Join master basket weaver Lois Conner Bohna as she teaches you the art of twining and basket making. In this workshop, you will make a traditional Mono Indian baby basket that is made for the birth of a child. You will use natural materials like Redbud string, Sourberry sticks, and Chaparrel sticks to create your basket. Before you go into the studio, you will learn more about the baskets in our Arts of the Americas collection with Dr. Kimberly Jones, The Ellen and Harry S. Parker III Assistant Curator of the Arts of the Americas at the DMA.
Lois Conner Bohna, popularly known as the Acorn Lady, is a North Fork Mono/Chukchansi Yokuts basket maker who is not only an artist but also a preserver of her culture and heritage. Thirty-five years ago, she began learning twining from her aunt and coiling from Rosalie Bethel in California. In 2009 Lois Conner recorded the basket-making process through a documentary sponsored by California State University, Fresno and Table Mountain Rancheria. Over the course of two years, Conner wove a 32-inch-wide gambling tray. The video recording has been shown in Madden Library at CSUF, and the tray pertains to Table Mountain Rancheria. Through her role in education and instruction, Conner has further provided lectures at universities in the United States and Australia, sponsored in part by Stanford University. As an active member of the North Fork Mono, Conner has served on the North Fork Mono Council and as curator for the Sierra Mono Museum. The Dallas Museum of Art recently acquired the gambling tray she created in 2006, which will be the subject of her lecture Walking in the Footsteps of My Grandmothers: The Art and Ancestry of Mono Basket Weaving on Saturday, October 7, at 2:00 p.m. at the DMA.
Included in your ticket:
- All materials for basket making
- Tour of Arts of the Americas collection with Dr. Kimberly Jones of the DMA
- Admission to Conner's lecture on Saturday, October 7
Presented by the Boshell Family Lecture Series on Archaeology
IMAGE: Gambling tray, Lois Conner Bohna (artist), California, Mono-Chukchansi, c. 2006, deer grass, sedge root, redbud, and bracken fern, Dallas Museum of Art, The Roberta Coke Camp Fund, 2017.14.2