Name/Title
Small Strawberry Basket [Passamaquoddy] | Clara KeezerDescription
A Passamaquoddy strawberry splint ash and sweetgrass basket by master basketmaker, Clara Neptune Keezer. The basket stands five and a half inches high and three and a half inches wide. Keezer was born in Sipayik, Maine in 1930. She came from a long line of basketmakers before her, learning how to make baskets from her grandmother and her mother. She made her first basket at age eight. At this time, basketmaking was in decline among the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot and other tribes of Maine and Keezer became involved in revitalizing this craft tradition using traditional basketmaking materials of splint brown ash and sweetgrass. One particular traditional basket form she excelled at was the strawberry basket that she took to a new more elegant form and intricate level. She also made blueberry and corn shaped baskets as well as a basket in the shape of a bell. Her baskets soon began to be exhibited elsewhere including in the influential Lost and Found Traditions: Native American Art 1965-85 exhibit that opened at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 1986. Ralph T. Coe, the curator of the exhibit, had spent the decade before traveling across the United States, seeking out examples of indigenous art and craft that were undergoing revival and reinvention. Of Clara Keezer, he said, she "is the finest splint craftswoman I met in the Northeast.” Sixteen years later, in 2002, Keezer was recognized as a National Heritage Fellow for her basketmaking talents by the National Endowment for the Arts. She continued basketweaving and teaching young people basketmaking techniques until her death in 2016 at the age of 86. The Tides Institute acquired the strawberry basket through eBay auction.
Artist: Clara Keezer
Classification: North American Basket
Old Accession Number: 625
Description:
Passamaquoddy. Small red color strawberry basket. Top Shelf.