In both Africa and the united States, as the original agrarian context for coiled baskets disappeared, and new definitions for both art and craft created new audiences for baskets, what was once a simple functional object became a valued commodity and in some cases, a magnificent work of art. In South Carolina and Georgia, as in Africa, from Senegal to South Africa, virtuoso basketmakers have created an art form out of what was once thought to simply be utilitarian objects. "Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art" highlights the remarkable beauty of coiled basketry and shows how the utilitarian market basket can be viewed simultaneously as a work of art, object of use and container of memory. In this exhibition the humble but beautifully crafted coiled basket, made in Africa and the southern United States, becomes a prism through which audiences will learn about creativity and artistry characteristic of Africans in America from the 17th century to the present.

This exhibition traces the parallel histories of coiled baskets in Africa and America starting from the domestication of rice in Africa two millennia ago, through the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Carolina rice plantation, to the present. This exhibition sheds light on the origins and evolution of an ancient art in the global economy, while interpreting under-explored areas of American and African history.

Grass Roots features more than one hundred baskets and related objects including agricultural tools, small sculptures, reproduction paintings, prints and small graphics, as well as photographic enlargements.

Organized by the Museum for African Art in New York City and co-curated by Enid Schildkrout (Chief Curator, Museum for African Art) and Dale Rosengarten (Curator and Historian, College of Charleston), "Grass Roots" highlights the extraordinary beauty of coiled basketry and shows how this utilitarian object is both a masterwork of great art and a collective history.