Blog @ the Nelson-Atkins

There is no shortage of interesting jobs at an art museum. One job that is very important is one we hope you never notice: lighting.

The amount of light needed to illuminate a work of art is a science that requires balancing the ability to clearly see an object with the need to protect that object for future generations (light can be very damaging to sensitive works of art).

As the Museum’s Lighting Design Specialist, my job is to design and create specifications of lighting fixtures, systems and lamps throughout the museum’s permanent and temporary exhibition spaces.

Recently, I was able to solve a lighting dilemma in the Chinese Temple gallery. Here’s the story:

After years in the dark, the dragon in the center of the Chinese Temple ceiling is visible again!

An old photograph from the Museum’s archives shows that the dragon was once illuminated by a glowing ball hanging down from the dragon’s mouth.

It appears to be a simple frosted globe containing a light bulb, with the bottom two thirds of the globe painted black.

The electrical wiring and cord that held the light came down through a hole in the dragon’s mouth.

The previous installation, like the current one, references a Chinese fable about a dragon chasing a pearl.

In hoping to once again put light on the dragon, we decided to take this reference further by making the new light fixture look more like a pearl, while still using it to illuminate the dragon and the intricate carvings surrounding it.

The solution we came up with involves six fiber optic fibers fed down through the hole in the dragon’s mouth into an 8” diameter globe, which has been painted to look like a pearl.
The top quarter of the “pearl” is a metal plate containing six 5/8” holes. The fibers feed down into the pearl and then loop back up into fixtures fitted into the holes. Thus we are able to light the dragon with fixtures that are concealed on the top of the pearl.

The light that reaches the dragon comes from what is called an illuminator, located above the ceiling. The illuminator contains a light bulb which shoots light through the fibers and out the fixtures housed atop the pearl.

The Temple Room and other Chinese galleries are currently undergoing minor renovations. They may be closed on certain days from now through early May.