Laura Korynta is a multimedia artist with a love for working with natural materials. She is excited to share with Lanesboro a new method of connecting with community through a basket lending library.
Lanesboro Arts is pleased to welcome Laura Korynta to Lanesboro as Artist-in-Residence from August 8th to September 7th, 2026.
During her residency, Laura will share how basketry can connect us with our surroundings, with our histories, and with each other by creating and facilitating a basket lending library using materials native to the driftless region. Community members and visitors can ‘check out’ a basket and document their relationship with the object and its use in day-to-day life in a log book. This project offers a unique way to share and experience stories through exchange, offering glimpses into the lives of others, how they move through the community, and what makes people want to call this place their home. The baskets bouncing around town will serve as a visual symbol of the intentionality to slow down and connect to our place within the ecosystem, and within the timeline of human life.
Residency Events
- Wednesday, August 12th, 6:00 – 8:00 pm: Welcome Potluck and Presentation at the Sons of Norway Lodge
- Saturday, August 15th, 9:00 an – 12:00 pm: Cordage Making at Lanesboro’s Farmers Market in Sylvan Park
- Saturday, August 22nd, 2:00 – 4:30 pm: Materials Gathering at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center
- Sunday, August 23rd, 1:00 – 4 pm: Small Vessel Workshop at Sylvan Park
- Thursday, September 3rd, 6:00 – 8:00 pm: Capstone Potluck & Presentation
All residency events are free and open to the public.
About Laura Korynta
Laura Korynta is a multimedia artist with a love for working with natural materials. She is drawn to the profound human yearning to reconnect with ecosystems; her art serves as a conduit for nurturing relationships with the spaces around us. She is a Hinge Artist Alumn for 2019 & 2021, Northhouse Intern Alumn 2023 and recipient of MNSAB Creative Individuals grant for 2025.
About the Lanesboro Early Career Artist Residency Program
Supported by the Jerome Foundation, the Lanesboro Artist Residency Program awards two to three residencies per year to early career artists with projects that activate the people and places of Lanesboro while instigating positive change. The program’s place-based and community-engaged focus is geared toward early career artists that are driven to explore ways in which their work can be applied to the community and how Lanesboro’s rural community can inform their work. For more information, visit lanesboroarts.org or call 507-467-2446.
