Creativity Q+A Video: Baskets of the Anishinaabek
In 1987, the Leelanau Historical Society began documenting, interpreting, collecting, and preserving birch bark and quillwork baskets, and black ash baskets. In 2005, a conservation grade exhibit space was created to display this collection.
There are now 600 + historical objects in the collection, that give insights into the late 19th and 20th century culture of the Odawa and Ojibway people whose ancestral lands in the upper Great Lakes include Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties.
Laura Quackenbush played an instrumental role in the creation of the collection and the space in which it is displayed. Quackenbush is a Leelanau County curator with a special interest in traditional Anishinaabe arts. GAAC Exhibitions Manager Sarah Bearup-Neal spoke with Quackenbush about the role of the baskets in Anishinaabek life as part if the VESSELS exhibition. Read more about VESSELS here: https://glenarborart.org/events/exhibit-vessels
Read more about the Traditional Arts of the Anishinaabek Museum in this virtual exhibit here: https://www.leelanauhistory.org/taar/
