The Parklands/Mixed Woods region (Adobe PDF 87k) of Manitoba, the transition zone between the Boreal Forest to the north and the Grasslands plains to the south, will complete the journey through the province as presented in the Museum Galleries. Marked by diversity, change and opportunity, Manitoba’s heartland is home to a larger variety of life and landscapes than any other area of the province. It’s worth the journey!
For the past year, you’ve read their articles, you’ve seen their work in our existing galleries, online virtual tours and various photographs in past publications. Who are the people whose hard work has created the fascinating Parklands/Mixed Wood Gallery?
Betsy Thorsteinson, Diorama Artist
Betsy Thorsteinson Diorama Artist
Betsy has been an artist at the Museum for 31 years! From cabbages to carp, her touch lingers on nearly every display in the Museum galleries. Betsy joined the Museum’s interpretation division in 1972 and describes her work as art being used for science… Her three-dimensional life-like dioramas allow people to experience environments firsthand, they provide an ambience that you can’t get from reading a book. Her current artistic creations include the magnificent Ukrainian rye farm and the adjacent Delta Marsh as well as the saltsprings, which she is working on in this photo. To create these dioramas, actual plants, specimens and objects were collected from the region. The most challenging was pulling cattails out by their roots for the marsh diorama, says Betsy… That nearly killed all of us! In fact, there are more dioramas in the Parklands/ Mixed Woods Gallery than in any other gallery in the Museum! Everyone’s worked hard to make this Gallery look as good as it does.
Graham Young, Curator of Geology & Palaeontology and the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery Project Manager
Dr.Graham Young Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery Project Manager
Graham, also the Curator of Geology & Paleontology, has been working on this project for six years. Along with a group of other curators and staff, he manages the project and looks after all the small details involved in the creation of a brand new gallery. One of his main duties has been to organize the contractors working on the multimedia projects for the Gallery. Soundtracks and videos have been created especially for this Gallery to display the uniqueness of the region in a way that has never been seen before.
Graham has also spent countless hours poring over all of the text going into the Gallery. So far that’s over 200,000 words in English and French! Only a fraction of that text will appear on the walls. The rest can be found in curatorial notebooks and interactive computer programs located throughout this stunning Gallery. “One of my favourite exhibits is the snake pit,” says Graham. “I know the amount of work they had to do to make it look as real as it does. We have a lot of skilled artists working with us.”
The Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery, behind-the-scenes stories of the Gallery’s creation have been appearing on our site, the final article in this four-part series is Going batty, a story written by the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery Project Manager, Dr. Graham Young, about the sources of inspiration for the Museum’s walk-through bat cave.
Caves in Manitoba? People in Winnipeg, sitting on the flat plain of the Red River Valley, may find it hard to believe that there are hundreds of known caves in this province. And now there is one more because a new cave has been built at The Manitoba Museum. Building a cave for the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery has been a huge undertaking for our institution, but it has also been a fascinating process for all involved…
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Take a virtual tour of bat cave under construction
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Dr. Gavin Hanke and diorama artist Betsy Thorsteinson
The Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery, behind-the-scenes stories of the Gallery’s creation have been appearing on our web site. Next in this four-part series is Beachcombing for Parklands, a story written by the Museum’s new Curator of Zoology about a collecting trip to the Interlake region.
One of the most interesting dioramas in the new Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery is the underwater scene of Lake Winnipeg. Am I biased? Of course – I love fish and the lakes in this province, and it has been wonderful to contribute to this Gallery. Since I was hired by the Museum last fall, I have journeyed to Lake Winnipeg to collect many small fishes that will be replicated for the underwater diorama. But this is not a fishy tale, well, not in its entirety. This tale is that of a trip to collect rocks for our Lake Winnipeg reef replica. Fish, frogs, birds and dogs also figure into the trip, but this day, we wanted rocks…..
Complete article (Adobe PDF – 127 K)
The Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery, is now open and alive with adventure. Come in and discover Manitoba’s heartland.
Glass whimsies, including corkscrew style cane, glass chain, candy cane style cane, cane with brown streak running down centre, c. 1906 - 1908
Glass blowers were highly skilled craftsmen. Although obliged to blow crude glass bottles to make a living, they were capable of doing much more intricate work, and fashioned beautiful and fragile glass ‘whimsies’ like the chain and canes shown above…
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In anticipation of the September 20, 2003 opening of the Parklands/MixedWoods Gallery, we have been keeping you up-to-date with behind-the-scenes stories of its development. The next element to be featured is the creation of a family for the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery’s Ukrainian Rye Farm Diorama.
