Originally, the first Gathering Hope was made to honor the life of Delilah Sampson Gibbs, the “last” Wampanoag woman who lived in Wellfleet, (died 1839) who was a healer and a midwife, who gathered plants, herbs and made medicines that offered hope to those she healed and their loved ones. The woven structure is made of cedar strips, mulberry bark (cooked, manipulated and dyed with cedar bark), lichen, flax and mulberry artist-made paper.

Gathering Hope II
Born of questions like “Different from what?’ Gathering Hope II celebrates that we all have different ideas we call “hope”. Therefore we need different kinds of gathering baskets: All beautiful, some leaky, and together having the ability to be hope-full.

Hanging gathering baskets are made of materials that Delilah may or may not have used: corn husks, rosemary & basil stems, lilac & wasp nest paper, banana stalk, wisteria threads, fish bones, pine branch & artist-made papers from codium seaweed, lawn clippings, and flax fiber.