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September Issue
2008
Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston,
SC, Features Exhibit on Ancient Art of Basket Making
Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art is on display at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, and continues through Nov. 30, 2008. The exhibition was organized by the Museum for African Art, New York, in cooperation with the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture at the College of Charleston and the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC.
Elizabeth Mazyck
Through the story of the beautiful coiled basket, Grass Roots revisits the history of the southeastern United States and demonstrates the enduring contribution of African people and culture to American life. Featuring over two hundred objects, including baskets made in Africa and the American South, African sculptures, and paintings from the Charleston Renaissance period, the exhibition traces the history of the coiled basket on two continents and shows how a simple farm tool once used for processing rice has become a work of art and an important symbol of African-American identity.
The exhibit traces the parallel histories of coiled basketry in Africa and the United States, starting from the domestication of rice in West Africa, through the transatlantic slave trade, to the migration of African rice culture to America. The exhibition addresses the history of the Carolina rice plantation and highlights the technological innovations brought to American agriculture by people from Africa. The exhibition tells the compelling story of the survival of African-American basketry over three hundred years. "We are honored to serve as the opening venue for this historic exhibition on behalf of the Museum for African Art. Grass Roots speaks to the unique heritage of the Lowcountry region and expands our knowledge of an art form that is rooted in our own community," noted Gibbes Executive Director Angela D. Mack.
On both sides of the Atlantic, the art of basketry continues to be passed down from generation to generation. In South Carolina and Georgia, as in many parts of Africa, virtuoso basket makers invent forms, experiment with new materials, and perfect the techniques they have learned from their parents and grandparents. The exhibition features baskets made by contemporary American and African basket makers as well as historic examples, some dating to the early 19th century, from Lowcountry rice plantations and African villages.
"It is thrilling to be able to tell this story through the coiled basketry traditions that forever link the two continents," said Elsie McCabe, President of the Museum for African Art. "This exhibition is about baskets in both places, but because of new scholarship brought to bear on the subject, it is really about much more. It explores many rich cultural patterns both lost and maintained; it shows how people have built and rebuilt their heritage over centuries of oppression and opportunity; it reveals how a simple but always beautifully crafted tool has come to be appreciated as an object of art."
While the need for agricultural forms has declined, coiled baskets continue to be made as objects of beauty. The exhibition focuses on the coastal town of Mt. Pleasant, SC, across the Cooper River from Charleston, where basket makers have taken control of their craft as independent entrepreneurs. "The local community of basket makers, many of whom have made baskets that are in the exhibition, is proud to be involved with this project," said Thomasena Stokes-Marshall, Project Director for the annual Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival held in Mount Pleasant, home of the original sweetgrass basket makers.
Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art includes five short films that feature basket makers demonstrating their techniques and telling their stories. The exhibition is accompanied by a beautifully illustrated full-color catalogue with essays by acclaimed scholars of African and American history and art.
Grass Roots, is curated by Enid Schildkrout, Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Publications at the Museum for African Art, New York, and Dale Rosengarten, Curator and Historian, Special Collections, College of Charleston Library, with input from an advisory board of eminent social historians, art historians, anthropologists and contemporary basket makers.
The exhibition is supported by funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Getty Foundation (for the exhibition publication), the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation and the MetLife Foundation. Additional funding for video components of the exhibition and a 30-minute documentary film has been provided by The Henry and Sylvia Yaschik Foundation, the South Carolina Humanities Council and the South Carolina Arts Commission. Additional support for the Gibbes is provided by the volunteer organization Gibbes, etc, The Wachovia Foundation and media sponsor Charleston Gateway magazine.
Grass Roots was designated in 2005 as a "We the People/America's Historic Places" project by the National Endowment for the Humanities. This designation recognizes projects that capture "the evocative power of historic places to address themes and issues central to American history and culture."
The Museum for African Art is one of the premier institutions in the United States devoted to exhibiting traditional and contemporary African art. On Sept. 24, 2007, the Museum broke ground for a new permanent museum building designed by Robert A. M. Stern, Dean of the Yale University School of Architecture, on Manhattan's Museum Mile at Fifth Avenue between 109th and 110th Street. The Museum's administrative offices, educational facility and gift shop are temporarily located in Long Island City. Exhibitions are currently presented at off-site locations in New York City and tour nationally and internationally. Grass Roots will be an inaugural exhibition at the Museum for African Art's new building in New York City when the museum opens in 2010. For further information about the Museum and its exhibits, call 718/784-7700 or visit (www.africanart.org).
Established as the Carolina Art Association in 1858 (celebrating 150 years in 2008), the Gibbes Museum of Art opened its doors to the public in 1905. Located in Charleston's historic district, the Gibbes houses a premier collection of over 10,000 works, principally American with a Charleston or Southern connection, and presents special exhibitions throughout the year. In addition, the museum offers an extensive complement of public programming and educational outreach initiatives. As the aesthetic heart of the Lowcountry, the Gibbes serves the community by stimulating creative expression, increasing economic vitality through tourism and improving the region's superb quality of life.
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Museum at 843/722-2706 or visit (www.gibbesmuesum.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.