Sewn Through Time at McKissick Museum Celebrates SC Basketmaking Since the 17th Century

Opening Reception with

Guest Curator Kennedy Bennett

Thursday, August 25, 2022, 5:30-7pm

McKissick Museum, 2nd Floor Diverse Voices Gallery

August 11 to December 10, 2022

Basketmakers have sewn baskets in the South Carolina Lowcountry since the 17th century. The tradition has been preserved at the hands of the Gullah-Geechee people, descendants of enslaved West Africans trafficked to North America. For over 300 years, basketmakers have transformed baskets from a plantation tool into an art form. Today, basketmakers continue to leverage heritage tourism to make a living, to advocate for the preservation of the ecosystem vital to the tradition, and to experiment with scale, form, and materials. This exhibition traces the evolution of sweetgrass baskets in South Carolina, highlighting the innovative work of contemporary makers.

McKissick Museum - Hours of Operation

Monday through Friday - 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Saturday - 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

ART AT HOME: McKissick Museum Offers Digital Exhibit - Piece by Piece, Quilts from the Permanent Collection

“Some women don’t care how their quilts look. They piece the squares together any sort of way, but she couldn’t stand careless sewing. She wanted her quilts, and Joy’s, made right. Quilts stay a long time after people are gone from this world, and witness about them for good or bad.” ―

Julia Peterkin, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist from Fort Motte, South Carolina, author of Scarlet Sister Mary

Double Irish Chain

Designed by Tabitha Meek Campbell (1822-1889) 
Spartanburg County, SC
ca. 1860
Gift of Sarah M. Norton

The desire to create is a powerful force that will fight its way out of you even when you try to suppress it or pretend it isn’t there. Lord knows that traditionally impoverished Southern women rarely found their way to store bought canvasses on which to paint. But their talent and creativity poured forth in other ways, not the least of which was the way they kept their families warm with homemade quilts fashioned from cast-off clothes and pieces of fabric put aside for a rainy day.

Homemade quilts are more than family heirlooms to store in a linen closet.

Homemade quilts are story tellers and canvasses and books with chapter after chapter to be explored in square after square of their making.

And if the heat or germs or whatever personal reason of your own is keeping you home right now, you can still enjoy an incredibly comprehensive and enlightening virtual trip to the museum right from your own computer screen by visiting McKissick Museum’s Digital Exhibition, Piece by Piece - Quilts from the Permanent Collection.

In Piece by Piece, the exhibition introduces the visitor to a variety of quilts dating as far back as the early 1800s and as recently as 2015 with a quilt crafted by Summerville’s Peggie Hartwell, recipient of the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award presented by the SC Arts Commission. Ms. Hartwell is a founding member of the National Women of Color Quilters Network.

Wisdom 11 “To Thee I Give You Our Past”

Peggie Hartwell (1939-present)
Summerville, SC
2015

McKissick Museum Collection 2017.20.01

The McKissick Museum website writes, “The McKissick Museum collection includes over two hundred quilts, featuring examples of appliquéd, whole cloth, and pieced works from the Southeast. Since the 1980s, McKissick has documented and celebrated quilting traditions, produced several publications, and developed programs exploring the topic. The quilts in this exhibition illustrate the evolution of this textile tradition over the past two hundred years. From the early use of chintz fabrics to the widespread popularity of solid colors, these quilts reflect traditions with roots in Europe, Africa, and the American South.

“Quilting traditions in the Southeast were not uniform. Quilters were influenced by geographic, economic, and cultural circumstances. Many of the quilts displayed here illustrate characteristics distinctive to individual makers, while others reflect the influence of popular styles and trends. Quilts are as varied and diverse as the women and men who make them. They can evoke powerful memories and provide tangible connections to loved ones or specific events. More important, makers often use quilts to express social commentary, communicate personal narratives, or document family or community history.”

The Virtual Exhibit features distinct sections on Southern Quilts, primarily from the Carolinas and Georgia; the Makers’ Voice, which profiles known quiltmakers; the eponymous Crazy Quilt, and the University’s Quilt History Project from 1883-86. Included is a quilt created in 1986 by Hazel Ross depicting scenes from Columbia’s history to celebrate the city’s bicentennial.

Columbia Bicentennial Quilt

Designed by Hazel Rossl
Columbia, SC
1986
Gift of Logan Lap Quilters

McKissick Museum Collection 2012.08.01

For more exhibits at McKissick Museum, both virtual and physical, please visit this link and continue to enjoy the meaningful connection between art and history.

-Cindi Boiter

USC Hosts Shared Traditions -- Sacred Music in the South

The University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum will host a music symposium entitled Shared Traditions: Sacred Music in the South on February 26th and February 27th, 2016. The program will feature live performances, a panel session, presentations, and music workshops. All Shared Traditions programs are free and open to the public. The event is co-sponsored by the USC School of Music and Brookland Baptist Church. Shared Traditions will start with a meet & greet with Gullah storyteller Anita Singleton-Prather at 3:30pm on Friday, February 26th at McKissick Museum on USC’s historic horseshoe. Singleton-Prather, a recipient of the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award, is a singer, actress, and the director and producer of Broadway Back In Da' Woods Productions, a full-stage musical theater experience featuring the performance group The Gullah Kinfolk. Friday evening will also include a presentation at 6:30pm by Dr. Eric Crawford on the topic of African-American spirituals in the South Carolina Sea Islands. Held at Johnson Hall at the Darla Moore School of Business on the USC campus, the talk will lead into a live performance of Circle Unbroken: A Gullah Journey from Africa to America by Anita Singleton-Prather and The Gullah Kinfolk at 7:00pm. Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia will host all program events on Saturday, February 27th. A detailed schedule of events is included with this press release. The day will begin with a panel presentation entitled “Vocal Godliness: Gospel in Black and White” and will feature current research by graduate students from Florida, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Following this session, Dr. Minuette Floyd will present on the topic of the music of the African-American camp meeting. The keynote speaker, Dr. Cynthia Schmidt, will screen The Language You Cry In, a film based on her research chronicling an amazing scholarly detective reaching across hundreds of years and thousands of miles, from 18th century Sierra Leone to the Gullah people of present-day Georgia. Dr. Schmidt will share an update on her research and host a Q&A with the audience. Following the keynote address, conference participants will have the opportunity to attend three music workshops focusing on shape-note and hymn-raising traditions. Led by practitioners and choir leaders, these workshops will provide the opportunity to learn about the history of these traditions and the chance to participate in fellowship and song. Saturday’s program will conclude with an evening concert, highlighting the songs and styles learned during the workshops. For more information, visit http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/mckissickmuseum or call Saddler Taylor at 803-777-3714. This program is funded in part by the Humanities CouncilSC and the South Carolina Arts Commission.