Can you believe it’s been ten years? 2026 marks the 10th Anniversary of the Lanark Highlands Basketry Museum in McDonald’s Corners — and what a decade it’s been!

This year is a special one in more ways than one. While we’re celebrating this wonderful milestone, 2026 will also be the museum’s final season welcoming visitors at its current home before the collection moves to a new chapter at the Middleville and District Museum.

It all began when Ankaret Dean and her friend Kirsten Scott sat down to catalogue Ankaret’s basketry collection — and they quickly realized just how extraordinary it had become: 400 baskets and counting! With an empty building on hand (a charming old horse stable), Ankaret did what any visionary would do: she turned it into the first and only basketry museum in Canada, filled with her own personal collection. Mal Beauchamps was instrumental in the transformation, converting the stable and crafting the shelves that now display the baskets so beautifully. The loft became a workshop and storage space, and a little shed in the garden — lovingly known as The Basketry Experience — was added to house basketry materials.

Over the years, hundreds of visitors have walked through those doors. Ankaret has taught workshops on using natural materials, welcomed speakers and workshop leaders from across the country, hosted featured exhibitions, and created videos (available on YouTube, linked from the museum website). In the summer of 2020, she began publishing Threads, a newsletter and blog that has kept the basketry community connected and inspired ever since.

2025 was Ankaret’s final year as lead instructor — but the legacy is in good hands! It is a true honour to have Ankaret pass the torch to Melissa Cornacchia. She couldn’t be more excited to weave basketry teachings into her own offerings for years to come!

To celebrate this milestone year, we’re hosting five visiting artists and six workshops running from March through September. The museum’s heart has always been about sharing the knowledge of basketry — especially the use of natural materials from our own local ecosystem — and this season’s lineup reflects exactly that spirit.

Michael Peterson joined us earlier this month to teach rattan and round reed basketry. It’s the ideal material for learning core basketry techniques, and Michael has a lovely connection to the museum’s story: he was one of Ankaret’s early students at the Haliburton School of the Arts back in the 1980s. A wonderful full-circle moment! He shared stories and the history of basketry and how he quickly became obsessed with making baskets — thanks to a class he took with Ankaret. Like Ankaret, Michael has his own collection of about 300 baskets from around the world. Sounds like another basketry museum in the making!

Agnes Niewiadomski, joining us from Western Ontario, is an artist who works with a wonderful range of materials and beautifully bridges tradition with creativity. She’ll be teaching fairy baskets and cordage (May 23), to create delicate little creations made from garden and foraged natural materials. Magical!

John Wager, an Indigenous basket maker and woodworker from Curve Lake, will share the art of the traditional birch bark basket (June 13). We’re so grateful to welcome his knowledge and craftsmanship.

Johnny Suderman came into Ankaret’s world through the well-known Lene Rasmussen, and as her protégé, he has become an expert in growing and working with willows. Johnny will be offering two workshops: a round willow bark basket (August 29) and a tatza bread basket (August 30). We’re thrilled he can join us!

And rounding out our visiting artists, Bozena Hrycyna (September 26) brings her folk artistry and a deep commitment to preserving the craft of working with straw. While not strictly basketry, Ankaret has always had a fondness for the artistry of local natural materials, and Bozena’s work feels like a perfect fit for everything this museum stands for.

We’d love for you to be part of this anniversary year. Sign up for the Threads newsletter to stay in the loop on workshops, events, and all things basketry. And visit us online to explore the museum, browse upcoming workshops and events, and watch our videos.

Here’s to ten incredible years — and to everything still to come! Learn more at lanarkhighlandsbasketrymuseum.ca.