Some projects begin by asking who should lead the story.
ᏔᎷᏣ, The Basket, was designed by ᎺᎵ ᏔᎻᏏᏂ Mary Welch Thompson, an Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians basket maker and consulting artist. OLA’s role was to listen, collaborate, and help bring her vision into the public realm alongside Iron Maiden Studios, Ironwood Studios, the Center for Craft, and a committee of EBCI educators who helped ensure cultural authorship remained central to the process.
Situated along a historic trading route on ancestral Cherokee land in Downtown Asheville at the Center for Craft, the installation honors the complexity of place while celebrating the enduring cultural legacy of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Design elements draw from traditional Cherokee basketry, including material expression, structure, color, and pattern, woven into a public gathering space that functions as both landmark and cultural expression.
Although modest in scale, the project required persistence, coordination, and careful navigation through multiple layers of review with the City of Asheville, NCDOT, and federal transportation partners. Through months of collaboration, redesign, and approvals, The Basket found its way into the public realm as a meaningful place to gather, pause, and recognize the living presence of Cherokee culture in Asheville today.
