The Nelson-Atkins Museum of ArtLighting designer Clint Paugh shows museum staff how the museum's different artworks look under LED lighting.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo., has been conducting a test the past several months to determine how best to change its stock of existing PAR lamps used throughout the museum and its gallery spaces, to LEDs. Clint Paugh, the museum’s in-house lighting designer is overseeing the project that will run through Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 27 - 30). “Seventy percent of our galleries use PAR38 lamps,” Paugh says. “But those lamps will soon be obsolete and our stock of available lamps will run out. We needed to find a viable alternative and so we initiated this test process.”
To gather both spot and flood test lamps for evaluation, Paugh assembled a list of a dozen criteria that included light output and color rendering, as well as cost and payback period, and sent it to a number of lamp distributors. Sixteen companies responded. This group was narrowed down to four manufacturers that met the museum’s criteria. Galleries throughout the museum were then outfitted with the different samples for side-by-side comparisons. “We invited all staff, everyone from the curators and conservators to the sales staff in the bookstore, to look at the installations and provide comments,” Paugh says.
Based on the museum staff feedback, the four LED options were then narrowed down to two so that the museum could open the process up for public comments. A map in the museum lobby directs visitors to the different galleries where the two LED lamp choices are being compared on actual artworks in the museum’s collection. Guests can vote for their preference for either “LED A” or “LED B” by making a donation in a ballot box near the test examples. This is a new type of fundraising process for the museum, which gives visitors a direct sense of how their donation is being used. The museum will make a final determination about which lamp it will go with once the public comment period ends.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of ArtDifferent fabric and paint swatches as well as wood laminates and veneers were studied under the different test lamps to evaluate how the materials and color responded to the LED sources.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of ArtMuseum guests can vote for their LED lamp preference by making a donation.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of ArtA side-by-side LED lamp test in one of the museum's galleries.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of ArtA display of the test sources in the museum's lobby.
Elizabeth Donoff is Editor-at-Large of Architectural Lighting (AL). She served as Editor-in-Chief from 2006 to 2017. She joined the editorial team in 2003 and is a leading voice in the lighting community speaking at industry events such as Lightfair and the International Association of Lighting Designers Annual Enlighten Conference, and has twice served as a judge for the Illuminating Engineering Society New York City Section’s (IESNYC) Lumen Award program. In 2009, she received the Brilliance Award from the IESNYC for dedicated service and contribution to the New York City lighting community.
Over the past 11 years, under her editorial direction, Architectural Lighting has received a number of prestigious B2B journalism awards. In 2017, Architectural Lighting was a Top Ten Finalist for Magazine of the Year from the American Society of Business Publication Editors' AZBEE Awards. In 2016, Donoff received the Jesse H. Neal Award for her Editor’s Comments in the category of Best Commentary/Blog, and in 2015, AL received a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Media Brand (Overall Editorial Excellence).
Prior to her entry into design journalism, Donoff worked in New York City architectural offices including FXFowle where she was part of the project teams for the Reuters Building at Three Times Square and the New York Times Headquarters. She is a graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, Me., and she earned her Master of Architecture degree from the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis.
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