Syd Carpenter is  a sculptor  working in clay and mixed media. She focuses on African American farms and gardens as a source of form and content attributing this interest to her mother, Ernestine and grandmother, Indiana Hutson, both of whom were master gardeners.  After leaving graduate school she and husband Steve Donegan founded the 915 Spring Garden Studio Building, a facility for over 100 artists .  There she  began producing ceramic sculptures now included in the  collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,  Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian,  Montreal Museum of Art, Swedish National Museum,  Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Tang Museum of Skidmore College, RISD Museum of Art, Fuller Craft Museum , James Michener Museum and the Woodmere Art Museum.  Her awards include the United States Artists Fellowship, Anonymous Was a Woman, Pew Fellowship in the Arts, National Endowment in the Arts.