The Festival is a celebratory gathering where generations of Wabanakis come together to share their traditions, history, and culture with visitors. The spotlight is on the artists selling hand-woven baskets made from ash and sweetgrass, birch bark, and other traditional materials. Jewelry, musical instruments, and other crafts are also featured and the cultural demonstrations happening throughout the day include: traditional dancing, drumming, flute playing, basketmaking, and ash pounding.
Recently, a number of contemporary Wabanaki basketmakers have been causing quite a stir in the art world. Through the use of traditional methods, they are pushing the boundaries of basketmaking. The results are stunning baskets that invoke the imagination through their innovative, intricate designs and use of color and materials. One artist who will be showing his work at this year’s Festival is 32-year old basketmaker, Jeremy Frey, Passamaquoddy. Frey is an eighth-generation basket weaver whose work has received national recognition with the 2011 Best of Show award at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market and the Santa Fe Indian Market. He has been involved with the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance for many years and first learned how to weave baskets in MIBA’s apprenticeship program at the age of 22 from his mother, Gal Frey, who was reintroduced to basket weaving through MIBA.
The art of basketweaving had experienced a decline in Maine during the 1950s, but luckily there were some artists who carried on the tradition. Two women who stand out are, Clara Neptune Keezer and Molly Neptune Parker, both Passamaquoddy and both recipients of the prestigious NEA National Heritage Fellowship, (the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts). Parker is also a past president of MIBA, and has mentored Frey, as well as her grandson, George Neptune, whose unique baskets can be seen at the Abbe Museum.
“Basketmaking for me is about innovation and creativity within the context of traditional art form,” says Parker. This same philosophy can be seen carried out in the works of the younger generations.
The current president of MIBA, Theresa Secord, Penobscot, is another accomplished basketweaver. When asked how has MIBA has helped to revitalize the art of basketweaving, she has this to say, “Through its 20 years of teaching programs, apprenticeships, workshops, exhibitions and markets, like the Native American Festival in Bar Harbor, the MIBA has worked for 20 years to save the endangered ancient art of ash and sweetgrass basketry among the four Tribes in Maine.” She goes on to say, “Since 1992, we have lowered the average age of basket makers from 63 to 40 and increased the numbers from around 55 founding members to more than 200.”
The evening before the Festival on Friday, June 6, from 4pm-6pm the Abbe Museum will host a public reception for its latest exhibit, Transcending Traditions: The Next Generation of Maine Indian Basketry. This traveling show was produced through collaboration between the Hudson Museum and the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, and is supported by the National Museum of American Indian’s Indigenous Contemporary Art Program.
The exhibit features five contemporary Maine Indian basketmakers who represent the next generation: Jeremy Frey, Ganessa Bryant, Sarah Sockbeson, George Neptune and Eric “Otter” Bacon. Each of these artists was commissioned to create a masterwork specifically for the exhibit, which is then displayed alongside older baskets made by the same artist. This juxtaposition is an interesting way to see how his or her work has evolved. Each artist’s exhibit section also features a basket made by their mentors who taught them the craft. The goal of this project is to explore the new directions that these young artists are taking the tradition in the face of environmental and economic challenges.
All five of the artists featured in Transcending Traditions will be selling their baskets at the 2012 Native American Festival. Additionally, their teachers, whose works appear in the exhibit will be attending this year’s Festival: Frances (Gal) Frey, Jennifer Neptune, Kim Bryant, Molly Neptune Parker and David Moses Bridges.
The Native American Festival is from 10:00am-4:00pm on Saturday, July 7. Parking and public transportation are available, and the grounds of the College of the Atlantic are handicap accessible. Visitors are encouraged to use the Island Explorer bus system which stops at COA. There will be food available for purchase. In addition to the festival activities, this year a silent auction will feature works from Wabanaki artists. Proceeds will support the teaching and apprenticeship programs of MIBA.
MIBA is a twenty-year old nonprofit Native American arts service organization focused on preserving and extending the art of basketmaking within Maine’s Native American community. MIBA seeks to preserve the ancient tradition of ash and sweetgrass basketmaking among the Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes. www.maineindianbaskets.org
The mission of the Abbe Museum is to inspire new learning about the Wabanaki Nations with every visit. The Abbe has a collection of over 50,000 archeological, historic and contemporary objects including stone and bone tools, pottery, beadwork, carved root clubs, birch bark canoes, and supporting collections of photographs, maps, and archival documents. It holds the largest and best-documented collection of Maine Native American basketry in any museum. Its collections conservation program is recognized nationally as a model for museums. www.abbemuseum.org
No comments:
Post a Comment