Gallery Navarre as it looks today.
Life in the central and western lake area has changed dramatically over the past several decades but, for those who are most familiar with the area, one staple enterprise has endured the rapid growth of our community—that being the Gallery Navarre. Crystal Bay resident Joan Wolfe opened her shop in Navarre over forty years ago and, in that time, made an impact on the community that’s difficult to understate. The store focused solely on custom framing and Joan had little interest in her neighborhood’s history, its preservation, or her larger impact on it in those early days. However, as time went on, she discovered that many of her personal passions were merging in a way that pointed toward historical preservation and community building.
Following the guidance of her growing passions, Gallery Navarre slowly transformed from a specialty framing store into a pseudo museum for all things local history and art. Her work alongside local artists such as Mary Stacke, Rich Sladek, and Mary Otazeski helped to give Navarre, Spring Park, and Mound an artistic flare that they had seldom seen in decades. To the younger generation of Minnetonka residents, the Gallery Navarre became the chief enterprise to acquire both vintage and reproduction Minnetonka memorabilia. She and other locals even went as far as to author the 2014 book, Navarre the Hub of Lake Minnetonka which remains the foremost publication on Navarre’s history. (One that the author has regularly used in researching topics of the town.) The Lakeshore Weekly News went as far as to publish an article on Joan’s shop “Finding Lake Minnetonka art and history in an unlikely location.” They weren’t wrong either. Gallery Navarre was located in the basement of a downtown Navarre shopping center. So, in 2020, she moved to a new location off Shoreline Drive in Spring Park. Things were doing well until, in 2023, Joan suddenly passed away from an unexpected illness.
The gallery’s door remained locked until her daughter, Wendy, visited to start cleaning things out. As she worked, memories of conversations with her mother flooded her mind. Wendy, a K-12 teacher of three decades and sitting chair at Concordia University’s tech graduate program for k-12 teachers, suddenly found herself with her mother’s hand on her shoulder. Both had a deep interest in children’s education and pride in place. Motivated by her passions, Wendy decided to re-orient Gallery Navarre’s mission toward children’s summer programs which combines fun and engaging activity with local education and involvement.
Today, Gallery Navarre hosts four summer camps which are tailored to small groups of kids ranging from ages 6 to 10. The classes have “a low floor but an extremely high ceiling” allowing kids to shoot for the creative moon. Each of her camps use Lake Minnetonka themes to teach engineering, tech literacy, science, and math in ways that make kids proud of themselves and their environment. She uses local history, Golden Era hotels, amusement parks, and steamboats to color her curriculum in a unique way rarely seen in modern eduction. Following the desires of her late mother, Wendy incorporated a class dedicated to teaching kids to understand the styles and functions of water-markers on Minnetonka through building Lego watersheds, buoys, and boats. Ultimately, all her courses are designed to show how taking pride in your community can impact the world around yourself. Wendy proudly says, “If you’re thinking of how cool the fish are in the lake, you’re less likely to just drop your trash on the ground. You might even pick up other trash you find along your way.” The example she’s setting has transformed how local children view their surroundings.
Students of her program become highly passionate about what they’re creating. Wendy intentionally slows learning in a way that allows creativity and independence to build in a way that resonates uniquely with each child. Their creations are oftentimes theirs to bring home and is intended to be useful to them, not just stuffed into a junk drawer or thrown out after a week. Online showcases are created too, so proud kids can share their creations with their family and friends!
Enrollment is capped at seven students per class, giving it a 3.5 to 1 ratio and runs $145 per student (including tax.) Sessions last three days and three hours each day. If you want your child or grandchild to have a meaningful, educational, and memorable experience this summer, there’s truly no place quite like Gallery Navarre. Enrollment is open and filling quickly! See below to delve into the world of children’s local education.
Nautical bookmarks made by students at Gallery Navarre
