Grass Roots African Origins of an American Art

Grass Roots African Origins of an American Art is a major exhibition at McKissick Museum in Columbia, South Carolina tracing the history and artistry of southern sweetgrass baskets and their cousins in Africa. The exhibit is scheduled to run from February 13, 2010 to May 8, 2010. Five years in the making, this extensive presentation is the first to definitively chart the migration of enslaved Africans, their rice, and the baskets necessary to process this grain, to the shores of Carolina. McKissick Museum staff worked with the Museum for African Art in New York, the organizing institution for the exhibition, the Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston and the Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival Association (South Carolina) in addition to a distinguished a group of nationally prominent historians, geographers, anthropologists, filmmakers and curators to assemble this remarkable collection of hundreds of objects and accompanying documents, photographs, and agricultural implements in order to tell the full story.

The exhibit is available for booking at qualified locations. Please contact Ja-Nae Epps at 803-777-2876 for additional information about the tour.

Featured Events While at McKissick Museum

Grand Opening
Saturday, February 13th, 2010 11:00 am - 4:00 pm
11:00 a.m. - Tour of exhibition by professors Dale Rosengarten and Nakia Wigfall
12:00 p.m. - Peter Wood lecture on the history of Africans in South Carolina and the rice industry.
1:00 p.m. - Film "Grass Roots: The Enduring Art of the Lowcountry Basket" by Dana Sardet.
There will also be a children's art activity table from 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.

Basket Day
Saturday, April 17th, 2010 11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Basket makers from the Charleston area selling handcrafted baskets on the Horseshoe.


Sweet Grass Sundays
February 21, March 21, April 18, 2010
1:00 - 4:00 pm

For additional information and background about Gullah Sweetgrass basketry visit BasketMakers.com.

California Native Plant Use In Basketry

I would like to bring your attention to the work of a California ethnobotanist, artist, writer, and photographer devoted to California native plants. Deborah Small has collaborated with and documented the gathering practices of Abe Sanchez, Rose Ramirez, Marta Rodriguez, Stan Rodriquez and other Luiseño, Acjachemen, Kumeyaay, and Chumash basketweavers as they preserve the cultural practices essential to their indigenous cultures.

Blog posts including videos about the culture, gathering practices and use of California native plants such as Mulenbergia rigens, rhus trilobata, deergrass, sumac, chia, Juncus textilis, mesquite tree roots, redbud, ironwood are all featured. While you are visiting her site do not miss the splendidly illustrated Edible, Medicinal, Material, Ceremonial: Contemporary Ethnobotany of Southern California Indians 2010 Calendar

Here is a small sample of her work in the form of a video picturing the gathering of deergrass. Please visit her site for more. I also encourage you to stop by BasketMakers.com for much more about the use of natural materials in basketmaking.

2010 BasketMakers Calendar ~ February

2010 BasketMakers Calendar ~ February
Originally uploaded by BasketMakers

A new month is upon us and it is time to print out your basketry calendar for February.

Marin Show: Art of the Americas

If you collect antique Native American baskets you will not want to miss this show. The annual Marin Show: Art of the Americas celebrates its 26th year in February, as the most substantive and extensive ongoing showcase focused on the indigenous arts from across North, Central and South America. The show, produced by KR Martindale Show Management, is described as the “Superbowl of Native American Art collecting”, bringing together top and passionate dealers, collectors, artists, and academia from across the world. A staple of the Marin Center's annual programming, the show's main floor focuses on antique material, with the adjacent hotel ballroom showcasing contemporary art and native artists. The exhibited art includes pottery, textiles, sculpture, jewelry, beadwork, baskets, paintings, photography and more, ranging in price from the low hundreds to $1,000,000, so as to offer quality material to buyers ranging from first time buyers to seasoned collectors. The Marin Show works in association with the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Assoc., The Marin Museum of the American Indian, The Miwok Archeological Preserve of Marin, Tribal Arts Magazine, American Indian Art Magazine, and Western Art Collector Magazine.

The 2010 Marin Show: Art of the Americas is an anchor event for the First Annual San Francisco Tribal Arts Weekend. In partnership with the San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show (SFTTA) and the Marin Show Art of the Americas (MSAA), San Francisco Tribal Arts Weekend is the largest and most significant gathering of Tribal Arts dealers and collectors in the world. San Francisco Tribal Arts Weekend visitors will gain admission to both shows (MSAA, SFTTA) with the purchase of one ticket ($15) at either show. Tickets available at the door.

