Join us for a special Art Speaks conversation on “The Visual Language of Basketry” featuring fiber artists Ann Coddington, Carol Eckert, and Pat Hickman in conversation with art historian Dr. Diana Greenwold (Smithsonian) as they explore trends in contemporary basketry. 

This online conversation coincides with Basketry Now 2025 (July 29 - October 18, 2025), a special exhibition co-presented by Textile Center of Minnesota and the National Basketry Organization (NBO), and juried by Gyöngy Laky. Showcasing 63 contemporary basketry artists working in a variety of materials including foraged and repurposed, and using numerous techniques including twining, weaving, coiling, looping, netting, and interlacing, the work in Basketry Now 2025 explores early traditions of making as well as sculptural forms that push the category of basketry in new directions.

Friday, September 12, 12 - 1 pm CT
Virtual conversation on Zoom
Pricing: Sliding scale, Free, $10, $20

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Ann Coddington is a Professor of Art and Graduate Coordinator Emerita from Eastern Illinois University. She received her MFA from the University of Illinois Sculpture Department, and her BFA from the Colorado State University Fibers Department. Ann utilizes a variety of ancient fiber techniques including twining, looping, and netting in her sculptural forms. Her work has been shown across the United States and Internationally with recent /upcoming exhibitions including Bind, solo show, Gallery Jennings Kerr, Robertson, New South Wales; Art Evolved: Intertwined, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery, Annville, PA, Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel; Threads: Natural Fiber and Living Lines, solo show, Ruth Davis Design Gallery, University of Wisconsin in Madison; Basketry Now, Juried show, Textile Center, Minneapolis, MN; and New work, two person exhibition, McLean County Arts Center, Bloomington, IL. Ann is an active member of the National Basketry Organization. @abcoddington, abcoddington.com

Originally trained as a painter, Carol Eckert worked in a variety of media before discovering coiled basketry. After initially focusing on vessel forms, she began to invent adaptations of this ancient technique, constructing intricate compositions focused on the complex interactions of humans with the natural world. Carol’s work has been exhibited extensively, nationally and internationally. It is included in many public collections including Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. In addition to her studio practice, Carol maintains a daily blog focused on contemporary basketry and works as an independent curator and writer. caroleckert.com

Pat Hickman is an American fiber artist based in New York. She was formerly on the board of the National Basketry Organization, a member of the National Artist Advisory Council for Textile Center of Minnesota, and professor emerita in the Art Department at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, where she taught from 1990 to 2006. Pat received her master’s degree in design and textiles from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1977, and taught at many Bay Area schools for several years including at the University of California at Davis; San Francisco State University, M.H. deYoung Museum Art School and JFK University, San Francisco; Pacific Basin School of Textile Arts, Berkeley; and California College of Arts, Oakland. From 2008 to 2010, Pat served as the president of the Textile Society of America. Pat’s experience of the natural landscape of Hawai’i has inspired her to work not only with fibers but with the bark and branches of trees, which she associates with life. She has explored translating fiber to metal throughout her practice (Artists of Hawaii, ’99). pathickman.com

Diana Greenwold is the Lunder Curator of American Art at the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian. She specializes in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century American fine and decorative arts. Diana is particularly interested in stories of trans-national exchange and the ways objects carry and transform culture. From 2014 to 2021, Diana served in various curatorial positions, ultimately as Curator of American Art, at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine. There, she oversaw the museum’s collection of over 11,000 American paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts. Her recent exhibitions include Mythmakers: The Art of Winslow Homer and Frederic Remington (2020) and In the Vanguard: Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, 1950-69 (2018). At the PMA, Greenwold also spearheaded the multi-stage reinterpretation of the Winslow Homer Studio. Diana Greenwold received her Ph.D. in the History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley, where her dissertation focused on immigrant craft workshops in New York and Boston settlement houses. https://asia-archive.si.edu/about/contact/staff/diana-greenwold/