Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 26/99) - It's another Amazing Sunday at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. This one will bring to life a dying art -- the diorama.

Dioramas have a fascinating history. They were once used by scientific museums to reconnect people with nature by representing natural habitats that were distant from city-dwellers. Today, even toy packaging uses methods developed by diorama artists.

Terry Pamplin, the Heritage Centre's exhibit assistant, offers a couple of examples of a diorama.

If you buy a Star Trek figure and it has a background setting, Pamplin explains, that's a diorama for the toy consumer. Or think of a display window of a major department store. The mannequins are set against a realistic backdrop, a kitchen or a living room.

If you visit the Heritage Centre you will find every sort and size of diorama imaginable.

There's a miniature ship, a replica of Franklin's, on the sea ice, with tiny people set against a vast arctic sky. There's a bear cub with its mum, in its natural setting. A life-size Dene woman working in front of a teepee is also on display. These are all dioramas.

Within the Amazing Family Sundays framework, Pamplin will not only explain to you the nature of the diorama, but you can also make your own, a scene in a shoebox.

In so far as art represents reality, the diorama is art, and in so far as the skill and talent necessary are, some say, more demanding than painting on a canvas, dioramas are certainly art.

The great dioramas of the great museum were all created by renown artists.

In Canada we have Clarence Tillenius, responsible for many dioramas across the nation.

In the April/May 1997 edition of the Beaver he wrote, "Dioramas in natural history museums have almost invariably been ignored by critics and art historians, when it is clear to any intelligent observer that only an art most subtle and demanding could create great museum masterpieces..."

Pamplin won't be as demanding. By explaining to children the nature and techniques involved in dioramas and then by allowing them to make their own, he hopes to teach a very different lesson.

"The diorama is something captured from reality," says Pamplin. "And from making one, hopefully people will twig to the fact that, yeah, just about everything in life is a small scene."

The word diorama, though coined by the French, comes from "dia" meaning "through" and "horama" meaning "to see." When viewing a diorama, perspective is everything. The sightline is limited by the artist to achieve the optimal view that will create the optical illusion that the scene is reality.

"It's a passive viewing experience," adds Pamplin. "The artist controls the view. It's like looking into a world."

Some dioramas get very complicated, with sound effects and moving parts. But for the kids attending Amazing Sundays it will be like an arts and crafts day, says Pamplin.

Children are encouraged to bring in items -- natural stuff -- like twigs and rocks and shells, even little people. Shoeboxes will be supplied. And if you have a diorama already, bring it to the museum to share with others.

Amazing Sundays takes place this Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m.