Slide 1

LIGHTING ART WITH LEDs

at the
The Smithsonian American Art Museum
SCOTT ROSENFELD L.C., IESNA


The Smithsonian American Art Museum and The National Portrait Gallery were recently renovated
and enhanced. The building was commissioned by President Andrew Jackson as theUS Patent Office and dubbed a Templeof Invention upon
it's completion to signify it's resemblanceto the Parthenon and its role in spurring industrial innovation. Smithsonian's renovation included new
lighting systemsfor 150,000 square-feet of exhibit space, plus a new 23,000 square-foot covered courtyard designed by Norman Foster. TheOld
Patent Officepredatesboth artificial lighting systems and photography.



Slide 2



This is a patent with an image of the Old Patent Office in the background, it was issued to a
Thomas A. Edison for improvements to the telephone. It is interesting to note that when this
patent was issued in 1882 while the museum was in the midst of an eight year period of
renovation. Smithsonians recent renovation of the building is only one in a long history where
lighting designers, architects and engineers have been challenged with how to best bring light
into this grand old building.



Slide 3

Control l able Qual i ties of Li ght
1. Angle
2. Intensity
3. Distribution
4. Color
5. Movement


Breaking down light in this way come out of tradition established in theatrical lighting.
Museum, like the theater, primarily use focused lighting so for I like using these five properties
as an organizing structure to discuss lighting design.



Slide 4



Grand Salon of the Renwick Gallery is 10.5 meters tall. This roomis currently lit with
conventional PAR38 and PAR46 incandescent lighting. As of February 2011, I have not found
SSL retrofit products that can replace the existing 250 watt incandescent spot and flood lamps.



Slide 5

Typical Museum Lighting Requirements
1) Most Sensitive: 50 Lux
2) Moderately Sensitive: 200 Lux
3) Non Sensitive: No limit


Intensity in museums is driven by conservation for the artifact. Use only the smallest
quantity of light necessary to experience what is relevant about the object. Make every
photon count.
All light is damaging, requirements are based on smallest quantities of light needed to see.
Light is defined as wavelengths between 400 and 700nm. Other optical energies (IR and
UV) need to be minimized or eliminated, but minimizing the quantity and duration of
illuminance (light) is essential for the preservation of organic colors.






Slide 6



Smithsonian American Art Museums 19
th
Century Gallery. Illuminated with Incandescent
lamps.



Slide 7



Smithsonian American Art Museums, Luce Center. Illuminated with incandescent fixtures.
Future site of a Gateway demonstration project.




Slide 8



Smithsonian American Art Museums, Luce Center. Illuminated with incandescent fixtures.
Future site of a Gateway demonstration project. 2.5 meters



Slide 9

Controllable Qualities of Light
1. Angle
2. Intensity
3. Di stri buti on
4. Color
5. Movement


Finding SSL retrofit lamps with the correct beam distribution for museumapplications is an
extreme challenge. For American Arts Gateway project we found only a single manufacture
making wide floods lamps (52 degree) and very narrow beamlamps (~4 degree). Neither the 52-
degree of the 4-degree lamps match the intensity of the incandescent (halogen) counterparts. I
amaware of no manufacture making lamps with asymmetric distribution for wall washing.



Slide 10



Smithsonian American Art Museums, Luce Center. This is an odd case where I am wall
washing with a round lamp distribution, note the three scallops above each case. These cases are
illuminated with three 50 watt MR-16 incandescent (halogen) lamps with prismatic lenses. The
proposed Gateway demonstration project will replace these lamps with four 7-watt/ 52 degree
MR16 LED retrofit lamps.



Slide 11

MR-16 OBJ ECT LIGHT MR-16 WALL WASHER
THREE CHOICES OF LENSES
TO SHAPE THE LIGHT BEAM
MR-16


Custom MR16 lighting fixtures for the Luce Center. The MR16 is a very glary source of light
and great care was taken to reduce this glare by using a deep matte black snoot on the object
light and a brushed aluminum kicker with a matte black edge on the wall washer. Manufactured
by Zumbtobel Staff.



Slide 12

PAR-30 WALL WASHER
LENS
LIGHT REDUCTION SCREEN
OPTIONAL KICKER REFLECTOR
BLACK CUT-OFF


Unique properties of the wall washer developed for this project include a removable kicker
reflector and a black interior for the wall washer.



