Throwback Thursday: Maxwell Museum Exhibitions — Basketry the Versatile Art

Throwback Thursday: Maxwell Museums Exhibitions — Basketry: The Virtual Art

In the nearly 50 years since the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology has been in its present location, the Museum has hosted approximately 150 temporary exhibitions. Over the next few weeks, we will look back at some of them.

Among the strengths of the Maxwell Museum’s Ethnology collections are the extensive basket collections, including hundreds of 19^th and 20^th century baskets from North America and around the world.  The 1975 exhibition Basketry: The Versatile Art  (March 2-June 7, 1975) celebrated global traditions of basket making.  The exhibition was organized around the uses of baskets in diverse contexts organized around the themes of architecture and furniture, trade and transport, ceremony, storage, food preparation and serving, clothing, and decoration.  Labels also presented information on the wide range of materials used for baskets and basket-making techniques.

The exhibition featured more than 50 baskets and historic photographs, including examples from Africa, Asia, South American, and North America and the US Southwest. Demonstrations of basket making by New Mexico artists enhanced the exhibition.  The Maxwell Museum basket collections have grown considerably since the exhibition was held, and new collaborative research by Museum Studies student Adam Fuchs and Ethnology Curator Lea McChesney is currently underway on the Anishinaabek black ash baskets in the collection.