Museum Sculptor Ota Pavlik (retired) applies plaster strips to volunteer model Ann Szabo
From uneven skin tone, freckles and veins to individual eyelashes and tiny facial hairs, the five full-sized mannequins of the Parklands/Mixed-Woods Gallery’s Ukrainian farm family are so lifelike, Exhibit Artist Kathleen Fonseca says she is often startled by the figure of the father currently being stored in her workshop.
“The mannequins are like anything else we create here at the Museum,” said Fonseca. “Just like the flowers, plants, bats or snakes that will be on display in the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery, the human figures simply have to be realistic. We try our best to create figures that look exactly as they would in their environment to ensure the experience is as real as possible for our visitors.”
This means going to extraordinary lengths. From the making of plaster molds to the period clothing and the artistry of the final details, the process of creating a human figure is lengthy and painstaking.
The project began approximately four years ago headed by Museum Sculptor Ota Pavlik (retired) and former Associate Curator Of Multicultural Studies Stan Carbone, and is now being completed by Diorama Artist Betsy Thorsteinson, and Curator of Social History Sharon Reilly. The team sought out volunteer models who were willing to go through the challenging experience of being wrapped with plaster.
Pavlik and Fonseca wrap volunteer model, Rodney Kraynyk's, torso
The plastering of the human models was undertaken in two sections that included the legs and abdomen, and the torso and arms.
The plaster, applied in strips layer by layer, measures about one-quarter inch thick when dried and hardened. In order to maintain the awkward and uncomfortable positions required to fashion the mannequins as they would appear in the diorama, the models supported themselves with the help of farm implements and wooden stands during the plastering process. Once the plaster was dry, Museum artists cut the suit with a saw to remove it, just like the process of removing a cast from a broken arm.
By far the most difficult part of the process is the wrapping of the head, taking approximately three hours to complete and leaving only two small holes under the nostrils for breathing. According to Fonseca, the molding materials and plaster jacket are actually quite heavy, and warm up as the plaster hardens.
“We weren’t able to completely wrap the young girl’s head as it would have been quite scary for her,” said Fonseca. “We left part of the nose and the eyes uncovered and molded each ear separately so it would be a little less unpleasant. Her head is still in the process of being sculpted.
Mannequin of the father nearing completion
To make molds of the face, ears, arms and hands, legs and feet, we used plastident, a material used to form dental impressions. This material is lighter, has a minty-fresh smell, and doesn’t irritate the skin. The difference is that we have to pour plaster into these molds immediately. All these separate molds are then joined together with plasticine and sculpted as a whole, then a rubber mold will be made from it. We are still in the process of making this final mold.”
To make hand and head molds for the remaining four mannequins, Museum artists used silicon. A thick, white substance that dries within minutes, silicon captures incredible detail from the laugh lines and pores of the face to fingerprints. Once the flexible silicon molds have dried and been removed, resin is poured into them to harden, creating the mannequins’ realistic face and hands, parts that won’t be covered by clothing.
In the final stages, Thorsteinson went to work on the meticulous detail, airbrushing the visible parts with skin-toned oil paint, and adding freckles, veins and eyelashes one by one. A wig maker was contracted to create the hair and a mustache for the mannequins, and extra hair was added around the hairline and eyebrows.
Lee-Ann Blase, a Museum conservation department volunteer with a clothing and textiles degree, was charged with the tasks of taking the mannequins’ measurements and researching and creating accurate period clothing.
“I visited the Stuartburn region museum with Sharon Reilly, and I studied photographs from the era to determine the types of natural fabrics and colours to use,” said Blase. “This has been a really wonderful experience for me as I have made clothing and worked in conservation in the past, but I have never had to make clothing appear old. The usual processes such as dyes and painted-on dirt work well for the theatre where the audience is far away, but they aren’t suitable when the audience can get within four feet of the figure,” said Blase, of the process that has seen her using sand paper and wire brushes to rough up the fabric, mimicking perspiration stains with three-day old tea, placing garments outside to fade them in the sun and even wearing the clothes to give them a used look.
A lasting impression of volunteer model Kibsey at 10 years old
“All this work really is worth it : it may be incredibly time-consuming but the end result really is something to see,” said Fonseca. “Sure, we could have purchased pre-made mannequins like those used in stores but the impact wouldn’t be the same. The lifelike quality of these mannequins is what brings the story to life.”
Completed mannequin of the mother
With the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery nearing completion, the Ukrainian family will soon be placed in the Rye Farm Diorama where Museum visitors can get a glimpse into the life and times of Manitoba’s early 20th century settlers.
