Selecting Picture Lights to Last 100 Years
Many art collections hanging on the walls of stately homes, elegant hotels and private galleries will still be in the same building, and in the same family, in 2120 – 100 years from now. Our great-grandchildren will thank us for the decisions we make today to make our art look fantastic now, yet are easy to maintain for the future, and cost little.
This is not about LED lighting. All effective picture lights use quality LEDs today, and although their energy consumption continues to fall, the difference becomes minimal. So, power is really not the issue.
What matters most is maintainability. Each and every LED light will have to be replaced at least 5 times in the 100-year period. Currently, and with few exceptions, all picture manufacturers will oblige you to take down the entire picture light when any problem arises. With many collections, this would require a team of art movers to handle the artwork itself, as well as the team to take out and then install the complete replacement light fixture.
The exception is the approach used by the FineLine & the Gallery Art Light. This modular design was devised by two leading specialists in lighting paintings in fine collections, who both required flexibility in the light source and also recognised that replacing complete picture lights is a real hassle. The result is a combination of all the benefits of contemporary technology with the advantages of traditional assembly methods.
Poor quality LED picture lights: In the event of any failure the entire light needs taking down (red arrows).
Our LED picture lights:
In the event of any failure the light bulb simply needs replacing (green arrow).
Each LED lamp can be simply “clicked” into the light housing, and taken out with ease when it needs to be replaced, retaining the existing hardware in situ. As well as being replaceable, each lamp can also be adjusted by sliding it along the rail and tilted backwards and forward to get the necessary degree of light where it is needed. So the whole canvas, regardless of size and shape, can be properly lit.
Summary
Today's expectations – and hence procedures for lighting upgrades – are based on the premise that LED lights to last a lifetime; the actual practicalities of component redundancy and failure are overlooked. LEDs will and do fail. 100 years is a very long time for us, but not for the life of that picture in the collection. It is so important that we make well-advised decisions now, for the sake of our future generations.