Contemporary Native basket, from the MSU/Smithsonian “Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions” exhibit.
Photo by Minnie Wabinimkee
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Marsha MacDowell at the MSU/Smithsonian “Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions” exhibit.
Photo by Minnie Wabinimkee
The Michigan State University Museum joined with the Smithsonian Institution to create the exhibit "Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions" for the 2006 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., an annual summertime event drawing more than 1 million visitors to the National Mall — the "nation's front lawn."
The project highlights the creative vitality and diversity of Native basket traditions that are fundamental to the artistic expressive heritage of the United States and Canada. These baskets and their makers are — literally and symbolically — "carriers of culture." At the event, tribal groups from North America gave demonstrations on the art of basketry and shared how this skill is a part of their ceremonies, language, stories, songs and dance.
Curators Kurt Dewhurst and Marsha MacDowell of the MSU Museum have been working with scholars from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the Smithsonian's new National Museum of the American Indian on this multi-year project. The MSU Museum has been working closely with artists to acquire examples of their work which — together with documentation done prior to and during the Smithsonian Folklife Festival — provide an invaluable record of Native weaving at the beginning of the 21st century.
"Carriers of Culture" will be adapted as a special exhibition at the MSU Museum, debuting in late 2007 and then traveling nationally.
The MSU Museum is the state's first Smithsonian Institution affiliate.
Learn More
The MSU Museum
MSU Museum, Smithsonian project: "Carriers of Culture"
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