Grass Roots

Grass Roots : African Origins of an American Art traces the paralleled histories of coiled basketry in Africa and America and explores the contemporary evolution of an ancient art in a global economy. Featuring baskets from the lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia as well as from diverse regions of Africa, the exhibition traces the story of coiled basketry from the domestication of rice in Africa two millennia ago, through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Carolina rice plantation, and then into the present day. Organized by the Museum for African Art in New York City and co-curated by Enid Schildkrout (Chief Curator, Museum for African Art) and Dale Rosengarten (Curator and Historian, College of Charleston), Transcendent Traditions highlights the remarkable beauty of coiled basketry and shows how a utilitarian object can become both a masterwork of great art and a container of memory and collective history.

This exhibition is currently in development. The exhibition content list and square footage requirements are estimated, and imagery shown on this website are representative of the visual content of the exhibition. Please contact Exhibitor Relations at 800-473-3872 (EUSA) for the most current information.