On Wednesday, Sept. 28, at 6 p.m., Enid Schildkrout, former Chief Curator at the Museum of African Art and co-curator of this exhibit, will talk about the African origins of sweetgrass basketry. Free. Refreshments. Rosch Recital Hall. |
"Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art," has just opened in Reed Library. Here until Oct. 14, the exhibition traces the histories of coiled basketry in Africa and America and explores the evolution of an ancient art.
Featuring baskets from the low country of South Carolina and Georgia as well as from diverse regions of Africa, the exhibition tells the story of coiled basketry from the domestication of rice in Africa, through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Carolina rice plantation, and then into the present day.
Visitors to SUNY Fredonia will view diverse artifacts including baskets, basket-making tools and, historic rice cultivation artifacts.
On Wednesday, Sept. 28, at 6 p.m. in Rosch Recital Hall, Enid Schildkrout, former Chief Curator at the Museum of African Art and co-curator of this exhibit, will talk about the African origins of sweetgrass basketry. The event is free.
The exhibit is comprised of:
- more than 45 objects, including baskets and basket-making tools from South Carolina, Georgia, and Africa;
- historic rice cultivation artifacts, and some contemporary objects;
- approximately 25 mural panels with modern and historic photographs and text in nine free-standing sections, including one DVD feature;
- an interactive unit with three gallery activities.
"Grass Roots" highlights the remarkable beauty of coiled basketry and shows how the market basket can be viewed simultaneously as a work of art, object of use, and container of memory. In this exhibition the humble but beautifully crafted coiled basket, made in Africa and the southern U.S., becomes a prism in which audiences will learn about creativity and artistry characteristic of Africans in America from the 17th century to the present.
The exhibit includes a “hands-on” station where children (of all ages!) can touch several of the baskets and try to weave their own basket using pipe cleaners and other materials.
The exhibit is free and open to the public. It can be viewed any time that Reed Library is open.
For hours, check online at www.fredonia.edu/library/ or call 716-673-3222. In addition, please join us for two related events.
The exhibition has been made possible by NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art was organized by the Museum for African Art in New York City, and co-curated by Chief Curator Enid Schildkrout, Museum for African Art, and Curator and Historian Dale Rosengarten, College of Charleston. The exhibition is toured by Mid-America Arts Alliance through NEH on the Road. NEH on the Road offers eight different exhibitions for small to mid-sized communities across the country. Mid-America Arts Alliance was founded in 1972 and is the oldest regional nonprofit arts organization in the U.S.
