Two silhouettes standing in front of a diorama displaying a herd of antelope in a pasture landscape.
Reframing Dioramas: The Art of Preserving Wilderness
Sep
15
2024
Dec
22
2024
Sep
14
2025

The Natural History Museum’s historic diorama halls are the largest exhibitions at the museum, showcasing over 75 incredibly detailed habitats ranging from arctic tundra to tropical rainforest. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the dioramas, NHM is restoring and reopening a diorama hall that has been closed for decades. There, visitors experience immersive new installations that call attention to dioramas as a unique combination of art and science and explore biodiversity, ecology, conservation, colonialism, and changing museum display techniques. NHM maintains an active diorama program where staff continue to update and build dioramas, keeping this art form alive. Visitors can examine these illusions of wilderness through a series of displays, engaging programs, and a new book that sheds light on the previously untold history of NHM’s dioramas.

Diorama at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Photo courtesy of NHMLAC.

Admission required

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles

MON-SUN:9:30am-5pm
CLOSED FIRST TUE OF EVERY MONTH

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