Of particular interest to basket collectors will be participation of dealers such as Natalie Linn and Elaine Tucker, Turkey Mountain Traders, Jerry Weisberg Tribal Antiques, Terry DeWald American Indian Art, Spirits of the Plains Gallery and numerous others. Basket makers will enjoy the lecture and book signing: Basketry Plants of Western North America by renowned California basket maker, collector and teacher, Justin Farmer. Mr. Farmer served on the Board of Trustees of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, The Autry Center, in Los Angeles, and he is a member of virtually every Indian museum in Southern California. Mr. Farmer will discuss his new book at Embassy Suites at 12:00 pm, Saturday February 13, 2010. Attendance is free.

WHEN:
Saturday, February 13, 2010
10:00am - 6:00pm AND Sunday,
February 14, 2010
11:00am - 5:00pm

WHERE:
Marin Civic Center
10 Avenue of the Flags
San Rafael, CA 94903
and
Embassy Suites
101 McInnis Pkwy
San Rafael, CA 94903                          

ADMISSION:
$15 two-day admission. Allows free admission to San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show.

INFO:
For additional information, please visit www.marinshow.com.

For more on basket collecting be sure to visit BasketMakers.com.

Fiberarts Magazine ~ Lisa Telford Article

Fiberarts Magazine> How Lisa Telford Harvests Cedar Bark and Her Traditional Pre-Contact Clothing and Basketry

Check out this article in the January/February 2010 issue of Fiberarts Magazine. It features artist Lisa Telford, who weaves baskets, hats and traditional pre-contact clothing from the bark of red and yellow cedar trees. The article pictures a stunning twined hat of red and yellow cedar bark, a cape of red cedar bark, cotton cordage, spun yellow cedar cordage with sea otter fur trim, a twined dance apron and twined baskets of red and yellow cedar bark.

Visit BasketMakers.com for more about Cedar Basketry or select a book for further reading about Northwest ~ Coastal Pacific or Arctic, Subarctic and Alaskan basketmaking.

Fiberarts magazine covers work in basketry, fiber, knitting, needlework, papermaking, quilting, sculpture, surface design, wearable art, weaving & more!

JoAnne Russo Lecture

Main Street Arts, Saxtons River, VT

Thursday, January 14 at 6:00 PM

It Starts with a Tree - Basket artist JoAnne Russo will give an illustrated talk about her 20+ years of basketmaking. She'll start with the basics: how a basket is made from black ash, but she will also discuss those influences along the way that have changed her basket designs from functional, decorative pieces to today's works of art.

Keep track of scheduled basketry events by visiting BasketMakers.com.

2010 BasketMakers Calendar ~ January

2010 BasketMakers Calendar ~ January
Originally uploaded by BasketMakers

Nantucket Lightship Basket by Jose Formoso Reyes

This Nantucket lightship basket by Jose Formoso Reyes will be offered at auction by Pook & Pook, Inc., 463 East Lancaster Ave., Downingtown, PA 19335 at their Period Antiques & Fine Art Sale, January 15, 2010.

For more on Basket Collecting or Nantucket Lightship baskets visit BasketMakers.com.

Dorothy Gill Barnes at Penland

Noted basket artist Dorothy Gill Barnes will lead a workshop at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina this summer. The workshop entitled - From Nature: Textiles/Sculpture will be held May 30 - June 11, 2010. Students will use respectfully harvested heavy and delicate barks, grasses, wood, vines, and roots gathered from the Penland landscape, to construct vessels or sculptures using a variety of techniques including carpentry, sewing, weaving.


Dorothy is well known for her expertise in using native natural materials in her sculptural basketry. For more about bark and other native naturals used in basketmaking visit BasketMakers.com.

Judy Mallow Book In Paperback

I noticed that Judy Mowfield Mallow's book, Pine Needle Basketry: From Forest Floor to Finished Project is scheduled to be released in paperback - Feb 2, 2010. Other books by Judy Mallow

For much more on pine needle basketry visit BasketMakers.com.