Celebposter schrieb:
> What is the consensus here about natural light in galleries?  If it is
> filtered and indirect is there any danger? It does give better color.
> Building a new space and want to know if I am better off with a black
> box.

Dear Anonymous, dear list members,

I am resending this message because it was returned by unknown reasons. It think 
this subjects is worth being discussed again and again, because I met many a 
people in museum who were thinking that the problem can be solved by a luxmeter 
alone.
I am nothing but a publisher, but I like to stress these facts (I hope they 
are):

As newer research has shown, UV damages are a matter 
of time (!)
and dosis. 
Of course, also of the material. 

So it depends 
what you want to show 
under which circumstances.

It could be shown by an Institute in Hamburg that UV-damages reach a certain 
maximum, and after this date, the damages are neglectible. This happens quite 
fast and can be absolute bad for newspaper, prints etc.
But take a Renaissance painting hanging 400 years quite often in direct 
sunlight: this has reached since centuries its final amount of UV damage. On the 
other hand, prints and drawings from the 20th cent. have mostly not reached this 
peak and shoud be preserved under the best circumstances. This means: Putting a 
UV-light eliminating glass in front of a 15th cent. painting does not make any
sense (HAVE A LOOK ON THIS INTO OUR NATIONAL GALLERIES!). 
The newer paintings and graphics are to be saved! Glas in front of real 
old paintings may only be treated under the aspect of security.

Also paintings can be damaged heavily by sunlight. Some artists used "secret" or 
bad mixtures for oils and varnishes, so be careful. Sunlight for older paintings 
may seem the best for the eyes of the visitors, but keep in mind the above said 
and that sunlight can also mean lots of troubles for your climatic system. 
Modern architects knowing the wishes of conservators are playing with the 
sunlight by refracting it by walls to the hanging areas. This is much better 
than curtains or UV-Filters (films or glasses) in the windows. 

A blackbox is not the alternative.

An additional simple system may be adopted by replacing the endangered objects 
from time to time with others from the deposits. This may be also attractive for 
visitors (because they see different objects each time they visit the gallery), 
but give them a hint that a specific objects was taken into the deposits for 
conservation reasons.

The February issue of MUSEUM AKTUELL will deal on light in museums and 
galleries. The mentioned institute will have an article there on the daylight 
problems. But it's written in German.

Hope this helps.

Dr. Christian Müller-Straten

Verlag Dr. C. Müller-Straten, Kunzweg 23, D-81243 München,
Tel/Fax: 089-839 690 43, http://WebMuseen.de/VERLAGCMS
MAGAZINES AND BOOKS IN MUSEOLOGY (GERMAN/ENGLISH)+ GERMAN THESAURI