Woven Communities: exploring community connectedness through baskets, basket-making and basket use in Scotland and beyond

This review explores the history and vitality of community through material objects, taking an example of material culture, Scottish basketry, as a case study. The aim is to explore how interwoven domains of human action associated with material substances and artefacts reveal insights into the dynamic processes affecting communities through time. Thus the review will explore how the ecological domains of plant materials used in Scottish basket-work are interdependent with Scottish communities of practice who use these materials for production. These are in turn interdependent with the social and economic communities who use the artefacts in domestic and economic work, and in recent years, also in creativity and leisure. Thus the review will provide important insights for the notion of sustainable craft heritage, especially for the production and role of craft and its relevance for biodiversity.

Through focussing on one type of artefact, basket-work, its understated yet pervasive presence in Scottish crofting, agricultural and fishing communities will enable us to widen the vista from the particular to the broader scope of human social history. Basketry is unique in that, unlike other crafts, its technique cannot be reproduced by mechanical process. In Scotland, until recently, its role in rural industries, sport and fisheries was extensive, specific forms being used in fishing, crofting, grouse-shooting, curling, transportation and industrial occupations. Its ubiquitous presence in past social and cultural practices is evident not only in acts of production and human work, but also in language, literature, and even belief. A common basketry material, willow, for example, is referred to in ceilidh dance ('strip the willow'), and in a range of contemporary stories (Harry Potter's 'Whumping Willow'. Thus basketry is almost woven into the fabric of society.

The unique artefact-focussed perspective of this study will result in a holistic approach to the understanding of community which can act as a template for future research on sustainable craft heritage, focussing on different aspects of craft and material culture, and this is one intended outcome of the review. It will reveal how communities are interwoven by material artefacts which themselves are produced by communities of practice, and how events in one domain of community may impact on other domains, resulting in changes through time.

The review will draw on texts and archives housed by several contemporary basket-linked communities, including Scottish basket-makers, Scottish museum curators and botanists. I will involve these communities in the review where possible, and consult with them during the research process, at the same time, setting this literature within the context of recent academic research into material culture, craftmanship and heritage. The outcomes will be an interactive website and an edited compendium containing extracts, summaries and accounts from key texts, and archival images. The project is aimed to be a full and reflexive knowledge exchange where the different groups who have vested interests in basketry will be able to contribute to the review, and reciprocally, the outcomes will be accessible publications which they can use.

A further aim is to contextualise Scottish basketry communities at a national and international level, and also to extend the scope of application of the results to wider craft communities. This will be achieved through a symposium and workshop during the review process with invited experts from academic communities concerned with art history, anthropology and the archaeology of craft, international museums, craft and museum policy professionals, sustainable development experts, botanist, and diasporic craft groups. The outcome of the symposium will be integrated within the review. It is also intended that the review will provide the contacts and links to provide the basis for a post-review exhibition.

Who benefits
Key beneficiaries of this review include local contributors, including the SBC (Scottish Basket-makers Circle), curators of Scottish museums with significant basketry collections, and botanical organizations whose research links to the project. Beyond this, the review will be of value to policy makers at a regional and national level who participate in the project workshop, other craft groups and associations who find the template for analyzing sustainable craft heritage of relevance to them, and heritage craft organizations. In the public sector, the outcomes of the review, including the website and compendium, will render the review accessible to the wider public through museum education and schools. The proposed exhibition will extend access and dissemination even further.

How they benefit
Involvement of Scottish basketry communities, especially the SBC, with this project has been ongoing since 2006. Engagement of this community with the review will be achieved through their participation in the research process, as both hosts and volunteers. I have been working with a small group of SBC members over the past two years in response to their interest in collating their archival material, making an initial assessment of their library and archive. Should I be successful in the application, we will set up quarterly meetings to discuss the progress of the review and to which I will report. Several group members are willing to undertake voluntary research in their own regions to identify any supplementary sources, and report this back. I will provide them with a basic research methods training to help them in this which should provide a reciprocal benefit for this group.

Museum curators are also very supportive of the project and are willing to allow me to work in their collections, libraries and archives. The review will also provide feedback to botanical communities in regard to local plant management for basketry. The project will therefore build on existing links with these groups and take these forward through involvement with the project.

Through making the results of the review publicly available through a web-publication and an edited compendium, I will be collating and collecting together a body of material on Scottish basketry communities which would otherwise not be available in an integrated form, setting it in context, making it publicly available. By working in consultation with the above groups to develop the material gathered for the website into an accessible edited compendium, I will be continuing to engage these communities with the project and its product, enabling them to realize goals which they could not achieve alone. Web-links to the SBC, museum and botanical websites will link them directly to their audiences. The compendium will be available through the SBC newsletter and library, and in museum libraries and shops. The project will therefore include a significant element of knowledge exchange through engagement with core groups and through its dissemination will have effective impact across a range of public groups, including museums education, schools and craft students.

A further outcome of the website will be the development of an accessible system for documenting and communicating craft skills which will be developed in conjunction with practitioners, which will, in itself be valuable to other practitioners.
The workshop will enable our knowledge exchange to be sustained, broadened ad contextualised through a dialogue between Scottish regional basket-makers, museum curators and botanists and invited national and international participants. The template for action on sustainable craft heritage will be an important document for future craft policy.

The review will also aim to provide the basis for the development of an exhibition. While this aspect of the project cannot be guaranteed, it would extend the impact of the review yet again to a much broader public.