Change and Diversity: The Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery’s Orientation Area
David Lavallee and Dr. Graham Young, Curator of Geology & Paleontology
The Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery’s Orientation Area, now open to the public, provides the first glimpse at the Museum’s final chapter in the story of Manitoba.
“The basic purpose of the Orientation Area is to give people a short introduction to the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery,” said Dr. Graham Young, Curator of Geology and Paleontology and Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery Project Manager. “The area will provide visitors with an introduction to the new Gallery’s broad themes including diversity, as the Parklands is the most diverse region in Manitoba, and change, since the region has undergone a number of changes since the most recent Ice Age.”
The Orientation Area is accessible from two locations ” the upper Boreal Forest area and the Nonsuch Gallery balcony”providing visitors with a “teaser” for the new Gallery, and allowing for improved traffic flow. Upon entering the Orientation Area, visitors pass through a grove of poplars, the most common and characteristic tree species in the region. Once through, visitors encounter a variety of displays with differing degrees of interactivity.
On one of the area’s walls is posted a series of quotations and observations made by early settlers and travellers in Manitoba’s Parklands. While some of these are rave reviews of the region, others reflect the adversity met by some early immigrants. On the other side of the area is an edge-lit etched glass wall that illustrates a profile across Manitoba’s Parklands from west to east.
The more interactive displays include a globe, which visitors can spin to see the distribution of parklands terrain all over the Northern Hemisphere, from North America to Europe to Asia. The crowning jewel, however, is the digital projection map featuring a control panel that allows visitors to view short presentations on a variety of topics, from geographic patterns to the migrations of Aboriginal and Metis people to population and urbanization trends.
“We discovered that the development of this type of interactive exhibit is an extremely labour-intensive process,” said Dr. Young. “There was an incredible amount of research needed to obtain the information for new exhibits.” The projection map presented a particular challenge, as changing lake boundaries and other natural features required a significant amount of research in order to be accurately portrayed. Even changing air transportation routes had to be researched, and a great deal of time was spent in libraries and other institutions accumulating information.
All Museum curators conducted research in the course of the Gallery’s development. Once the basic research was complete, they turned their attentions to developing it into exhibit copy for the Gallery. In fact, a contract exhibit developer, Fleur Storace, was brought in for about a year to help with the tremendous amount of work.
With the development of one of the Museum’s most interactive Gallery moving along steadily, the Orientation Area is an exciting preview of things to come.
Dr. Brian McKillop, (Retired) Curator of Invertebrates
In the new Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery, a diorama will depict one of Manitoba’s special places, the Parklands saltsprings. They are unique, home to some of the least known animals on earth. Similar features are found only in central Russia, China, Australia and southern Africa. Before 1987, almost no research had been done at the Manitoba sites. Along with scientists from various universities and research centres across Canada, Brian McKillop has been studying them for more than a decade.
Areial view of saltspring
In 1987, Dr. McKillop and Dr. Erik Nielsen of the Manitoba Department of Mines and Energy, described a site on the western shore of Lake Winnipegosis where numerous small aquatic snails were found within the beach sand. Through radiocarbon dating and identification, they were found to be an extinct marine (saltwater) animal that lived along the beach 4,550 years ago. With this snail specie were two other minute invertebrates, both of which proved to be of marine origin.
They then found that salty water from springs enters Lake Winnipegosis along much of the western shore. Water and biological samples from the saltsprings were collected and analyzed. Researchers found about 80 marine animal species living in the saltsprings, two of which were unknown to science.
The most recent research has shown how the marine animals colonized the saltsprings. Working with Sid Kroker, a palynologist (pollen expert), the climatic history was reconstructed by looking at the species composition of the pollen grains, collected at various depths at the site.
Using these data it was possible to identify periods of likely colonization and extinction of various marine species. Lake Agassiz drained some 8,000 years ago. However, it took approximately 2,500 years for invertebrates to appear since the period of optimal warm conditions known as the Hypsithermal, did not occur until then. Only at that time could subtropical species coming up from the Gulf of Mexico survive.
Equally important was the correct water salinity. During glaciation, freshwater under the glaciers was injected into the springs, pushing back the saline waters. Once the glaciers retreated, pressure associated with the 200 m deep Lake Agassiz would have continued to force freshwater into the springs.
As Lake Agassiz drained, pressure was removed and freshwater was flushed out by saline waters. Thus about 5,500 years ago, brine would have started flowing from the saltsprings with ever increasing salinity. The warm climatic period was starting and bird flyways were opening up from the south. The birds brought new potential immigrants on their feet and feathers.
