A Letter from Our Founders
We founded The Art of Exploration in response to a growing and urgent reality: as ecological systems like the northern wilderness are facing unprecedented stress, many people feel increasingly disconnected from the places that sustain them.
We believe this is not solely a failure of care—but a failure of opportunity and of practice because most people have never been taught how to pay attention to the natural world in ways that nurture a sense of reverence, relationship and responsibility. Modern life is obsessed with growth, extraction and speed and teaches us that nature is simply scenery, recreation or something “out there.” In this paradigm, stewardship is abstract and protecting wild places is someone else’s responsibility.
The Art of Exploration was created to change that. This project is a community experiment in helping more people develop a deep and lasting relationship with the northern wilderness. Together, we are building a living record of how people experience the Lake Superior–to–Boundary Waters watershed—and how those experiences shape our identity, our empathy, and our care.
The project is both locally designed and globally relevant. What happens in northern Minnesota’s sacred landscape echoes worldwide: communities everywhere are struggling to rebuild connection to the places that sustain them. By inviting people of all ages and abilities to explore accessible wilderness destinations and share their own photographs, poetry, and creative reflections, this project democratizes who gets to interpret and tell the story of our shared land. The resulting “living Smithsonian of the Northwoods” will expand the narrative beyond dominant voices, lifting up the insights, perspectives, and lived experiences of local people and communities.
We founded The Art of Exploration to test a simple but powerful idea: that lasting conservation begins when people see themselves as part of the story of a place. Guided by wisdom traditions that understand attention as a form of reverence, we believe this northern landscape is deserving of our presence, our awe and our collective devotion and we can’t wait to invite you into this unfolding story.
For the Land that Holds Us,
Kerry Lane, Katrina Pierson & Richard Haney
Kerry Lane — Co-Founder
Wilderness Guide & Outfitter • Culture Bearer of the Northwoods • Gunflint Trail–Based Artist Photographer • Digital Storyteller
Kerry Lane is a wilderness guide, outfitter, artist, and culture bearer of the Northern Wilderness, known for his deep, lived relationship with the landscapes of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Based in Grand Marais, Minnesota, along the storied edge of the Gunflint Trail, Kerry’s life and work are rooted in the raw, untamed spirit of the Northwoods — a place that has shaped him since childhood.
Born in northern Wisconsin, he grew up hiking ridgelines, paddling quiet lakes, and quietly studying the rhythms of the boreal forest. The land has always been his teacher, shaping the calm, reverent way he helps others move through wilderness.
Kerry is widely known for his deep, place-based knowledge of the Boundary Waters for wilderness travelers. He helps visitors navigate the parts of wilderness travel that often feel intimidating: choosing safe routes, preparing gear, reading shifting weather, and finding confidence on portages. His approach reflects not only knowledge, but a deep stewardship — an ethic of respect that he shares generously.
As Manager of Outfitting at the historic Clearwater Lodge, he helps countless paddlers plan and prepare for their Boundary Waters expeditions. Being largely self-taught, and having learned so much through lived experience, he believes deeply in making education and hard-won wisdom accessible to everyone. Through Basecamp North, his digital learning platform on YouTube, he artfully shares his adventures and thoughtful philosophy of backcountry travel. Kerry's commitment to free, accessible learning comes from a simple belief: that education changes lives, and that everyone deserves access to it, especially young people from historically marginalized communities.
As an artist photographer and composer, Kerry creates work shaped by the Northwoods’ stark beauty — ancient forest, cold starlight, frozen lakes, forgotten trails, and the aurora burning above it all. His soundscapes rise and fall with the rhythms of wind and water; his images echo a life shaped by the land. Living and working within one of only sixteen globally recognized Dark Sky Sanctuaries, his art is both a tribute and a call: to witness the enduring stories of this wild place and the people who belong to it.
As co-founder of The Art of Exploration, Kerry brings his cultural knowledge, lived experience, and creative vision to the heart of the project. He helps shape the trails, sensory practices, and safety structures that teach participants how to truly see the Northwoods — and how to feel at home in the places that have shaped so many lives. His work ensures that the stories, skills, and ways of knowing the Northwoods continue to be shared, tended, and carried forward.
