Trustina's profile
Trustina Fafa Sabah is a theater and gourd artist originally from Ghana who lives in Baltimore, Maryland. A year after her MFA in Theater Arts at Towson University, she discovered her love and talent for gourd art, and decided to pursue it. She founded Gourds By Fafa studio where she makes and sells her work online and at various events. She also teaches gourd art workshops.
She exhibits her work at The Barn at Wellspring, Upper Marlboro, Maryland. She has displayed and sold her original work at The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C., The REACH at Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore’s 32nd Farmer’s Market. She has taught gourd art workshops at Arrowmont School of Arts and crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee (2022 & 2023). In October 2022 Sabah was resident at Baltimore County Public Library, (BCPL) and she taught workshops there. In 2022 & 2023 and 2024, she exhibited her work as part of Arrowmont’s Instructor Exhibition and is set to be part of the same exhibition May 2025. In January and February 2023, she exhibited her work at BCPL Hereford as part of 2022 Artist In Resident’s Exhibition Show and has continued to teach workshops to the library’s adult and children patrons. In November 2022 she was awarded, First Place and Best in Division at the North Carolina Gourd Society’s 80th Anniversary Gourd Show. Trustina’s work is inspired by her background as a Ghanaian, the thing that might inspire peace in her patrons’ homes and the beauties her heart is drawn to.
Her theater career spans 11 years, where she’s worked with various theater companies in the Baltimore area as a deviser, performer, director and an ensemble member. For the past five years, she has continued to serve as a Core Creator at Submersive Productions LLC(Submersive), where she works with other artists to create, vet and approve concepts on new shows to be staged. Some of her works in theater include Katalepsis by Submersive, 2023 (Core 4, space designer, deviser, performer), recollection by Submersive, 2022, (Core Four), Mass Rabble by Submersive, 2020(deviser, performer), HT Darling’s Incredible Museum by Submersive, 2017 and 2018 as a deviser and performer.
