A generous donation of  a small Caiman turned out to be  no Caiman at all! Annunziata Morant bestowed the Conservatory with a 4 foot 4 inch standing Alligator. We are just delighted with this gift, the largest reptile in our collection. I pose a challenge to all out there; Who can donate a larger specimen?

For a  collection that started off  as fur and feathers  now the reptiles have their day in the sun.

Iguana iguana, Trachemys scripta, Caiman crocodilus,  Alligator mississippiensis, Paleosuchus palpebrosus.

What a wonderful week. First the arrival of a novel, Stuffed by Sarah Junkin arrives in the mail. A present to me and the CZC from Sarah herself!

Then today a Toronto philanthropist Annunziata Morant donated a standing caiman. This vintage chap has a marble for an eye and is a dandy of a donation.

Thank You

A new  collection for the CZC, a Library. The Conservatory has amassed a collection of books on taxidermy; cultural theory, museum origins, do it yourself, museum catalogs and even fictional tellings of taxidermy and taxidermists. The Library is another collection, I always  seem to create order in my life by listing, collecting and documenting.

“Umberto Eco: The list is the origin of culture. It’s part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063, at least according to Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. We also have completely practical lists — the shopping list, the will, the menu — that are also cultural achievements in their own right.”

Morgan Mavis and Christopher Bennell take a gander

We are excitedly awaiting several new adventures in The Conservatory’s future.

I look forward to sharing the details with you soon

The Conservatory got a wonderful valentines day treat, a Victorian domed jar. Now the exciting part of who to display inside?

I chatted with Eva Hagberg authour of Dark Nostalgia and writer for a new blog on rented curious spaces.
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Morgan Mavis amidst the menagerie that doubles as her apartment. Mavis is the curator of Toronto’s Contemporary Zoological Conservatory. Photograph by: Brett Gundlock / National Post, National Post

Tomorrow pick up a copy of the National Post, The CZC and their new Director will be featured in the arts section.
Read the story.
The Conservatory is polishing the floors and filling Balloons for the inauguration party for Morgan Mavis and is excited to unveil the first work in the Portrait collection.

National Post Article. Click to view fullsize

Get this article as a PDF.

Thanks to Rachel Poliquin foremost contemporary taxidermy academic, creator of the taxidermy blog Ravishing Beasts for being such an avid supporter of the CZC. You can see highlights of our new collection of images in Ravishing Beasts photo of the week.

Morgan Mavis Now Magazine Profile

Sara Titanic profiled the Conservatory in this weeks Now Magazine artist profile.