The director of the Torrington Ground Squirrel Museum, northeast of Calgary, wants to breathe new life into the institution dedicated in particular to taxidermy.
Despite her duties as director, Laural Kurta sometimes wonders what attracts visitors to her establishment so much. There is something in this small space that seduces and inhabits the imagination of thousands of people. It’s very special and, personally, I don’t understand
she admits.
Despite everything, Laural Kurta thinks big and wants to launch the museum into a new era, in which the establishment would tell not only the life of Torrington, but also that of Albertans and Canadians, including through cultural phenomena like Star Trek or Harry Potter.
Daughter of the founders of Gopher Hole Museumshe has now taken over the helm and wishes to develop the institution founded in the 1990s.
When the subjects are necessary
To carry out its modernization project, Laural Kurta faces two major challenges: taxidermy and space.
For several years, visitors have constantly requested new dioramas telling new facets of the lives of Albertans. The idea of telling everyday life through stuffed gophers is attractive, but it is expensive.
I made this one myself
she explains, pointing towards the new diorama showing the work of the province’s forest firefighters. My husband and I went to Toronto to take a taxidermy class
she says.
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The museum’s director, Laural Kurta, recently prepared a new diorama focusing on forest firefighters.
Photo : - / Helen Pike
Ideas often come from emails beginning with: I have a strange question.
To which Laural Kurta is quick to respond: We run a gopher museum… [donc] there is no strange question!
This is how the agent was born Bertie Beaverthe star of the wildland firefighters diorama, at the suggestion of an Alberta employee Wildfire. He wears the same personal protective equipment as other Alberta firefighters.
A major challenge
The other challenge facing the museum is the lack of space. It’s not enough to want to install new dioramas, you still need to have the necessary space to display them.
The two current buildings, which house the museum and the souvenir store, are aging. Laural Kurta says she almost succeeded in building a new one on the current land, but she realized at the last minute that the zoning didn’t allow it.
For the moment, she is content to prepare new stuffed gophers in the hope of finding a new burrow for them soon.
With information fromHelen Pike
