Chumash Basketry: Art & Life
Appreciate the living art of Chumash basketry, a tradition with deep roots in the region. For thousands of years, baskets played essential roles in all aspects of traditional Chumash life. Modern Chumash weavers carry on those traditions, creating baskets entirely by hand and teaching their children. They promote conservation and respect for the environment by using specific native plants that are managed, harvested, and prepared for weaving.
Admire the work of weavers past and present as you study the basics of how baskets are made, and grow to recognize the plants that make them possible. Learn how modern weavers are continuing Chumash basketry traditions, inspired by the baskets preserved in museums.
The new basketry exhibit shares the space with several other displays, including a very special Chumash plank canoe, or tomol, that never went to sea. Fernando Librado Kitsepawit, a Chumash man, saw the last original tomols as a boy in the 1850s. He was in his seventies when he shared his memories with the anthropologist John P. Harrington. Together they built this tomol for display in 1915. The knowledge they preserved has allowed new tomols to be built and cross the Santa Barbara Channel today.
Included with Museum admission, Members are always free. This exhibit space is ADA accessible; visit our accessibility page for more information.
