A new gem – the Lanark Highlands Basketry Museum opens

Jule Koch | Jun 01, 2016

The Lanark Highlands Basketry Museum, which is founded and curated by Ankaret Dean, held its grand opening on Saturday, May 28.

The new museum is possibly the only museum in the world to focus on the techniques of using natural materials to make baskets. While most museums have basketry collections, they are only part of their larger collections. The baskets themselves are not the focus except as valuable historical artifacts due to their roles in the lives of people in the past.

There are a handful of other basketry museums in the world, but their focus is usually on the finished baskets.

The Lanark Highlands Basketry Museum is unique in that it focuses on the techniques and materials of basketmaking rather than on the baskets, and specifically on basketmaking with natural materials that can be gathered locally.

This focus is a natural outgrowth of Ankaret Dean’s life-long love of nature and on preserving ancient skills that are in danger of being lost.

“My purpose in creating the museum is to encourage people to use natural materials. We need to know more about our environment. People have no idea that they can do so much with the things that grow all around them,” she said. “The materials are so versatile and these skills will be lost if we don’t use them. And if we don’t know about them we can’t use them”

She stressed that, “People won’t see rows and rows of baskets when they come – this is a basketry museum [focusing on the processes], not a basket museum.”

Ankaret has had a long and varied career in too many areas to recount. She has been interested in basketry since about 1975, and her fascination with the craft led her to found a basketry guild, the Basketry Network; to publish the only Canadian basketry magazine, the Basketry Express; and to organize several basketry conferences. She has exhibited widely and has taught probably over a hundred workshops. Although she specialized in basketry and willow sculpture, she is also a textile artist, a weaver, a Master Gardener, a writer, a farmer, beekeeper and a passionate community activist. The latter interest led her to be one of the founders of the arts organization, MERA (McDonalds Corners Elphin Recreation & Arts), and she has been the driving force and inspiration for many community events.

Basketry is the oldest of all crafts, and while it has suffered a decline in the last 100 years as plastics became more common, it is the only craft that has never yielded to technology. No one has ever invented a basketmaking machine, and every single basket in the world today is still made by hand, in much the same way and with the same simple tools as for thousands of years.

However, because the overwhelming majority of baskets are made of natural materials, they deteriorate quickly. The “ephemeral nature of natural fibres” is one of the reasons why Ankaret has always dedicated so much time and energy to document the processes of using them. As editor of the Basketry Express, she compiled several volumes of articles from the magazine and titled them: “The Best of the Basketry Express”. These books are now virtually the only source of information for some of the materials and processes.

Fifteen different local materials are highlighted at the museum, including birch bark, cedar bark, willow, rushes, cattails, sweetgrass and black ash, and they are used in items that range from two-inch miniature baskets to bee skeps to coracles. To supplement the displays, Ankaret has also prepared extensive videos explaining how and when to harvest and prepare the materials.

The new basketry museum may be small but it is mighty. It contains over 200 exhibits and is beautifully housed in a 1930s stable that has been renovated into a light-filled, attractive space. The baskets are displayed on rustic shelves made of birch and cedar, and the gardens contain many of the plants used in basketry

Ankaret doesn’t want people to come to the museum just once to look at the baskets, but to come back and experience the joy of making baskets and other simple items from natural materials. At the opening on Saturday, visitors were able to make necklaces of birch bark beads, and Ankaret has several hands-on workshops planned for the future.

On June 4 & 11, visitors will be shown how to prepare cedar bark. Bring an apron, sharp knives and scissors. There will be a $5 fee. On June 18 & 25, visitors will be taught how to use their prepared cedar strips to make a basket. There will be a $15 fee. Visitors need only attend one session for preparing the cedar and one to make a basket.

The museum is located in McDonalds Corners at 5596 McDonalds Corners Road and will be open every Saturday from 11 am to 3pm, May to October, or by appointment. Admission is by donation. The museum would welcome volunteers to help man it during its open hours, and anyone who has basketry knowledge would be welcome to demonstrate their skills.

Visit www.ankaretdean.ca or call 613-278-1203 for further information.

Photos: Joanne Fisher shows Hanne and Robert Quigley how to make birch bark beads

Mayor of Lanark Highlands, Brian Stewart, congratulates Ankaret Dean at the museum opening

Ankaret Dean with a rush mat made on a loom

Ankaret Dean with a cedar bark canoe bailer.