UW News

October 19, 2000

MEDIA ADVISORY: Preview tours available for Burke Museum’s basket exhibit

Members of the news media are invited to preview the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture’s new exhibit, “Entwined with Life: Native American Basketry,” next Monday and Tuesday afternoons, Oct. 23 and 24, at the University of Washington.

Reporters, photographers and film crews are all welcome but must pre-arrange times for tours by contacting Robin Wright, the Burke’s curator of Native American art, at (206) 543-5595. Tours will be conducted from 3 to 6 p.m. on Monday and from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday.

“Entwined with Life” is the first major exhibit ever devoted to the Burke’s world-renowned collection of more than 5,000 Native American baskets. Baskets are among the museum’s most popular items. The Burke receives more calls about baskets than any other single cultural topic, and baskets are the most common item that the public brings to the museum on artifact identification days.

The show, which runs from Oct. 25 to May 6, 2001, will feature more than 300 baskets ranging in size from one-quarter an inch to 4 feet high. The baskets vary in age from contemporary to more than 600 years old and come from a geographic area extending from the Southwest to the Alaskan Arctic. “Entwined with Life” will show how baskets were an integral part of people’s lives. In addition, leading basket weavers will demonstrate their work on special program days. Visitors also will be able to try their hands at weaving and learn to identify baskets by their weaving techniques, materials and designs.

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