This selection of jewelry is stationed near the entrance to Kah-Nee-Tah and the one-of-a-kind earrings, necklaces, and bracelets are certainly worth perusing.
It’s been a busy year for Linda Garrity, the owner of Kah-Nee-Tah Gallery and Cottages, and her small cohort, including Danielle Fortin, operations and sales manager, Garrity’s 10-year-old daughter Sammie, and the official gallery greeter, their dog Ollie.
Kah-Nee-Tah was formerly owned by Suellen Kruse and Jeanne Schlosser, who bought the property in 1989. Originally dubbed Moosehorn Cabins, it was renamed Kah-Nee-Tah, meaning Gift of the Gods in Ojibwe, and became a gallery under its new owners. They also brought in a new building, formerly a real estate office, which then became a place for storage. The following year, they moved two more buildings onto the property from an old resort, one of which is now Lakeview Cottage.
Since purchasing the gallery in December 2014, Garrity and her coworkers have put in many long days and a lot of hard work to get Kah-Nee-Tah ready for reopening. The gallery has since changed quite a bit, with renovations to the overall organization as well as the addition of some new artists and services.
Kah-Nee-Tah Gallery owner and employees have been busy bringing in new artwork and setting up the displays that make the gallery such an inviting place for customers. Left: Owner Linda Garrity and sales and operations manager Danielle Fortin. Above: Hand carved and painted Native American art by Susan Zimmerman.
“We’re doing more of social media and more things online,” Fortin said. “With all of the shopping that people do online, it’s becoming more prevalent.”
Keeping up with evolving times, the gallery now offers a variety of original, one-of-a-kind artwork on their website, kahneetah.com/shopping.php. For those in Cook County, it might be easier just to stop by with holiday and birthday shopping lists in hand, to peruse the wider selection featured at the gallery. However, for those living further away, the website has a great selection of jewelry, candles, and a variety of wall art.
Sammie has brought her own skill set to work for the store as well. An avid reader, she manages the free book exchange, another new addition to the gallery. Bring a book and swap it for a fresh story. She also contributes some of her own artwork to the gallery, including potholders as well as some painting.
Other artwork in the gallery comes primarily from artists in Cook County and elsewhere in Minnesota.
“We try to keep to featuring mainly Minnesota artists,” Garrity said. “For people who come up and are not from Minnesota, we like to emphasize that the art is mostly Minnesotan.”
Garrity and Fortin have also hosted a few art classes at the gallery. The classes have covered a variety of topics including jewelry, watercolor, and acrylic painting. Fortin says there aren’t currently any more in the works, though there may be some in the future.
Garrity and the crew have accomplished a lot in the short space of a year, adding a second building to the gallery, reorganizing the space, and completing many other renovations. The gallery’s atmosphere is friendly and welcoming, and the artwork is beautiful.
Garrity hadn’t even been in the market for a gallery when she came across the property a year ago, and was actually Kah-Nee-Tah’s realtor.
“I was showing the place to one of my close friends,” Garrity said. That same friend, after seeing the property, turned around and asked why Garrity wasn’t buying it herself. The rest is history.
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