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Project Components

Museum Lighting Research
 

Project Components

Component One:
Three-Band Filtered Light Source—Thin-Film Multi-Coatings
This component involves investigating the feasibility of a single multi-coated filter designed to reduce the overall radiant energy transfer to works of art on display, and is directed by Carl Dirk, University of Texas at El Paso.

Component Two:
Microfadeometry
This component seeks to refine, expand, and standardize the use of microfadeometry in investigating light damage to cultural materials and to explore the chemistry of photo-induced damage, including the many factors that impact on reciprocity.

Component Three:
Protective Effects of Anoxic Enclosures
This component examines the benefits of oxygen-free atmospheres on a large group of diverse colored materials held under constant temperature and relative humidity. It is also exploring practical low-cost anoxic housing designs.

Component Four:
Visitor Assessment Studies
This component involves constructing an experimental lighting facility (ELF) to test display aesthetics and visual performance for the filtered light sources described in Components One and Two.

Component Five:
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico - Demonstration Project
Drawing heavily from project Components One and Four, this component involves creating filters for existing track lighting at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. This work, begun in 2008, will be coupled with direct object light sensitivity assessment (using the microfader, designed by Paul Whitmore at Carnegie Mellon University) on selected artifacts in the collection, as well as on most of O'Keeffe's surviving sticks of pastels.

Component Six:
Photochemistry of Museum Colorants under Blackbody and Solid State lighting
Solid State Lighting (SSL) offers museums options for display lighting that was almost unimaginable a decade ago. Many of these products have excellent color rendering and high lumen to watt efficiency—and thus low operating costs. In addition they may provide the possibility for safer lighting than previously has been available. This component compares white LED lighting to other forms in a series of accelerated aging experiments and theoretical modeling.

Component Seven:
Quantifying Change in Ethnographic Materials with Biocolorants and Structural Colors
This component examines the challenges presented by the combined effects of structural color and biopigments in feathers in estimating their light sensitivities for preventive conservation. It is co-directed by Ellen Pearlstein, University of California at Los Angeles.

Last updated: July 2010