What is the key to appreciating really excellent basket weaving?
MS. GOLD: In order for people to really understand and appreciate baskets, they have to know about the culture of the weaver. That’s really important, I think, in other aspects of art. But with the basketry, people don’t know how to look at baskets. They don’t know the various techniques of basket weaving, and they don’t understand and appreciate how difficult it is to do the geometric images on a basket. So I think it’s very important that they understand the culture and have the opportunity to watch weavers and understand the difficulty it is for a weaver to create the baskets they’re creating. But the culture’s very important. The baskets reflect the culture.
