New Nature Den in Oriel 1!
, 14 February 2011
On Thursday and Friday last week, work began on revamping the existing nature area of Oriel 1 here in St Fagans. This is a very exciting part of the Explore Nature project at the museum, which sees us drawing attention to the wealth of wildlife that can be found on site.
The first step was to decorate the area. We chose woodland themed colours and large colourful panels which show some of the animals that live within the museum. All of these panels are now in place, as you can see from these pictures. Hopefully this has made the area very inviting and a fun way to learn about our wildlife.
We also see the new ‘nature den’ as being an activity area where a range of nature and wildlife based activities can take place. For this we have installed a new shelving area which will be used for displaying specimens, keeping games and activities as well as being a bookshelf for a range of nature and wildlife books. We also now have an area for displaying your artwork, so come along and do some drawing!
This week will see the installation of the technological aspects, which we are very excited about. Along the wall with the wildlife montage (between the blackbird and the bat) we will be putting up our new flat screen television. This television will be linked up to our new live bird feeder camera so you will be able to watch the various birds feeding. There will also be access to other footage taken from our wildcams, from batcam and our underwater pond camera.
As well as the footage from our cameras, we have also had some St Fagans wildlife documentaries made. These will also be available to watch on the screen, from the comfort of the sofa if you so wish. The first of the films shows a typical day in the life of the wildlife here, while the second concentrates on the Lesser Horseshoe bats that roost in the Tannery here.
We are very happy with how the nature den is looking and we hope to have everything installed and up and running ready from half term, which is next week! Why not come along to St Fagans during the half term holiday and have a look and let us know what you think?
If you can’t make it during half term, be sure to attend the big launch of the Explore Nature project, which is taking place on Saturday April the 2nd! For more information click here.
Comments - (3)
Regular visitors were fond of the old gallery, but some of the objects in there had been on display for so long, they needed conservation work (and a bit of a rest!).
I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'sanitized' display - rest assured that an uncluttered, clean display will ensure an object's longevity. We welcome over 600,000 visitors a year to St Fagans, and so we try and make our displays as accessible as we can. What in particular did you find off-putting about the display?
The costume and agriculture galleries remain pretty much as they were, when they were installed - though we would like to bring them up to date. We would also like to better link the objects on display with the historic buildings on site: how would you like to see us do it?
Keep checking the blog, and you'll see more about the project in the near future, I'm sure. Thanks for your feedback.
Da iawn pawb!