Enduring Legacies

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A sweetgrass basket woven by Theresa Secord in
2000, now in the collections of the Abbe Museum.
 On Thursday, March 15th Theresa Secord, Penobscot Basketmaker and Executive Director of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA), will present a talk entitled Enduring Legacies as the final installment of the Abbe's three-part Brown Bag Lunch Lecture Series.  This year's Brown Bag Lunch Series has centered around our current major exhibition Indians & Rusticators: Wabanakis and Summer Visitors on Mount Desert Island, 1840s - 1920s.  In this final lecture of the 2012 series, Theresa will explore the basketmaking traditions that continued in Wabanaki families after the "rusticator era" and up to the present day.  Her talk will also include some highlights from Theresa's 20 years as the Executive Director for MIBA.   
 
In Enduring Legacies, Theresa has shared that she will discuss "how MIBA not only saved Maine Indian basketry, but also helped to launch the next generation of artists into the national spotlight," noting that, "recently, one MIBA artist reached the top of the Indian art world and is being recognized as among the finest artists in the US today."

Theresa Secord at the opening
of Indians & Rusticators, pictured
by the "Wabanaki Today" display
where she is featured as a
contemporary voice.
Theresa Secord has received much recognition for her work, including being named by Maine Arts Commission as the 2011 Traditional Arts Fellow.  You can learn more about Theresa's work by following these links:




This hour-long program will take place in the Abbe's Community Gallery.  Visitors are welcome to bring lunch and participate in this informative and casual discussion.  This year's brown bag lunch series, made possible by a grant from Lynam Trust, is designed to complement the Abbe's major exhibit Indians and Rusticators: Wabanakis and Summer Visitors on Mount Desert Island 1840s-1920s, by exploring what happened next (after 1920).  The lecture is free an open to the public...see you there!