[NHCOLL-L:4073] Re: latest info about exhibit design/refurbishment

[Victoria Book]

Hi Leslie,

If you are looking for recent publications, the ones Cathy supplied  
are your best bet.  I can add two recent books about lighting:
Cuttle, C. 2003. Lighting by Design.  Architectural Press.
Cuttle, C. 2007.  Light for Art's Sake.  Butterworth Heinemann. (not  
just for art!)

If you just need some quick and dirty advise:
Lighting depends a lot on the object that you are viewing, and the  
specific needs of a location (near windows, on a sensor, spot or  
flood, etc.).  There have been at least two museums exhibit lighting  
workshops in the past decade that discuss the newer lamp types  
available (LEDs, CFLs, and fiber optic systems) but the traditional  
incancesdents and fluorescents still have there uses.  The June 1997  
workshop compilation is available in a binder Museum Exhibit Lighting  
from AIC (http://aic.stanford.edu/library/publist.pdf).  There are  
many options for lighting, but it all depends on the application.   
Stefan Michalski at CCI produced a great chart comparing lamps and  
their characteristics, but I can't locate the exact reference.  All I  
have is: "General Characteristics of Light Sources for Museums,  
Version 6.0, Stefan Michalski, Canadian Conservation Institute, March  
2007."

It is fairly easy to eliminate UV from lighting now; some lamps don't  
produce UV, and for those that do you can use filters (glass, UV- 
plexi, or films) or fiber optics to prevent UV from getting into the  
display space.  Heat is a little more difficult to diffuse, but you  
can also solve that by moving the lamps out of the case and projecting  
the light where it needs to get.

In terms of paints, please refer to the references from Cathy for  
details, especially if you are using the paint as a wood product  
sealant.  If you are just looking for a paint to color the walls, aim  
for a low VOC (volatile organic compounds) product.  Allow plenty of  
time (preferably 4 weeks, but at least 2) for off-gassing and curing  
before you use the space.  This helps two-fold: to prevent oxidation  
and other chemical reactions with your objects, and nothing is worse  
than trying to change and exhibit and you realize that something-- 
whether an object (which should have been isolated with Melinex or  
similar) or a label--is stuck to the paint.

Good luck!
Victoria


Victoria Book
Conservator
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
University of Oklahoma
2401 Chautauqua Avenue
Norman, Oklahoma   73072-7029
phone 405.325.5163
fax 405.325.7699
www.snomnh.ou.edu



On Oct 31, 2008, at 10:41 AM, Leslie Skibinski wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> We are designing some new exhibits and I need to give my exhibit  
> designer the latest information on the best types of lighting, paint  
> (gasp!) etc.  We can't afford the really expensive stuff, but I  
> would like to get references for everything.  I have been perusing  
> my shelf of references, and some of them are somewhat out of date.   
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Leslie L. Skibinski
> Collection Manager of Mollusks
> Delaware Museum of Natural History
> 4840 Kennett Pike
> P.O. Box 3937
> Wilmington, DE  19807
>
> Phone:  (302) 658-9111 ext. 311
> Fax:  (302) 658-2610
> e-mail:  lskibinski at delmnh.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/nhcoll-l/attachments/20081103/45975550/attachment.html