Slide 13

3 TYPES OF LENS
70 Degree
55 Degree
55 X 75 Degree
PAR-30 OBJECT LIGHT
CUT-OFF AND CROSS BAFFLE
ON/ OFF
SWITCH


Three different asymmetric lenses were developed for the project. Asymmetrical light
distribution is essential for good wall washing that provides for an even light that subtly gets
dimmer toward the ceiling without scalloping.



Slide 14

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Rose Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Future site of a Gateway
Demonstration Project. Most of this room is illuminated with incandescent, the end wall is lit
with LEDs.



Slide 15

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


This wall is illuminated with LED retrofit lamps. The wall to the right is illuminated with
standard PAR30 and PAR36 incandescent lamps. The lighting technique used to light most
painting galleries at American Art is separate system for wall washing and spotlighting.



Slide 16

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


LED Wall Wash Only with spread lenses. This slide shows the spotlighting turned off, what
remains are three PAR30/ 20watt/ 25 degree LED Wall Wash fixtures with spread lenses. The
asymmetric spread lenses are essential for rendering the walls evenly so the light is brightest at
eye level and subtly falls off toward the ceiling. Only 30-50 lux is required for this layer of light.



Slide 17

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Wall wash with spread lens removed. The asymetric lenses are essential for counteracting the
natural scallop of a light beamwith a round distribution. The lenses produce a tremendous loss
in luminaire efficacy my dream is that an SSL manufacture could produce an asymetric array
for wall grazing so I can stop throwing away so much light inside a glass lens.



Slide 18

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Spotlights on and Wall washers off. Spotlights from right to left are 20 watt/12 degree/
PAR30L,. 20 degree/ 20 watt/ PAR30L, and 5 degree/4 watt/ MR-16.



Slide 19

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Spotlights turned back on along with wall wash. The artwork is illuminated at 150-200 lux.




Slide 20



MR-16 retrofit lamp with diffusion lenses removed.



Slide 21



Lenses that fit into MR-16



Slide 22



Linear spread #1 on MR-16



Slide 23



Linear spread #2 from MR-16



Slide 24

Controllable Qualities of Light
1. Angle
2. Intensity
3. Distribution
4. Color
5. Movement


In addition to asymetric low-glare flood lighting, museums also require precise spotlighting with
a variety of beamspreads. The lamps we are considering for our Gateway demonstration project
include a 6-degree, a 12-degree and and 25-degree.



Slide 25



A common exhibit lighting technique is to match the size of the light to the size of the artwork.
Framing projectors would seemto be the obvious tool, but the incandescent versions are
inefficient and the only SSL product Im aware of (winter 2011) is prohibitively expensive for
general use.



Slide 26

PAR Lamps
Filament is located at the focus point.
Lowering the voltage decreases size of filament.
The ratio between the size of filament and the size of the reflector
determines the size of the resultant beamof light.


Most spotlights rely on the physical properties of a parabola to produce a precise beam of light.



Slide 27

PAR-36 OBJECT LIGHT
12V/OFF/5.5V
SWITCH
PAR36 LAMP WITH
FILAMENT SHIELD
LAMP SNAPS INTO BACK OF
CROSS BAFFLE. ASSEMBLEY
ALLOWS EXTERIOR LAMP
ROTATION AFTER CARTIDGE IS
INSTALLED IN CANISTER
DUAL TAP 12V/5.5V
TRANSFORMER


The museumworked with fixture manufacture Zumbtobel Staff to develop a new line of track
lighting fixtures. This series consists of a family of three lights; a PAR36 object light (shown
above), a PAR30 object light, and a PAR30 wall washer.



Slide 28

AR111- 4 DEGREE
12 VOLT
5.5 VOLT PAR-36 PIN SPOT.
MR-16 --15 DEGREE
(ESX ) 12 VOLT


Common incandescent display lamps.



Slide 29

5.5 VOLT PAR-36 PIN SPOT.
SSL MR-16




Slide 30

Flight of Europa, 1925 by Paul Manship
Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


This sculpture is illuminated by four PAR36 fixtures containing 5.5 volt incandescent lamps.
Photograph by Scott Rosenfeld



Slide 31

Flight of Europa, 1925 by Paul Manship
Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


The photograph shows a single 5.5 volt incandescent lamp pushed to the left of the sculpture.



Slide 32

Flight of Europa, 1925 by Paul Manship
Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Final incandescent lighting.



Slide 33



Long view of gallery with incandescent lighitng. If the museumhad used less precise light beams
the small splashes of light and shadow behind each object would have been prominent and
upstaged the artwork.




