The public is invited to a free evening of storytelling on Thursday, October 1 from 6:00 until 7:00 p.m. to hear Cherokee storyteller, Nancy Basket, South Carolina Folk Heritage Award recipient, tell the stories of the area
Native American storyteller Nancy Basket to share her Cherokee Stories at the Pickens County Museum on Thursday, October 1
The public is invited to a free evening of storytelling on Thursday, October 1 from 6:00 until 7:00 p.m. to hear Cherokee storyteller, Nancy Basket, South Carolina Folk Heritage Award recipient, tell the stories of the area
The program will be in the LaVonne Nalley Piper Auditorium of the Pickens County Museum of Art & History. Ancient Cherokee ancestors left stories helping their children remember to respect all Beings. Learn why there are big boulders in small streams near Bat Cave. Find out how the Smoky Mountains got their name, why the ridges in some areas are bare, and why so many kinds of trees and plants exist in the Blue Ridge.
The artist, Nancy Basket, in 1989, began experimenting with the "notorious" kudzu vine after moving to the Carolinas to be close to the Cherokee Reservation. Nancy shares her Native American heritage, by re-telling ancient legends orally and through her art. She says of her work," I feel the old ones guiding my fingers and I am proud to be making something beautiful."
At Kudzu Kabin, Nancy’s studio in Walhalla, SC, she turns a Southern nemesis, the invasive kudzu, into a natural resource for her papermaking and basketry business. This program is part of the museum’s continuing effort to provide a variety of entertaining and educational programming for the community.
The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Located at the corner of Hwy. 178 at 307 Johnson Street in Pickens SC, the museum is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Admission is free but donations are welcomed. For more information call the museum at (864) 898-5963.