Located in the Mount Pleasant Waterfront Park, the Sweetgrass Basket Pavilion is a cultural arts exhibit on the history of sweetgrass basket making and serves as a venue in which local basket makers can demonstrate their craft. The open air pavilion features informative kiosks, basket display cases, and a screening area for documentaries. This pavilion is a tribute to the generations of men and women who have carried on the Lowcountry sweetgrass basket tradition for over 300 years. As a stop along the Gullah / Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, the pavilion gives the public an in-depth look at one of America’s oldest and most important African-inspired arts. Sweetgrass baskets are available for sale at Sweetgrass Basket Pavilion.

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The Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor is home to a remarkable American culture known today as Gullah/Geechee, which reaches back into the seventeenth century. This is a tradition that was first shaped by captive Africans brought to the southern United States from Central and West Africa who were forced to labor on plantations. They developed a new language with Caribbean, European, American, and African influences. Africans kept their traditions and over time reshaped those practices by incorporating elements of Southeastern culture. Geographic barriers along with a strong sense of family and community are factors that have helped to maintain Gulllah/Geechee culture. Mount Pleasant residents and visitors engage Gullah traditions on a daily basis through vivid cultural exchanges.

The Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor was created: To recognize the important contributions made to American culture and history by Africans and African Americans known as Gullah or Geechee who settled in the coastal counties of Florida (Duval and Nassau), Georgia (Bryan, Camden, Chatham, Glynn, Liberty and McIntosh), North Carolina (Brunswick and New Hanover) and South Carolina (Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton, Georgetown, Horry, Jasper and parts of Berkeley and Dorchester); To assist Federal, State and local governments, grassroots organizations, and public and private entities in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina in interpreting the story of the Gullah/Geechee culture and preserving Gullah/Geechee folklore, arts, crafts, and music; and To aide in identifying and preserving sites, historical data, artifacts, and objects associated with the Gullah/Geechee culture for the benefit and education of the public.

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