Screening Location: 4584 Vine Hill Rd, Excelsior, MN 55331
2024-25 Registration is being accepted on a waitlist basis.
Junior Explorers is sponsored though Minnetonka Community Education and offers a flexible, high-quality childcare program for preschool-aged children.
Ages 33 months (3 by Sep. 1, 2024) to 4 years old. Students who are 4 must be toilet trained
Summer Registration Opens on February 12 at 8 a.m.
Registration for Quest Summer 2025 Opens on February 11, 2025 8AM
Adult Recreational Archery
Adult Sailing
group discussions for young adults (age 30 and under) navigating the world of adulthood
Art, crafts, home decor... let's create something!
theatre, sporting events, field trips, community events
Minnetonka Preschool Knit Hat
The Orfield Tour is an overview of Orfield Laboratories Inc., Sound 80 Studios, The Orfield Non-Profit Art Gallery, and “The Quietest Place on Earth.” During this tour, you will experience the musical history of our building, which was previously owned by Sound 80 Studios, “The World’s First Digital Recording Studio.” You will experience the context and mission of Orfield Labs, our 50+ year-old design research and consulting practice, where we work in all areas of human perception as they relate to design, specializing in sensory issues and in design for the cognitively and perceptually disabled. We will take you through a series of demonstrations in each area of human perception, such as Lighting and Acoustics, where you experience sensory issues, as well as sensory. You will have an opportunity to spend 20 minutes in our anechoic chamber, which Guinness as deemed as “The Quietest Place on Earth.”
As you walk through our various labs and studios, you will experience our modern art collection and the stories behind them.
The Quietest Place on Earth” (Guinness, 2004 and 2012) is the Orfield Anechoic Chamber, which lies in the center of Orfield Laboratories Inc., the world’s only independent, multi-sensory design research and consulting lab, specializing in architecture and product development.
Our building was owned by our previous clients, Sound 80 Studios, which has since been recognized as “The World’s First Digital Recording Studio.” As the birthplace of world-famous albums, such as Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” and the location that inspired the beginning of Prince’s musical career, we have long ties to the recording and art industry. Focused in the sciences of design and human perception and cognition, our focus has dovetailed well with this history, extending the building’s expertise in sound to include the sciences of Acoustics, AV, Lighting, Daylighting, Thermal Comfort, and Indoor Air Quality, the perceptual factors in design that are responsible for the human experience. We maintain the original studios of Sound 80, which are historically correct to date. We adorn our walls with the metaphors of great modern artists such as Carl Beam, the father of Modern Native-Canadian art and Doug Shelton, who refers to himself as an “Arizona Mystical-Surrealist.”
Life is a multi-sensory experience, in which the sciences of human perception and cognition are well-researched in fields that are often divided by specialized language. Our lab is a place in which education is experiential, and where the experiences of science, design, art, and spirituality inform one another. We’ll look forward to sharing it with you...
Orfield Labs
