DIANA BAIRD-N'DAYE

Dr. Diana Baird N’Diaye is a multi-disciplinary artist, scholar, and cultural activist whose work interrogates the connections between textiles, personal adornment, history and identity across global Africa. As Senior Curator and Cultural Heritage Specialist at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, N’Diaye directs three Smithsonian living cultural heritage Initiatives: the American American Craft Initiative, the Crafts of African Fashion, and the Will to Adorn: African American Style and the Aesthetics of Identity. The latter is the subject of an upcoming book. Her awards include the Smithsonian Secretary’s Research Prize for the 2016 co-authored book, Curatorial Conversations: Reflections on the Folklife Festival.

Dr. N’Diane’s artwork is represented in the collection of the Michigan State University Museum, in several private collections, and in a recent exhibition at Toledo Arts Museum entitled The Radical Tradition: American Quilts and Social Change. She was recently a featured artist with the American Craft Council’s Critical Craft Forum, Series Two. In 2022, N’Diaye was cited as a crafts visionary by the American Crafts Council. She is a Fellow of the American Folklore Society, a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Craft. Dr. N’Diaye maintains an active studio/design practice as a member of Prince Georges County’s Gateway/Brentwood studio and is an alumna of Red Dirt Studio.