Diorama artist Betsy Thorsteinson placing final touches on gallery exhibit
One cannot help but be awed by the uniqueness of the saltspring animals. Transported precariously by shore birds, they had to enter a saltwater environment to survive.
Even more astonishing, they had to arrive at this environment when its salinity was close to that of their parent coastal salt flat and then adapt rapidly to ever increasing salinities. Finally, the fact that two of the species found were unknown to science indicates that animal speciation can take place in as few as 5,500 years.
Jack Dubois, (Retired) Associate Curator of Mammalogy and Ornithology
One of the more fascinating creatures in Manitoba is the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus). These small insect eaters gather in groups of up to 10,000 to overwinter together in caves, known as “hibernacula”. Only a few caves are sufficiently deep and have the necessary structure to maintain their temperature at 5 °C, allowing the bats to hibernate in them from late September to late April.
Caves in the Parklands region are critical to the survival of this species in Manitoba. Little brown bats, in their natural habitat, the cave, will form one of the major dioramas of the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery.
Little brown bats recreated for placement in the cave
Cave in early construction stage
Little brown bats feed on small flying insects like moths and mosquitoes, each eating several grams every night. In the summer, groups of female bats live in “nursery colonies” in hollow trees and attics. They each give birth to one young in early June. The males disperse singly around the province, roosting in trees and sometimes under building soffits. All of them return to the caves in early August, where mating occurs prior to winter hibernation.
In 1988, Jack Dubois began to study the little brown bat. His objectives were to map the distribution of little brown bats in Manitoba; to locate as many hibernacula and summer nursery colonies as possible, and to determine where bats found in hibernacula spend summers and where bats found in summer colonies overwinter.
To map distributions and to monitor seasonal movements of bats, a banding program was set up. Speleological Society of Manitoba members and other volunteers helped find bat caves. Information provided by home and cottage owners, the Manitoba Department of Natural Resources and others led to the summer banding of bats in residential and cottage areas throughout the province and into adjacent northwestern Ontario around Lake of the Woods.
Most banding has occurred in caves in the Grand Rapids and Gypsumville areas, and in St. George Cave, north of Hodgson. Sleeping bats are plucked by hand from the cave wall and placed in a cloth bag. Once they are captured, the bats are examined to determine sex, reproductive status, age, signs of injuries and whether external parasites, like fleas and mites, are present.
Previously banded bats are recorded and any injuries and/or parasites are noted. Time in capture and handling is kept to a minimum to avoid stressing the animals. So far, approximately 6,000 little brown bats have been banded in caves and approximately 750 at nursery colonies. Band returns have shown the bats to be very loyal to their summer and winter roosts. The majority of those banded in the summer on the west side of the province appear to hibernate in a single cave in south central Manitoba, sometimes travelling more than 300 km each way. Less than one percent of bats banded in a particular cave have ever been found in another cave.
As a result of this study, at least 13 caves are known to serve as hibernacula for little brown bats in Manitoba. The largest discovered to date is St. George Cave. After several years of effort, the Province of Manitoba has declared this critical cave and a small area around it an ecological reserve. This is the most stringent legal protection available to a natural feature. More than 20,000 little browns spend each winter in that cave and they are very vulnerable to any form of disturbance while deep in their winter sleep.
Dr. Katherine Pettipas, Curator of Native Ethnology and the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection
The subject matter for the Ethnology content of the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery has largely come from consultation with representatives from First Nations and Metis communities. Ojibwa, Cree, Dakota and Metis community workers and elders have contributed over 40 oral histories to assist us with our research. As a result, the history of treaties, the reserve systems, life under the Indian Act, community life and contemporary issues such as self government will be highlighted in the new Gallery.
One of our ongoing community based projects involves gathering information from several sources for a Metis history project. Researchers Audreen Hourie, Father Guy Lavallae and Darrell Racine collected, over a period of a year, cultural and historical information, artifacts and photographs from various Metis communities in the Parklands area. Audreen gathered materials for the reconstruction of a Metis kitchen from the 1920-30 period. The diorama will serve as a unique way for visitors to explore the history, culture and lifestyles of the Metis during a time when they were very much a “forgotten” people. This project has allowed us to make significant progress in the documentation and gathering of Métis material culture, which unfortunately is very under-represented in most Canadian museums.
The success of all our projects is largely due to the interest of various communities in the development of the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery. The support is very much appreciated. In addition to artifacts, we have also been offered important family and community photographs.
Métis objects on display in the new Gallery
  
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