Slide 34



Renovated Gallery with incandescent low glare fixtures



Slide 35



Image of gallery circa 1999 before renovation. Note single row track with glary fixtures
produces shadows on artwork.



Slide 36

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Another example of the same phenomena. The lens and lamps were flush with the front of the
lighting track fixtures from the 1960s



Slide 37

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


The same hallway with the addition of incandescent wall washer lighting fixtures that shield the
light fromthe viewer.



Slide 38

National Portrait Gallery. Lighting by Alexander Cooper, photography by Scott Rosenfeld


While most 20
th
century artwork needs to be flatly illuminated, 19
th
century artwork allows for
more chiraschiro. For example in the image of Abraham Lincoln above the painting is
illuminated at 15 footcandles with two incandescentPAR36 lighting fixtures and the background
is illuminated at 5 footcandles with incandescent PAR30 floodlights. Lighting Design by
Alexander Cooper, photography by Scott Rosenfeld



Slide 39

National Portrait Gallery. Lighting by Alexander Cooper, Photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Lincoln with PAR36 fixture turned off. Lighting Design by Alexander Cooper, photography by
Scott Rosenfeld



Slide 40

National Portrait Gallery. Lighting by Alexander Cooper, photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Both PAR36 fixtures turned off. Lighting Design by Alexander Cooper, photography by Scott
Rosenfeld



Slide 41

National Portrait Gallery. Lighting by Alexander Cooper, photography by Scott Rosenfeld


PAR36 fixtures aimed to the side.



Slide 42

National Portrait Gallery. Lighting by Alexander Cooper, photography by Scott Rosenfeld




Slide 43

National Portrait Gallery. Lighting by Alexander Cooper, photography by Scott Rosenfeld




Slide 44

National Portrait Gallery. Lighting by Alexander Cooper, photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Larger paintings dont necessarily require more lighting fixtures. This portrait of Abraham
Lincoln is illuminated with a two PAR30 spotlights and two PAR30 floodlights to illuminate the
wall. Our goal is to match the size of the lighting beamto the artwork and avoid excess spotlight
spill around the painting. Lighting Design by Alexander Cooper, photography by Scott Rosenfeld



Slide 45

National Portrait Gallery. Lighting by Alexander Cooper, photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Abraham Lincoln with flood lighting only. Lighting Design by Alexander Cooper, photography
by Scott Rosenfeld



Slide 46

National Portrait Gallery. Lighting by Alexander Cooper, photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Larger paintings dont necessarily require more lighting fixtures. This portrait of Abraham
Lincoln is illuminated with a two PAR30 spotlights and two PAR30 floodlights to illuminate the
wall. Our goal is to match the size of the lighting beamto the artwork and avoid excess spotlight
spill around the painting.



Slide 47

Controllable Qualities of Light
1. Angle
2. Intensity
3. Distribution
4. Col or
5. Movement




Slide 48

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Here are slides for after your talk about intensity to support the need to have the proper
intensity in order for artwork to be experienced. Paul Reed and Thomas Dowling



Slide 49



Painting by Paul Reed. Without good R9 color rendering properties, we wont simply cant see
red for all its worth.



Slide 50



X-rite color checkers are extremely useful target for museums to compare different color lamps.
CRI, CQS, CCT along with its DUV are all useful color metrics, but there is no replacement for
actually seeing the lamp at work.



Slide 51



Each of these LED MR-16 lamps are a slightly different color.



Slide 52

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Gallery at 3000K



Slide 53

Smithsonian American Art Museum. Lighting and photography by Scott Rosenfeld


Gallery at 2800K



Slide 54

Controllable Qualities of Light
1. Angle
2. Intensity
3. Distribution
4. Color
5. Movement




Slide 55



Sylvanias flicker checker, developed to check for magnetic florescent ballast, is an extremely
simple and useful too to check for flicker.



Slide 56



MR-16s often flicker, especially when installed in an electronic transformer (even at full
voltage). Here, I retrofit the MR-16 into an AR-111 lamp and installed it in a magnetic
transformer.



Slide 57

Questions
1) Will the new lamps all be the same color?
2) How will the heat from my sealed fixtures effect the SSL retrofit lamps?
3) Will the color of the lamps remain constant over time?
4) Will the lamps maintain their illuminance?
5) Will lamps last their predicted lifetime?