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Columbus Museum of Art | cma Cincinnati Art Museum Basket maker Mary Jackson among artists included in African Art Museum show Mary Jackson, a small, almost delicate woman with chin-length dark hair, walks through an exhibit of baskets -- some flat and traylike, some bowl-shaped, some lidded, even a basket meant to hold beer. Around her, the fragrance of sweetgrass and bulrush scents the air. Coiled baskets such as these, Jackson is explaining, have been made by Africans and African Americans for hundreds of years. Traditional shapes started out as utilitarian objects used in the harsh work of slavery, became crafts sold by the side of the road and evolved into exquisite works of art. Some of the most elegant examples here at the National Museum of African Art were woven by Jackson herself, and she quietly explains how this craft became the lifeblood of her family and the people around her. "My grandmother would talk about how [basketmaking] was done on the plantation because it was brought from Africa. People who know sweetgrass know Jackson. There are measuring cups, sewing baskets and teapots.

Craft In America / Jackson, Mary Mary Jackson Mary Jackson (b. 1945) is a basket maker who lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband, Stoney. She makes sweetgrass baskets that come out of a tradition that has been passed down to her from her ancestors. It originated in West Africa, and then was brought to America by slaves. This kind of basket making is an identifying cultural practice for people who were cut off from their own history, and has been a part of Charleston and Mt. Pleasant communities for more than 300 years. Mary Jackson is featured in the Memory episode of Craft in America. Mary Jackson, Cobra with Handle, 2007, Jack Alterman photograph