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Maryland basketmaking at CBMM (June 7, 2014)

CBMM_WovenTraditions_June7
CBMM’s Center for Chesapeake Studies Director Robert Forloney shows a traditional eel pot from the museum’s collections. On June 7 from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon, CBMM hosts Woven Traditions: Maryland Basket Making Communities and Culture, Past and Present, with visitors invited to bring their baskets for free evaluations and appraisals by Basket Collectors Book author Lew Larason from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The program presents the diverse basket-making cultures of the Chesapeake through a demonstration by waterman eel pot makers and is free for CBMM members or with general museum admission.

From 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon on Saturday, June 7, Woven Traditions: Maryland Basket Making Communities and Culture, Past and Present comes to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) in St. Michaels, MD. The program presents the diverse basket-making cultures of the Chesapeake through a demonstration by waterman eel pot makers and is free for CBMM members or with general museum admission.

Visitors will learn about the diverse basket-making cultures of the Chesapeake Bay, view demonstrations by eel pot makers, and explore historical artifacts from the region. The Center for Research in Basketry’s Executive Director Kathleen Beauchesne will be on hand to discuss the Woven Worlds Project and its efforts to document traditions in Maryland. Master teacher Melvin Hickman and his apprentices, along with the Aaron family from Hoopers Island will demonstrate techniques while creating woven pieces on-site. In addition, Day Basket Factory owners Karen and Dave Jackson will discuss the company’s history making baskets for the fruit, vegetable, and fishing industries of the Chesapeake Bay. 

From 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 pm, visitors can bring their baskets for a free evaluation and appraisal by Basket Collectors Book author Lew Larason. Search your basements, attics, and shed for baskets handed down through the generations in your family and share their stories. Information collected will become part of the Maryland State Arts Council’s archive, housed at  the University of Maryland Baltimore County. The photos and oral histories provided will document the baskets of the Eastern Shore, and assist CBMM in researching as well as preserving this traditional craft.

Presented by Baltimore’s Center for Research in Basketry, this program is sponsored by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council’s Maryland Traditions program.

The program is also part of CBMM’s summer-long Chesapeake People program, which gives visitors the experience of meeting local, maritime tradition-bearers and skill demonstrators every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Memorial Day through Labor Day. For more information, call 410-745-2916 or visit www.cbmm.org.

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