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Too Sweet: Basket maker wins second award
Posted: 11.11.2008 at 9:55 AM
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CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Sweetgrass basket maker Mary Jackson of Johns Island has won another honor.
Earlier this fall, she won a $500,000 genius fellowship from the McArthur Foundation.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Tuesday she has now won a $50,000 unrestricted grant from United States Artists, an arts advocacy group in Los Angeles.
Weaving the baskets is a West African tradition handed down from the time of slavery. Artists entwine slender sweetgrass with such things as palmetto fronds and pine needles.
Jackson's work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, among others.
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Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.charleston.net
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)