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The practice was brought to the U.S. by African slaves, who used baskets for processing rice in Africa. Since rice was a major crop in South Carolina in the 17th century, the slaves brought important skills to their new land.
"The connection between Africa and Carolina through the people who grew rice in Africa ... and knew how to make the basket, bringing it to this country and it becoming part of the economic engine that made the colony so successful -- that's kind of the back story of the Lowcountry basket," said Dr. Dale Rosengarten, author of "Row Upon Row: Sea Grass Baskets of the South Carolina Lowcountry" and "Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art."
The curator of Special Collections at the College of Charleston library, Rosengarten has studied basket weaving for more than 25 years. She said the art form captures the `history of the African experience in America. It has been passed down from generation to generation and is still alive throughout the Lowcountry.
"This tradition is the oldest African-inspired art in America," Rosengarten said.
Rosengarten will be on Hilton Head Island on Sept. 14 to present "Grass Roots -- The Exhibition and the Inspiration," with lifelong basket maker Nakia Wigfall. The Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn will offer the program as part of an exhibition called "Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art" beginning todayand running through Jan. 7. The exhibition will trace the history of coiled basketry in Africa and the U.S.
The "Grass Roots" exhibition was organized by the Museum for African Art in New York City, curated by Rosengarten and Chief Curator Enid Schildkrout of the Museum for African Art.
The traveling exhibition features about 30 different baskets, including several from makers in Mount Pleasant, some from museum collections and others from private collections. The show also will feature basket-making tools and historic rice cultivation artifacts. Visitors will have the opportunity to watch artists create baskets and even try weaving their own.
Coastal Discovery Museum Vice President of Programs Natalie Hefter said local residents have loaned the museum about a dozen baskets for the exhibit, including one from Penn School on St. Helena Island dating back to around 1900.
"The fact that this is about our local story made it all the better because it really allows us to have a very complete story of basket making and its African roots," Hefter said.
