2017

LVM Jaunmokas Palace hosts the new Forest Museum exhibition

The new year has started with new challenges and achievements. On 12 January, a new Forest Museum exhibition "Forest and Its Importance in Human Life" was opened in LVM Jaunmokas Palace. Employing modern technologies, this exhibition offers a wonderful opportunity not only to observe and explore animals dwelling in forest, but also learn about the processes taking place in forest and their regularities, thus becoming aware of the value and role of forest in our life.

"The new exhibition project was launched already in 2015 with the design development and search for funding. In 2016, with the support of the Forest Development Fund and the State Culture Capital Foundation project tenders, work was started on the implementation of the first stage of the exposition," says Daiga Šmitenberga, the Head of the Museum.

In the 120-square-metre-large area animals and birds are placed on specially designed 76 pallets with built-in light and sound installations, which represent the environment and conditions the animals live in. Additional information about these representatives of fauna is provided on five touch-screen panels.

Gunta Laursone, Director of the Palace, is also happy about the work accomplished: "The wealth of Jaunmokas Palace lies not only in its history, but also in environmental education programmes offered to school students. When restoring the Museum's exhibition, we tried to create a new cultural tourism offer with interactive solutions, offering information on forest sector issues and promoting environmentally friendly thinking. Following this call, the Palace hotel and the whole complex have started the way to get the Green Key certificate, which is an international, fast growing voluntary eco-certification system of tourist establishments and is given to hotels, camp-sites, hostels."

The atmosphere of forest in the Museum is created both by the newly created light and sound installations, as well as by trunks of tree species growing in Latvia. These trunks give a wonderful opportunity to observe the differences in the shades and density of wood. The magnetic panels give answers to different questions, but a brand new experience may be gained, by feeling wild animal fur and looking at the close-up of animal footprints. Visitors will have an opportunity to see in nature that the animal winter coats are thicker, in greyish shades to better blend in with the environment, with the exception of the white hare, ermine and the weasel whose fur is in white shades.

The youngest museum visitors are invited to play in a stylised bird's nest, which each visitor is invited to supplement with a fabric strip taken along, responding to the call to think about the option of re-using things and responsible attitude towards the environment.

"Soon reptiles living in Latvia will also be displayed in the glass showcase and our museum will be the only place in Latvia, where they all can be seen in one place," the Head of the Museum says proudly.

In the second stage of the restoration of the Forest Museum, it is planned to supplement the exposition with educational interactive games. They will help the visitors to get to know the species of trees, plants and fungi diversity in forests, as well as to understand the importance of hunting in forest resource conservation.

The Forest Museum's new exhibition is open daily from 9 to 17.