Susan Billy, a tribal member of the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, a founding member of the California Indian Basketweaver’s Association, and one of few remaining artists practicing traditional Pomo basket weaving, offers insights into this native art form. Susan will share examples of baskets from her personal collection, explaining the traditional process and answering your questions, and she will speak about  the Pomo baskets on view in Architecture of Life.

Susan Billy studied basket weaving with her great aunt, world-renowned Pomo basket weaver Elsie Allen, for sixteen years. She has participated in many cultural programs and native community events as an artist, speaker, demonstrator, and curator. Her involvement in museum exhibitions is extensive and includes the Grace Hudson Museum, Ukiah, CA; American Museum of Natural History, New York; Oakland Museum of California; the de Young Museum, San Francisco; The Brooklyn Museum, New York; and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) / Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC. She was a founding member of the California Indian Basketweaver’s Association. Billy Susan currently resides in Ukiah, California, where she is the sole proprietor of Bead Fever.