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February Issue
2008
Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, SC, Offers Gullah Exhibition
Brookgreen Gardens in Pawleys Island, SC, is presenting the exhibit, Cross-Continental Cultural Connections, an educational display showcasing stunning artifacts about Gullah and West African cultures. The exhibit will be on view through Mar. 30, 2008, in the Wall Lowcountry Center.
"The display is informative and visually appealing and includes artifacts by two Gullah folk artists of Pawleys Island," said coordinator Ron Daise. Daise is Brookgreen's Vice President for Creative Education and a Commissioner with the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. "It features handsome walking sticks carved by Franklin Reed of Parkersville Road and a Gullah strip quilt by Bunny Rodrigues of Gullah O'oman Shop and Museum. These and other Gullah artifacts complement ones that parallel West African cultural linkages in customs, heritage, slavery, and spirituality. Intricately hand-carved West African gourds and stools and colorful fabric arts also are displayed.
Bobbi Adams of Bishopville, SC, donated the West African artifacts to the Brookgreen History Collection. She collected items from 1962 to 1966 when she lived and taught in Sierra Leone.
Cross-Continental Cultural Connections also includes historic photographs of Gullah residents on Sandy Island during the 1930s and shows their involvement with rice culture. Through a short video, viewers learn about Bunce Island, a slave castle and prison in Sierra Leone, from which hundreds of thousands of West Africans were trafficked to North America, the West Indies, and Brazil during the Slave Era. Africans from countries along the Grain Coast, including Sierra Leone, were enslaved and brought to present-day Gullah communities because they were skillful rice producers.
"This exhibit is particularly important in light of world-wide observances that end this year for the bicentenary of the end of the Transatlantic Slave Trade," Daise said.
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Gardens at 843/235-6000 or visit (www.brookgreen.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.