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   The Longville Lakes Arts Center will host a Wine & Cheese Open House on Thursday, September 11, from 4 to 6 p.m., inviting the community to enjoy refreshments and meet Shannon Lucas-Westrum, the 2025 McKnight Fiber Artist Fellow, whose work blends tradition, innovation, and the natural beauty of northern Minnesota.

   Her love of texture and fibers began in childhood, when she learned to crochet from a neighbor and spent hours creating with yarn, wood, beads, paper, and leather. In her early 20s, she began serious study of basket making through community education classes and fiber arts guilds. Life took her away from her art for a time, but a moment with her young daughter—who had never seen her create—rekindled her passion and commitment to weaving.

   Since then, she has developed a style that blends traditional European basketry techniques with modern artistry. Her learning journey has taken her across the United States, Spain, Denmark, and Ireland, where she studied with renowned Irish basket maker and artist Joe Hogan and completed an arts residency at Shankill Castle in Kilkenny. While these traditions are only ancestrally hers, she now integrates their technical aspects into her own work.

   Today, she combines rattan or willow with locally gathered driftwood, grasses, bark, antlers, and other natural finds to create sculptural and functional baskets. Her pieces often reflect the landscapes from which their materials come, celebrating nature’s forms while honoring time-honored weaving skills.

   The event offers visitors a chance to explore her intricate art basketry, hear the stories behind her techniques and materials, and see how she merges traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design.

   The Wine & Cheese Open House is free and open to the public. Art lovers, collectors, and anyone curious about the fusion of art and nature are encouraged to attend.

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