New Partnership Supports Local Artistry

January 29, 2008

Mount Pleasant Waterworks (MPW) and the Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Festival Association (SCAFA) are pleased to announce their partnership to help protect and preserve the sweetgrass basket making art form. MPW and SCAFA signed a Memorandum of Agreement that will allow local basket makers to plant and harvest sweetgrass at two MPW properties.

Sweetgrass basket making dates back more than 300 years and a small number are keeping the art form alive today in the Mount Pleasant area.

“The recent increase in residential and commercial development along the coastline has contributed to a severe decrease in the availability of the sweetgrass needed by local basket makers,” said Thomasena Stokes-Marshall, SCAFA Project Director. “This shortage has a direct economic impact on the families who rely on their baskets to subsidize their household income and it has further threatened the continued existence of the sweetgrass basket art form,” she added.

“Mount Pleasant Waterworks is very happy to partner with SCAFA and allow planting and harvesting of sweetgrass at our property. We want to help keep this beautiful art form alive. Preservation and protection of this art form which depends on our natural environment is something MPW should support,” commented Dr. Golightly, MPW Commission Chair.