Chumash Basketry: Art and Life

A new exhibit at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History features the living art of Chumash basketry, a tradition with deep roots in the region. For thousands of years, baskets played essential roles in all aspects of traditional Chumash life. Modern Chumash weavers carry on those traditions, creating baskets entirely by hand and teaching their children. Chumash Basketry: Art & Life at the Museum highlights the connections between those living traditions and the natural world, in the first comprehensive exhibition featuring the world’s largest collection of Chumash baskets. Select modern works by contemporary Chumash weavers put the abundant historic examples in the context of continuing traditions, and the words of Chumash elders and weavers are interspersed throughout the exhibit, expressing the personal significance, joys, and challenges of basketry. This exhibit will be on view through 2026.

Cost: Included with Museum admission, which is free to all Native people on request