Katrina Pierson — Co-Founder
Mother • Artist Storyteller • Mindfulness Educator • Community Facilitator
Katrina's work is centered on relational ecology, bridging presence, creativity, leadership, and place. For 15 years, she has helped people and organizations deepen their relationships with themselves, one another, and the living world—activating attention, empathy, and collective imagination as catalysts for meaningful community action.
Katrina is the founder of Mindfulness Works, where she designs and leads interpersonal mindfulness programs for workplaces, nonprofits, and community organizations. Her programs focus on relational awareness, nervous system regulation, emotional resilience, and communication skills that support healthier organizational cultures and more sustainable leadership. Through retreats, workshops, and coaching, she helps individuals and teams navigate complexity with steadiness, clarity, and care.
She is also a founding partner of Pierson Henry Strategy & Search, where she advises nonprofit leaders and boards on organizational sustainability, adaptive leadership, culture, and transition. In addition to her consulting and teaching work, Katrina is deeply engaged in participatory storytelling as a tool for stewardship and belonging. She has designed and facilitated community-powered storytelling initiatives for organizations such as The Nature Conservancy and the Friends of Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, expanding how people understand, relate to, and care for the places they inhabit.
Katrina has served as a trainer, curriculum designer, and guest educator for universities and professional programs across the Northern region, including the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the University of Wisconsin–Superior, Winona State University, and multiple foundation-led leadership initiatives. Her teaching integrates neuroscience, mindfulness, systems thinking, and place-based learning to make complex ideas practical, embodied, and accessible.
As an artist, Katrina works as a photographer, writer, and performer, using visual and narrative storytelling to explore attention, relationship, and the quiet intelligence of the natural world. Her creative practice is inseparable from her teaching and leadership work—each informing the other as ways of seeing, listening, and making meaning together. Katrina is also a certified yoga instructor, guiding mindful movement practices that support somatic awareness, nervous system regulation, and embodied presence.
She holds a BA in Creative Writing and Mass Communication, is a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE), and has completed advanced training in mindfulness mentorship (Kornfield/Brach lineage), the neuroscience of change, and organizational culture leadership. She lives and works in northern Minnesota alongside her partner Kerry with her two children Jack and Norah where she is blessed by an abundance of beauty and opportunity.
Richard Haney, Founding Board Member
Outdoor Educator • Elder • Founder • University of Minnesota, Duluth Recreational Sports Program
For 80 years, Richard Haney has been returning to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness—a landscape that has shaped the way he sees the world and the way he teaches others to see it. Born and raised in Duluth’s Woodland neighborhood, Richard was the first in his family to graduate from high school. He went on to earn a double major in Biology and Health & Physical Education before receiving his master’s degree in Recreation Education from the University of Minnesota.
Richard began his teaching career in biology at Old Central High School, cultivating in students the same curiosity he carried from childhood—an instinct to look closely, observe deeply, and understand how everything connects. His dedication to experiential learning shaped a generation of outdoor enthusiasts and educators. In the mid 1980’s Richard and colleague Ken Gilbertson founded the University of Minnesota, Duluth’s Recreational Sports Program—an initiative that grew into one of the most influential outdoor recreation programs in the country. Together, they built infrastructure that was ahead of its time including one of the nation’s earliest indoor climbing walls (the second in the United States which was fashioned from actual local native rock formations) and an outdoor equipment rental program that removed barriers for students wanting to explore the wilderness who did not have the means to purchase their own equipment.
Richard also served as an adjunct faculty member at Lake Superior College, teaching across disciplines and bringing students into direct relationship with place. His field trips became known by students for their sensory immersion with experiences like wild ricing which taught the physicality of harvesting, the sociology of tradition, and the ecological sensitivity required to move respectfully through a living system.
Across every phase of his work, Richard’s leadership style has remained the same: quiet, intuitive, and deeply supportive. Richard is passionate about The Art of Exploration’s aim to educate and connect communities around the interdependence of our ecosystem, knowing that every action in nature has a ripple effect.
His own favorite place on earth is Rose Lake, specifically the Border Route Trail lookout he has taken every child and grandchild to—a family ritual known as “Grandpa’s Most Favorite Spot in the Whole Wide World.” Standing at the overlook, with the Boundary Waters stretching below, he has guided family, students, and colleagues through awe and effort alike.
Today, Richard Haney is recognized as a mentor, educator and guide whose life’s work has helped countless people develop humility, presence, and ecological awareness that he’s learned from a lifetime of walking the same trails.