The Man and the Living Museum maintains a collection of over 500 pieces such as skeletons, skulls, taxidermy animals, model animals, preserved objects, shells, archeological artifacts and more.
The presence of the collection is what distinguishes an art exhibit or gallery from a museum – by definition, a museum is committed to maintaining a collection of works and objects.
Our collection is divided between the museum collection, used for display, and the educational collection, used for directed activities for schools and the general public who come to visit the museum.
The collection is partly displayed in permanent exhibitions and partly stored in controlled climatic conditions, to later be presented to the public in rotating exhibits. However, museum collections are not always displayed to the general public. Sometimes their purpose is primarily for research.
Museums in Israel and globally often lend each other pieces from their collections for display in various exhibits.
The items began to be amassed in the 1980s, procured from various sources such as the Safari, the nature collections of universities and the private collections of individuals whose hearts were close to nature. The collection continues to grow and be renewed to this day.
Maintaining nature collections which include taxidermy animals, skeletons and other wildlife articles, requires a special permit from the Nature and Parks Authority verifying that the source of the collection is legal, and collected under the Code of Ethics and Laws of International Art that oversees trade in wildlife items.
The word taxidermy (in Hebrew: פוחלץ) comes from the Greek words “taxis”, meaning “arrangement”, and “derma”, meaning “skin”.
The art of taxidermy began to develop in the eighteenth century.
A taxidermy animal is an animal which has been preserved and restored postmortem for display in a museum, for educational or research purposes.
You must be a professional taxidermist in order to stuff an animal, with extensive knowledge and expertise in anatomy, zoology, skinning, sculpting and more. The taxidermic process involves the removal of the animal’s skin and the creation of a frame from a light material such as plaster or wood, onto which the skin is mounted and a statue of the animal is created in as natural a position as possible.
The frame is wrapped in the animal’s skin after it has undergone a process of preservation, then details such as eyes, teeth and other additions are incorporated, some of which are real and some of which are made from artificial materials.
The encounter with the taxidermy animals is fascinating and raises many scientific and philosophical questions.
The Man and the Living Museum – man, nature, environment.
The museum is a recognized institution, subject to the Museums Act.
The museum is supported by the Ramat Gan Municipality, the Ministry of Culture and Sports – the Director of Culture and the Ministry of Education.
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