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Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art Opens April 14 at The Griot Museum of Black History

     Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art will be on display April 14 through August 14 at The Griot Museum of Black History (formerly The Blackworld History Museum), 2505 St. Louis Ave.  This exhibition traces the histories of coiled basketry in Africa and America and explores the evolution of an ancient art.It features baskets from the low country of South Carolina, Georgia and diverse regions of Africa.The exhibition traces the story of coiled basketry from the domestication of rice in Africa, through the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Carolina rice plantation into the present.

     Visitors to The Griot will experience diverse artifacts including baskets, basket-making tools and historic rice cultivation artifacts.Grass Roots highlights the remarkable beauty of coiled basketry and shows how the market basket can be viewed simultaneously as a work of art, object of use, and container of memory.This exhibition presents the humble but beautifully crafted coiled basket, made in Africa and the southern United States, and becomes a prism in which audiences will learn about creativity and artistry characteristic of Africans in America from the 17th century to the present.

      Community partners for “Grass Roots,” include the Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis Art Museum and Missouri Arts Council.  The exhibition has been made possible by NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art was organized by the Museum for African Art in New York City, and co-curated by Chief Curator Enid Schildkrout, Museum for African Art, and Curator and Historian Dale Rosengarten College of Charleston. The exhibition is toured by Mid-America Arts Alliance through NEH on the Road. NEH on the Road offers eight different exhibitions for small to mid-sized communities across the country. Mid-America Arts Alliance was founded in 1972 and is the oldest regional nonprofit arts organization in the U.S.

     The Griot is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.  Admission during the Grass Roots exhibition is $7.50 for adults, $3.75 for children 12 and under.  For more information, call 314-241-7057 or visit us on the internet at thegriotmuseum.com or on Facebook.


For more information, call 314-241-7057 or visit the Griot’s website, thegriotmuseum.com

 

 

 

 

 

   
 
2505 St. Louis Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63106
(314) 241-7057
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