tools handed down to her from her great-grandmother, Philomene Saulis Nelson. Theresa has taught more than a dozen apprentices to weave baskets and her own work resides in museum and private collections across the nation. She is currently mentoring her own son again, Caleb Hoffman.