Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Art Museum Faculty Fellow Weaves Indigenous Baskets Into Lesson Plan

Tuesday, April 11, 2023, By News Staff
Share
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public AffairsSyracuse University Art Museum

Three small Akimel O’odham baskets were donated to the Syracuse University Art Museum in 2006 by an alumnus and his wife. Like most items in the museum’s extensive collection, they are mostly kept in storage.

But this semester, the baskets have taken the spotlight in a class taught by Heather Law Pezzarossi, assistant professor of anthropology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Pezzarossi is one of six faculty members from across the University selected to participate in a pilot Faculty Fellows Program hosted by the museum.

The Faculty Fellows Program includes a workshop, faculty presentations and requires the creation of a museum-visit lesson plan with an object-based learning assignment. It is a way for the museum to promote innovative curriculum development and facilitate the fuller integration of its collection in Universitywide instruction, says Kate Holohan, curator of education and academic outreach.

Akimel Oodham basket

One of the Akimel O’odham baskets studied by Heather Law Pezzarossi’s Native Americans and Museums course offered this semester at the Maxwell School.

“I think for me, the beauty and simplicity of object-based teaching is that it encourages curiosity and questions through simple observation,” says Pezzarossi. “When a student approaches an object for the first time, they start making a list of things that they notice. They may overlook some elements, but others stand out to them and begin to inspire questions in the students’ minds: What is this made of? How was this made? How did these baskets end up here? A big part of object-based teaching is encouraging students to ask those questions that come from their initial responses in academically rigorous ways.”

Pezzarossi designed her museum plan around the baskets for her Native Americans and Museums course. The baskets were likely purchased on Akimel O’odham territory in Arizona in the second half of the 20th century, but little else is known about their origins.

The indigenous Akimel O’odham people have made baskets for harvests, storage and even holding water. They are also well-known as masterful irrigators, spreading the waters of the Gila and Salt Rivers across their homelands through a complex network of canals to produce bountiful harvests in the Arizona desert.

In the late 19th century, much of Akimel O’odham lands were claimed by settlers and rivers were diverted for western agricultural enterprises. O’odham people, unable to maintain their agricultural livelihoods, catered to a booming tourist market for basketry in the early 20th century. By mid-century however, basket prices dwindled, and materials were harder to find in the parched riverbeds. It was more cost effective to work in local cotton fields, and as a result, basketmaking was less common among the Akimel O’odham, says Pezzarossi, an anthropologically trained archaeologist who has collaborated with Indigenous communities in North America on community-led heritage and archaeological projects.

Under supervision, students have been able to closely study the baskets, examining elements such as the weave pattern, materials used and workmanship. They researched the unique combination of plant properties and weaving techniques that creates a water-tight vessel and studied how basketry knowledge passes from one generation to the next.

Additionally, they researched the teachings of contemporary O’odham basket makers and the knowledge contained in each vessel—from ecological, to mathematical, to allegorical. They highlighted a revival of this knowledge in recent years since Indigenous-led riparian reform efforts have brought the waters back to Akimel O’odham territory, says Pezzarossi.

“The assignment encourages students to ask questions about the materials, the social relationships, the places, and the dominant and not-so-dominant historical narratives with which these baskets are associated,” she says. “They are asked to think carefully about why these baskets are here to begin with. And perhaps most importantly, who is an expert in these objects? Where does that knowledge come from, and where does it lead?”

The museum’s collection is among the largest academic art collections in the United States, encompassing more than 45,000 artworks and cultural artifacts from across the globe that span 5,500 years of human history.

The museum has installed a selection of course-related objects chosen by each faculty fellow in one of its study galleries. For courses being taught in spring 2023, objects will be on display through May 2023.

This story was written by Jewell Bohlinger.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Men’s Soccer Team Gives Back to Syracuse Community for Season of Support
    Friday, June 2, 2023, By Kathleen Haley
  • June 30 Deadline Set for Fiscal 2023 Year End Business
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By News Staff
  • DPS Accepting Sign-Ups for R.A.D. Summer Session
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By Alex Haessig
  • Syracuse Stage Adds 2 Musicals to 50th Anniversary Season
    Wednesday, May 31, 2023, By Joanna Penalva
  • Supporting, Advocating for Trans Youth Will Help Them Thrive As Adults
    Friday, May 26, 2023, By Daryl Lovell

More In Arts & Culture

From Print to the Big Screen, Works by Creative Writing Faculty and Alumni Receive International Acclaim

The renowned creative writing program in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of English has a reputation for nurturing some of the top writers from diverse backgrounds, voices and interests. Faculty include widely recognized, award-winning writers, and many M.F.A….

Syracuse Stage Closing Season With Performance of the Ultimate Whodunnit, ‘CLUE’

Syracuse Stage Artistic Director Robert Hupp and Managing Director Jill Anderson announced they will close the 2022/2023 season with a production that celebrates the pure joy and simple fun of live theatre, the fan favorite and ultimate whodunnit, “CLUE.” The…

Syracuse University Art Museum Chosen for Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Prints Initiative Grant

The Syracuse University Art Museum is one of 10 university art museums nationwide chosen for inclusion in the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s 2023 Frankenthaler Prints Initiative. The award includes a gift of selected original prints by the renowned artist and $25,000…

Carrie Mae Weems H’17 Honored at 12th Annual Brooklyn Artists Ball

Internationally renowned artist Carrie Mae Weems H’17, Syracuse University’s first-ever artist in residence, was the guest of honor at the 12th Annual Brooklyn Artists Ball, presented by Dior, held April 25, at the Brooklyn Museum. Weems was honored for “her innumerable contributions…

‘My Poetry Is a Record of What Happened’ Says Palestinian MFA Student Mosab Abu Toha G’23

The title poem in the debut collection of Mosab Abu Toha G’23 begins with a plea that the surgeon repairing his punctured eardrum save the things he cherishes: his mother’s voice, songs in Arabic, poems in English, chirping birds. “When…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.