Russian Lighting Research Institute named after S.I. Vavilov

 

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Conference “Light in Museum”

The 1st International Scientific and Technical Conference “Light in Museum” had been hold on April 18-20, 2018 in St. Petersburg. The conference was organized by the State Hermitage Museum, the Scientific and Technical Council of the Lighting Industry Association NTS «Svetotekhnika», and the Russian Lighting Research Institute named after S.I. Vavilov, with the support of the Russian branch of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the Union of Russian museums.

The outcome of the Conference was the “Memorandum of scientific and -technical cooperation in the field of museum lighting”, signed by Georgy Boos, the president of the NTS "Svetotechnika" and Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the State Hermitage Museum, in the Hall of the Board of The State Hermitage Museum .

It was the first large-scale scientific event in the field of museum lighting in Russia, which gathered more than 200 prominent Russian and foreign experts, representatives of the museum community, architects and lighting designers to discuss topical issues and application of modern lighting technologies in museums.

Presentations were made by invited Russian and foreign experts in the field of Museum lighting. Among the brightest foreign reports of the first day of the Conference were the reports of Dr. Stephen Cannon-Brookes (University College London (UCL) and Cannon-Brookes Lighting & Design company), Jean Hilgersom (President of the International Committee of the architecture and Museum technologies of ICOM), Prof. Andreas Schultz (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hildesheim, Member of IALD, Head of Licht Kunst Licht AG). The video recording of the first day of the Conference, which was held in The General Staff Building of the State Hermitage Museum, can be found by the reference (part 1 и part 2).

Presentations made by organizers, Deputy Director for Operations of the State Hermitage Alexey Bogdanov and General Director of VNISI Anna Shakhparunyants — have formulated a list of accumulated problems of museum lighting, which have to be solved in the nearest future. They highlighted the role of modern LED lighting, in expanding the capabilities of museum lighting, as well as potential problems and how to solve them.

The second day of the conference was held in the modern Restoration and Storage Centre of the State Hermitage Museum, one of the great examples of the application of modern technologies in the museum and custodian practice. A lot of interesting technical presentations were made at the open session of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Russian Lighting Industry NTS "Svetotechnika". Peter Blattner, the CIE President Elect, and the Director of CIE Division 2, has presented a report „New CIE colour fidelity index”. Special attention of participants was drawn by practical reports on application of modern technologies in Museum lighting - "The experience of establishing lighting system in a museum room. Modernization of the lighting system in the Hall 9. A carriages of the XVI-XVIII centuries 2010-2018” by Sergey Kolomiytsev (President of Tochka opory company) and “Measurements of Hermitage and Tretyakovskaya gallery rooms and exhibits lighting” prepared by the Anatoly Chernyak (Head of the laboratory VNISI) and presented by the research engineer Alyona Kuznetsova. These reports were hotly discussed by the NTS members and other participants.

The third day of the Conference was dedicated to open discussions on topical issues of museum lighting – at two round tables; the participants discussed modern lighting equipment and approaches to creating light installations in Museum spaces. The moderators of the round table «Principles of the exhibition lighting in modern museums» were Vladimir Budak (Chief redactor of Light & Engineering journal) and Leonid Novakovskiy (General Director of ”Faros-Alef” company), whereas the second round table “Lighting equipment for museum lighting” was moderated by Sergey Koinov (Vice President of Lighting trade Association) and Vladimir Gabrielyan (President of Lightning Business Consulting company).

Both discussions sparked keen interest and active involvement of all participants of the Conference.

In addition, the final day of the Conference was marked by the signing of the memorandum of cooperation between the museum and the lighting communities.

The main objectives of this cooperation were identified as researches in the field of artificial light influence on museum objects, the development of a modern legal framework, ensuring quality control of museum lighting and it’s security, as well as the introduction of energy efficient light sources for museum expositions lighting.