Biography
“Creativity is the ability to proceed in the face of uncertainty.” – unknown origin
“Drawing is a way of knowing the world.” – adapted from Albrecht Dürer
A love of drawing underlies the creative practice of Sandra Reed. Empowering students in their development as independent artists and citizens is integral to her identity as an educator.
Reed grew up on a working family farm in Iowa and is a first-generation college student who attended Drake University on a full national scholarship and George Washington University as the Morris Louis Fellow in Painting. She joined Marshall in 2014. She teaches Foundations drawing and design courses, Advanced Drawing, Capstone Exhibition and Studio courses, and Professional Practices. She has also taught non-art students in a Yeager and Honors seminars, FYS 100 “Pervasive Curation,” and ART 112. Through Special Topic and Independent Study courses, her students presented original work at the Juliet Art Museum at the Clay Center for the Arts in Charleston, WV (ReCollection, 2019), The End Project Space, Atlanta, GA (Minimum Capacity, 2020), the Carroll Gallery, Huntington, WV (Maximum Capacity, 2020), and South Charleston, WV (2022 Conceptions of Flight). She has hosted five Edwards Distinguished Professors in the Arts (Carol Prusa – 2019, Craig Drennen – 2020, Maggie Evans – 2022, Meaghan Dee – 2022, and Becky Borlan – 2024). She mentored undergraduate students in several successful Creative Discovery award projects, including the 2024-2025 academic year. Reed has coordinated the Black History Month poster competition for the Dr. Carter G. Woodson Lyceum since 2017 and supports the Woodson Lyceum’s year-round programming as a member of the Maple Grove Society.
Reed worked at the Savannah College of Art and Design as professor, department chair, dean of fine arts, and dean of graduate studies from 1993-2014. She relocated to Marshall University to serve as Director of the School of Art & Design for the term 2014-2018. Reed is actively involved in SECAC and is the past president of this national organization, receiving its Excellence in Teaching recognition in 2022. Within the Huntington community, she has served on the Mayor’s Arts Council, as Vice-President of the Cabell-Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the West Edge NEA Grant Advisory Board. At Marshall, she currently serves on the Faculty Senate Academic Planning Committee, the Honors College Curriculum and Policies Committee, the interdisciplinary Healthier Aging Initiatives in Appalachia committee, and chairs the Personnel Committee for the College of Arts and Media. She was named as the 2021-2023 Distinguished John Deaver Drinko Academy Fellow. She received a Creative Aging in Life Long Learning grant (2021) to support recent Marshall art alumni in presenting art workshops within their hometown senior centers. Subsequently, with Masa Toyama, professor of psychology, and others, she is a co-investigator for a community-based research project that examines the potential of visual art activities as an intervention for health and cognitive decline in those who are 55 and older. This ongoing research is generously funded by the Marshall University School of Medicine and the Huntington Foundation.
As an artist, Reed has worked within the academic traditions of figure and plein air landscape painting. She is currently involved in mixed media abstractions that are informed by these practices and her study of contemporary art. Her work employs diverse techniques including dimensional pochoir techniques with atomized acrylic ink on rigid and flexible substrates. Reed has mounted eleven solo shows, including Selvage at Berry College (2022), and participated in more than twenty-five group exhibitions. Her paintings are in private and public collections including the LaGrange Museum of Art, the United States Navy Memorial, and the Telfair Academy of the Arts. She has participated in artist residencies at the Hambidge Center for Arts & Sciences (2019) and the Weir Farm National Historical Park (2022). She received an American Rescue Plan: Individual Project Grant (2021) and has received professional development funding from the College of Arts and Media and the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture, and History several times. She maintains an independent studio in Huntington.
