PORT ANGELES — Kylee Butler of the Makah Tribe will introduce “Modern Utilitarian Basketry” in a Studium Generale lecture beginning at 12:35 p.m. Thursday.
The lecture will be in the Little Theater at Peninsula College, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles.
A reception will follow in the House of Learning at the Peninsula College Longhouse.
“Modern Utilitarian Basketry” will present baskets that are useful, that are part of working lives, rather than decorative or ornamental.
The exhibit will run through August. Summer hours for viewing the baskets in the House of Learning are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays.
Admission is free.
The exhibit is the culmination of a service-learning project Butler completed, working with longhouse coordinator Sadie Crowe, who supervised the project.
During the winter and spring, Butler taught workshops on weaving to students, staff and members of the community.
In addition, she was a featured guest in late April when the Writer in Residence and Visiting Elders Project partnered to offer a lecture focused on weaving, poetry, storytelling and sharing cultural knowledge.
Butler, who will graduate from Peninsula College in two weeks, said: “When I made my first basket, I didn’t appreciate working with cedar bark or learning this tradition. As I got older, I started to appreciate it more and more.
“When I learned that natives were assimilated and basketry was one of the traditions that survived it, I felt it was important for me and inspired me to continue this tradition.
“The more experience I had weaving and the more I thought about the traditional uses of cedar bark, I understood why certain natural materials were used, and I wanted to make pieces of art that serve a purpose.”
For more information, contact Sadie Crowe at scrowe@pencol.edu.
