Whether it’s teaching children, holding gatherings for weavers or lecturing at colleges, Kelly combines her artistry and passion with her commitment to education about this ancient tradition. And Kelly works to keep this tradition alive and vibrant.
It’s labor intensive, communal, and steeped with history and ritual. Kelly Church is deeply committed to the traditional ways of basket-making-from selecting and harvesting a black ash tree to stripping the bark, to pounding the tree rings, and creating the ribbons of smooth ash that she weaves into baskets. Her baskets are visual testimony that traditional art also has the wings to fly into the unexplored. Today, we’re revisiting my interview with Kelly Church an extraordinarily accomplished black ash weaver-making baskets that range from utilitarian to ornamental-often sculptural and in vivid colors. Jo Reed: That’s 2018 National Heritage Fellow, black ash basket maker Kelly Church, and this is “Art Works,” the weekly podcast produced at the National Endowment for the Arts. I like to have my baskets to also include messages for people educating them about why the basket’s important to us, why the tree’s important to us, all of those aspects. Kelly Church: I come from the largest black ash family in Michigan to have continuously weave baskets and have a lot of extended family who still do it. Music Credit: NY composed and performed by Kosta T from the cd Soul Sand, used courtesy of the Free Music Archive
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