Nevada State Museum Show

Great Basin Basketmakers
on Exhibit at the Nevada State Museum

Carson City, Nevada—The Nevada State Museum is hosting Interwoven: Visions of the Great Basin Basketmakers an exhibition featuring fine art woven and hand crafted baskets and vessels. Amazing creations by many of the regions finest basketmakers and weavers will be displayed in the new changing gallery space May 12 through August 7, 2006.

Interwoven: Visions of the Great Basin Basketmaker

May 12 – August 9, 2006

Nevada State Museum

600 N. Carson St., Carson City

(775) 687-4810, ext 240

“Each piece presented in this show is visually stunning and finely crafted by gifted basketmakers,” said Sue Ann Monteleone, curator at the Nevada State Museum. “Every basket or vessel is truly unique from the vibrant colors and the subtle tones, to the intricate patterns and creative variation.”

Interwoven: Visions of the Great Basin Basketmakers aims to portray the artistic diversity of basket making. The exhibit will showcase baskets and vessels woven in time-honored styles with traditional materials as well as those with more contemporary styling using a variety of alternative materials.

To see the full schedule of basketry related classes and programs, at the museum, click here.

“We wanted this exhibit to truly showcase the wide array of skills possessed by the members of the Great Basin Basketmakers,” said Margaret Marshall, spokesperson for Great Basin Basketmakers. “Attendees of the show will be amazed at the diversity of the work they will see. We will have on display miniature baskets small enough to fit in a child’s palm, vessels almost as big as an adult and everything in between.

Great Basin Basketmakers is a contemporary group whose members create a wide variety of traditional and non-traditional baskets. In 1986, Mary Lee Fulkerson, seeking honeysuckle to use in baskets, placed an advertisement in a local paper. A number of enthusiastic basket makers and future basket makers responded. Mary Lee presented a slide show at the Reno-Sparks YWCA in January 1987 and the Great Basin Basketmakers was born.

The Nevada State Museum actively engages people in understanding and celebrating Nevada’s natural and cultural heritage. The museum collects, preserves, and presents this heritage through exhibits, educational programs, and publications. Exhibits highlight the state’s geology, history, a replica walk-through mine and ghost town, and Under One Sky: Nevada’s Native American Heritage. The museum is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for seniors, and free for children under 18. For information, call (775) 687-4810.

The Nevada State Museum is one of seven managed by the state Division of Museums and History, an agency of the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs. The Department serves Nevada’s citizens and visitors through cultural and information management, presentation and promotion of cultural resources, and education. The Department also includes the State Office of Historic Preservation, Nevada State Library and Archives and the Nevada Arts Council. For more information, please call Teresa Moiola at (775) 687-8323 or visit the department’s website at www.NevadaCulture.org.