New Illumination at the Georgia Museum of Art

MFA 2016 opening reception

As a museum, one of the most fundamental things we do is conservation: to protect and preserve valuable artifacts and objects for future generations. For this reason, environmental conservation is part of the process. This year, some significant sustainability projects were completed at the museum, and in observation of Earth Day tomorrow, here’s a brief recap of some new milestones. To reduce our energy and water consumption, the museum transitioned nearly 1,600 lighting fixtures to LED lighting, installed eight new occupancy sensors and retrofitted 28 existing faucets. The University of Georgia, who spearheaded these projects, has informed us that these changes will result in approximately 270,000 fewer gallons of water used by the museum every year and cut our annual carbon emissions by about 200 metric tons, or the equivalent of 43 cars!

LEDs illuminating Vantage Point
(Sky Swap) by Erin Mazzei '16

In addition to these achievements, the other benefit of switching to LED bulbs is more control over gallery and exhibition lighting to highlight works, as seen above in the current annual MFA exit show, “Master of Fine Arts Degree Candidates Exhibition” (showing now through May 1). Traditional lighting systems did not allow for purposeful illumination of our collections and the new LEDs do not disappoint. Staff members and repeat visitors have noticed that colors are more vibrant, paintings exhibit more depth and the frames themselves have a greater vitality to them. It is with great anticipation that we begin the reinstallation of our permanent collection this summer with new lighting configurations, so stay tuned.

To find out about upcoming events at the museum, click here.

Art Around Athens

In honor of Earth Day, come check out the Georgia Review's Second Annual Earth Day Celebration and Spring Issue Release Party from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Cecil B. Day Chapel, State Botanical Garden of Georgia. Writers Judith Ortiz Cofer, a 2010 inductee into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, and George Singleton, a 2009 Guggenheim fellow, will read; photographs by associate professor Michael J. Marshall, the Review’s Winter 2009 featured artist (above), will be on display; local musical duo Hawk Proof Rooster will perform; and copies of the Review will be available for purchase, both individually and via subscription.

Happy Earth Day

No, we didn't forget about Earth Day. We were just trying to track down some information, so here it is.

What are we, at the museum, doing in the Green world?

First and foremost, the major expansion and renovation project that we call Phase II and that will result in new gallery and storage spaces plus much, much more (the reason, also, that we don't have our own gallery space at the moment and are pursuing all this GMOA on the Move programming) will be LEED certified at the silver level at very least. We're shooting for gold, but we're very confident of silver. What does that mean? LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a green building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit trade organization that promotes sustainability in how buildings are designed, built and operated. Different levels of certification come from receiving points in categories like "sustainable sites," "water efficiency," "materials and resources," "energy and atmosphere" and the like. So what are some specifics? We'll have an efficient site plan that includes stormwater management and strong water efficiency measures, for one thing, and we plan to recycle all construction waste that results. We'll have further details for you once construction begins in earnest, but know that the LEED certification is important to us.

What else are we doing? We're including a sculpture garden as part of Phase II that will encourage time spent outdoors and we're moving toward an entirely paperless system in our public relations department. Please let us know if you have any great tips for continuing to be better about this kind of thing and use our resources wisely.