Annual RCHS Members’ Dinner & Celebration 2018

Bell Museum
2088 Larpenteur Ave W, St Paul, MN 55113

Thursday, October 4, 2018
6:00-9:30 pm
Schedule TBA

Come enjoy dinner and a program with fellow history enthusiasts and celebrate the past year of exciting programs and accomplishments of the Ramsey County Historical Society and Gibbs Farm, in the beautiful new Bell Museum. Guests will be able to visit the museum after dinner and the presentation by featured speaker, Don Luce, Curator of Exhibits at the Bell.

Program Highlights

• Don Luce, Curator of Exhibits, Bell Museum, will be presenting Windows into Nature: The Bell Museum’s Dioramas
• Ramsey County Historical Society & Gibbs Farm Update & Future Plans
• Visit the Bell Museum’s new Exhibition Halls
• Enjoy a presentation in the Planetarium
• Bid on items in our Silent Auction

Tickets for the Celebration & Dinner are $100 per person.
Cash Bar will be available.

RSVP by Friday, September 21, 2018
to Ramsey County Historical Society
We are not accepting online reservations at this time. Please call the office at 651-222-0701 or email robyn@rchs.com

Don Luce, Curator of Exhibits, Bell Museum, Windows into Nature: The Bell Museum’s Dioramas
In the early 1900s, dioramas revolutionized American museums. By depicting wildlife as part of an ecological setting, and highlighting places in need of preservation, they played a critical role in building the conservation movement. The Bell Museum’s dioramas were created during the peak of the diorama era and are considered among the finest in the world. When the Bell Museum started to plan for a new facility, moving and re-interpreting the dioramas was a central concern.

In this talk, Don will trace the history of dioramas, introduce the artists and naturalists who created the dioramas here in Minnesota, and discuss the process of moving and re-imagining them for the new Bell Museum

About Don Luce, Curator of Exhibits, Bell Museum, University of Minnesota

Don Luce has worked in the museum world for four decades. He earned a degree in Zoology and a master degree in Medical and Biological Illustration from the University of Michigan. At the Bell Museum, he has combined his interests in science, art and nature to produce original temporary and permanent exhibitions. Exhibition topics included art and nature, ecology, evolution, animal behavior, endangered species, and current University research. Many of these exhibitions toured nationally as part of Bell Museum’s Touring Exhibition Service.

As curator of exhibits, he also curates the museum’s collection of art, which includes many works by Francis Lee Jaques who painted the museum’s dioramas, a complete set of John James Audubon’s original Birds of America folio, and many other historical and contemporary works of wildlife art.

For nearly two decades, Don has worked on plans for a new Bell Museum. The project included the move and restoration of the museums historic dioramas, and the design of new permanent exhibition galleries.

Don also remains active as an illustrator and artist. He illustrated books such as Minnesota’s Natural Heritage by John Tester, and has been an artist-in-residence with the National Park Service. A retrospective exhibition of his art and illustrations, A View from a Canoe, showed at the Bell Museum in fall 2016.

Photo of Bell Museum diorama, painted by Frances Lee Jaques. Courtesy of Bell Museum

Special thanks to Mairs & Power for their sponsorship of the Annual Celebration & Dinner

Silent Auction Items

• 2 tickets to the Minnesota Wild vrs. Tampa Bay Lightnings, donated by Jerry Woelfel & Becky Garthofner
• Household membership in the Hennepin History Museum
• Hand-crafted wine stoppers from the AAW Gallery of Wood Art
• Household membership and books from the White Bear Lake Area Historical Society
• Gift card from D’Amico & Sons Restaurant
• Tickets for the play “Not In Our Neighborhood” from Landmark Center
• Cooking class gift certificates from The Good Acre
• Tickets to tours at the Glensheen Mansion
• Gift certificates to the Commodore Restaurant
• Selections of RCHS publications
• Watch for more Silent Auction items to come!

White Bear Lake Area Historical Society