A Measure of the Earth: The Cole-Ware Collection of American Baskets

Collectors Steven R. Cole and Martha G. Ware have made a generous gift of 79 baskets to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and have promised a gift of several more, making this one of the top public collections of this craft. Nearly all of the works in the exhibition were purchased by the collectors directly from the artists, and will be on public view for the first time at the museum's Renwick Gallery. The baskets demonstrate the endurance of African and European basket weaving traditions in the United States and the various roles baskets have played in American life, from baskets for eggs, harvest, and market to those for sewing, laundry, and fishing creels. These baskets were made between 1983 and 2011 by 60 weavers, who crafted their works almost entirely from undyed grasses, trees, vines, and bark that they gathered.