Tony Ballog and his Gypsy Orchestra

	Willow Basketry Bonnie Gale (Liverpool, New York)
		Liverpool, New York, was a major center of willow basketry in the nineteenth century, a period when the whole central New York region was involved in growing willow and in making and marketing baskets. Willow baskets are still integrated into the day-to-day living in the region and take many forms, from laundry hampers, to shopping baskets, to furniture. Bonnie Gale is a British immigrant to the Liverpool area, as were most of the early basket makers in this region. Originally trained under European willow basket makers in England, Bonnie studied with Frank Selinski, a fourth-generation Liverpool basket maker, when she moved to New York. In addition to growing willow and making baskets, Bonnie is very involved in keeping Liverpool’s basketry traditions alive in other ways. She has organized Liverpool’s first Willow Day celebration, is the founder of the American Willow Growers Network, conducts community basketry workshops, and documented Liverpool’s baskets, basket makers, and basket shops for the New York State Council on the Arts.