Events Calendar

STUFFED
Museum of Natural History; Macbride Hall Auditorium
Saturday, Aug. 10
Free // No registration required
3 p.m. Collections table exploration // Opening remarks from Cindy Opitz, Director of Research Collections at the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History, and Paloma Strong, Prey Taxidermy Specialist
3:30 p.m. STUFFED film screening

Join us for an afternoon at the UI Museum of Natural History as we host a special screening of the film STUFFED. At 3 p.m., explore our table of collections and hear opening remarks from Cindy Opitz of the UI Museum of Natural History and Paloma Strong of Prey Taxidermy. The film screening will follow at 3:30 p.m. This event coincides with the World Taxidermy Competition, which will be held this year in Iowa, with artists from around the world in attendance.

Prey Taxidermy, the only all-woman museum taxidermy studio in the world, was established in 2011 to inspire a new generation of museum taxidermists. With over 1,500 students from around the globe, Prey is dedicated to creating diversity and representation in the field of taxidermy. Their notable museum and education clients include the Natural History Museum of Santa Barbara, The Smithsonian, Moore Lab of Zoology, The Huntington Library, and The Getty.

A taxidermist at Prey Taxidermy, Paloma Strong has apprenticed under Allis Markham for nine years. Starting as an intern at 16, Paloma has become a key collaborator at Prey. She placed 3rd in her division at the 2019 World Taxidermy Championships for her opossum mount. A biology graduate from Occidental College, Paloma specialized in ornithology and worked as a preparator and researcher in the Moore Lab of Zoology, assisting in teaching the taxidermy course at Occidental in 2019.

Cindy Opitz, Director of Research Collections at the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History oversees the curation, conservation, digitization, and management of 180,000+ zoological specimens. Ms. Opitz also trains and mentors collection interns and volunteers, teaches museum object preservation in the UI Museum Studies Certificate Program, and serves as a volunteer in the Iowa Museums, Archives, and Libraries Emergency Response Team and as a National Heritage Responder. She studied under Prey Taxidermy in 2023 and teaches specimen prep and taxidermy to University of Iowa students.