Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, Miss.
Materials
The Walter Anderson Museum of Art, or WAMA, is dedicated to the celebration of the works of three brothers: Walter Inglis Anderson, whose depictions of the plants, animals and people of the Gulf Coast have placed him among the forefront of American painters of the 20th century; Peter Anderson, master potter and founder of Shearwater Pottery; and James McConnell Anderson, noted painter and ceramist.
Unfortunately, the existing lighting installed in the ’90s, which consisted of incandescent spots and floods and linear fluorescent tubes, didn’t showcase the artwork in the way it deserved. As lamps reached their end of life and were replaced, the museum was left with an inconsistent look because of different color temperatures and quality of lighting. “The nuances of the artwork were being lost,” says Rosemary Roosa, the museum’s executive director. “Therefore, we wanted to install high-quality lighting and a controls system to showcase and preserve the artwork, which includes fragile watercolors, as well as save money and energy.”
The new light needed to showcase the beauty of valuable masterpieces while refraining from damaging them.
Mississippi Power, the museum’s energy provider, recommended SYLVANIA Lighting Solutions (SLS), an OSRAM Americas company, to evaluate and execute the upgrade. For WAMA, SLS provided a suite of services with a single point of contact, including an audit and survey of the existing lighting system; project management; and design, installation and commissioning of the new energy-efficient lighting and controls solution. Full interior photometric designs with 3-D light rendering for WAMA were developed out of the SLS Design Center, Middletown, N.Y. The one-source approach helped save time, money and energy.
SLS’s design experts determined LED and reduced-wattage fluorescent lighting provided the right combination of energy savings, long-life ratings and light quality for the museum’s specific needs. “Our museum has high ceilings and a cathedral feel that represents Walter Anderson’s spiritual connection with nature,” Roosa explains. “This did present is- sues though when we needed to replace lights. We appreciate the long life of the new lighting will address this problem. In addition, the new LED lamps do not give off the heat our previous lighting did and are free of UV and IR radiation, which also helps preserve the artwork in several of our galleries.”
SLS also installed a wireless lighting controls system that allows the museum to save even more energy by automatically shutting off lights when no one is in a room and set specific lighting scenes for events throughout the day.
As a result, WAMA projects an annual saving of 48,333 kWh, translating into $6,798 in energy savings and avoidance of 65,996 pounds of CO2 emissions from electricity plants. In addition, because of the long life of the lighting systems, the museum also expects to save approximately $1,349 in maintenance costs per year.
The project consists of the following lamps:
- 207 SYLVANIA ULTRA PRO PAR30 and PAR20 LED Lamps
- 24 SYLVANIA ULTRA MR16 LED Lamps
- Six SYLVANIA ULTRA G25 LED Lamps
- 304 SYLVANIA OCTRON 800 XP XL
- ECOLOGIC 3 T8 Fluorescent Lamps and QUICKTRONIC PROStart Programmed Rapid Start Dimming and Non-Dimming Ballasts
- 198 Juno PAR30 LED Track Heads
LIGHTING MANUFACTURER AND PROJECT MANAGER: SYLVANIA Lighting Solutions (SLS), an OSRAM Americas company
The Retrofit
A visit to WAMA, which opened in 1991, is an enchanting and unique experience. The watercolors, drawings, oils, block prints, ceramics and carvings by the Anderson brothers are represented in the museum’s permanent collection.
“Walter Inglis Anderson was an early environmentalist, and we always want to promote harmony between his art and the surrounding coastal environment,” says Roosa.
PHOTO: SYLVANIA LIGHTING SOLUTIONS, AN OSRAM AMERICAS COMPANY