Take home an original design created especially for the School of the Arts Silver Celebration by sweetgrass artist, Mary Jackson. There are only three of this design in existence. 

Mary Jackson works in the Gullah tradition of basket making that has been passed down from generation to generation for over three hundred years in America. She learned to weave beautiful intricate forms from the women in her family and has continued to perfect her unique designs using tight coils to push the medium into new forms that make her work stand out as the benchmark for this craft. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is represented in fine collections around the world. In 2008 she was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship and in 2010 the National Endowment for the Arts named her a National Heritage Fellow. Mary is also a founding member of the Mount Pleasant Sweetgrass Basket Makers’ Association and has worked to protect and maintain access to the wetlands where the sweetgrass makers source their materials. In 2008 she was awarded the Environmental Stewardship Award of Achievement by the South Carolina Aquarium. In 2009 Mary received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the College of Charleston.