Tiff Massey

Tiff Massey is an artist whose practice centers around adornment and community. Massey creates jewelry, sculpture, performance, video, music, and immersive environments with large-scale jewelry pieces and quilts. Massey was the first Black woman to earn an MFA in metalsmithing from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She draws on 1980s hip-hop culture and her experiences as a Detroit native to explore the concept of adornment in African diaspora and contemporary issues surrounding race, class, and popular culture.

Massey merges her art practice with meaningful community engagement to explore the relationship between identity, public space, and community. Her installation 7 Mile + Livernois, currently on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts, refers to the neighborhood at the heart of Detroit’s Black business and fashion district. It is also where Massey grew up, and the site of a new art and community space Massey is building that blends her craft with her drive for community kinship. 

Tiff Massey’s art has been featured in solo and group shows around the US and internationally, and has garnered multiple awards. Massey’s work is in the permanent collections of many institutions, including the Museum of Art and Design in New York and the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia. She is the winner of the 2021 United States Artists Fellowship and the 2019 Art Jewelry Forum Susan Beech Mid-Career Artist Grant, a two-time winner of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knights Arts Challenge, and a 2015 Kresge Artists Fellowship recipient. 

This project was made possible by a grant from the Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan.

Series presenting partners: Detroit PBS, ALL ARTS, and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Public.